It is a place for broadcasters and production companies from Ireland and abroad to do deals, forge new relationships and celebrate the best of the programmes they make: The Celtic Media Festival, an annual industry get-together that rotates around the Celtic nations and regions, has opened in Dungarvan, Co Waterford.

Opening the international broadcasting industry event, Broadcasting Authority of Ireland chief executive Michael O'Keeffe announced details of a new €150,000 fund to support Irish-Canadian co-productions and said he hoped it would be "the first of many" similar schemes.

The three-day festival is hosting a pitching forum for producers with ideas for history and biography programmes to make presentations to commissioners from broadcasters from Ireland, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

TG4's car-based dating show Pioc do Ride, made by El Zorrero Films, and RTÉ's The Notorious, a series about MMA fighter Conor McGregor made by Motive Television, were among the first winners of the festival's Torc awards to be announced.

RTÉ's Investigations Unit was also recognised in the current affairs category for Inside Bungalow 3, a programme exposing mistreatment in care homes.

Irial Mac Murchú, the chief executive of local studio, satellite services and production company Nemeton TV, lobbied to bring the festival to Dungarvan.

“Twenty years ago, the industry here was no more than a meandering drea - now it is one of the most productive areas in the country in delivering TV and web content,” Mr Mac Murchú wrote in his festival address.

About 150 people are employed in the local broadcasting industry, while the selection was also influenced by the fact that it boasts the An Rinn Gaeltacht area. Promoting the Celtic languages is a key aim of the event, which counts RTÉ, TG4, the BAI, BBC Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Screen among its sponsors.