Putting the programmes first

RTÉ’s managing director of television Glen Killane has been in the job just six weeks, but his first autumn schedule signals positive thinking in difficult times

GLEN KILLANE is not quite the youngest managing director of television that RTÉ has ever had. His predecessor, Noel Curran, was younger by all of three months, but at the relatively tender age of 38, Killane has taken on one of the most responsible positions in Irish broadcasting and the most demanding in RTÉ after that of the director-general.

The position involves managing 800 staff and budgets of more than €200 million, as well as the expectations of the public and of the “talent”, as the stars, perennially fearful of being dropped or falling out of favour, are called.

Killane is only in the job six weeks, having previously been RTÉ’s head of sport, a role that in retrospect feels like a gentlemen’s club compared to the sprawling beast that is RTÉ’s entire television output.

“It is a very big responsibility that I don’t take lightly,” Killane says with a degree of understatement. “Noel Curran was a great mentor to me. I learned a lot. I felt ready for the move and ready for the challenge.”

Killane was appointed in May after an internal competition. He has devolved the process of programme commissioning to Steve Carson, the director of programmes, with the caveat that it goes through him if “contentious” decisions have to be made.

“There are far more skilled people and programme-makers and editorial people in programming than me,” says Killane. “I see myself very much in a support role to the programme-making fraternity, be it in-house or independent productions.”

Killane trained in the BBC and had a lucky escape when he left ITV Digital three months before it crashed to become deputy head of RTÉ sport and eventually head of sport in 2006.

His first public role has been to announce RTÉ’s autumn schedule. RTÉ’s financial troubles have been well-documented, but it is hard to discern that from the schedule. There are 52 new programmes and 40 hours of new programming. The factual programme budget is up by 14 per cent, the entertainment budget up by 16 per cent. This has been achieved, Killane says, as a result of pay cuts last year (between 2.5 per cent and 12.5 per cent for all staff) and by a stabilisation in advertising revenue this year. The World Cup did “storming business”, he says. According to industry sources, RTÉ’s advertising revenue may even be up by between 1 per cent and 2 per cent year on year.

“We have prioritised programming at all costs,” Killane says. “It all goes on the screen. My responsibility is to ensure that we maximise our revenues, that every red cent that I can possibly muster goes into serving the public.”

RTÉ has financed two of the most expensive dramas through co-productions, police series Single-Handedwith ITV and When Bob Met Harvey, the story of how Bob Geldof and Harvey Goldsmith organised Live Aid, the most famous concert in history, with the BBC.

Much of the new investment is in fact-based programming. There is a six-part series set in a maternity hospital, a promising five-part series called The Story of Ireland, co-produced with the BBC, and a two-part series on the banking collapse.

Killane maintains that, in the light of the economic situation, the public have a hunger for factual programming. He cites the success of The Frontlineand Aftershockas examples of programmes which might have been considered "worthy" in good times, but now command large audiences.

“Public service can sound quite boring, but public service statements and large audiences are not mutually exclusive,” he says.

RTÉ is exploring direct funding of programmes by sponsors, albeit with a keen eye on new Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) regulations on programme sponsorship. Currently, Bank of Ireland sponsors Dragons' Den, while Aviva did the same with a recent documentary about the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road.

The most eye-catching change to the schedule will be the addition of two new afternoon programmes, starting with 4 Daily, presented by Maura Derrane. This will be followed by Daily Extra, presented by Claire Byrne, currently Newstalk's breakfast co-anchor, and Dáithí Ó Sé, a man Killane singles out as a rising star in RTÉ.

“He lights up the screen when he comes on. He has a very strong personality. Our research on Dáithí is very positive. People respond well to him,” Killane says.

Last year, when RTÉ pulled the Gráinne Seoige programme from the afternoon schedule, it pleaded poverty. Now two programmes in its place? How so?

“This is almost literally two for the price of one,” Killane says, referring to the deal RTÉ has agreed with independent production company Green Inc Productions.

Killane says Brendan O'Connor's stint as a presenter on The Saturday Night Showwent "tremendously well" last season and now O'Connor has been rewarded with a full series.

Former Apprenticecontestant Jennifer Maguire begins a new series, One Night Stand, and Killane is particularly excited about the raft of new presenters who will be part of RTÉ's revised young people's TV schedule when it relaunches in January.

As for the existing "talent", Killane described Ryan Tubridy's first series as host of The Late Late Showas "triumphant" and Pat Kenny's The Frontlineas "a storming performance".

"Pat is the most capable broadcaster in the country," he adds. " The Frontlinehas really captured the zeitgeist."

Television presenters tend to be chronically insecure. When Gerry Ryan died prematurely this year, friends spoke of the pressure he felt he was under and his sense of uncertainty about his status within RTÉ – and this was a man whose position seemed more secure than most.

Killane says he and director of programmes Steve Carson want to “take the mystery out of things for presenters”. They also want to give new presenters a career path. Otherwise the resources spent developing talent go to waste.

“We want to have a plan for them, so that they are not looking over their shoulder at every hand’s turn, so that they feel they are valued by RTÉ and that they have a career path here,” he says. “I don’t think anybody wants a situation to exist where people are living on their nerves and don’t know where their next gig is coming from.”

To this end he has spoken to presenters, particularly in regard to the thorny issue of money. He said renegotiated contracts “don’t in any way resemble” the generous ones negotiated at the height of the boom in 2006 and 2007. Those who have had their contracts renegotiated have been “incredibly understanding”, he says with some relief.

“I’m not putting a spin on it,” he adds. “They do understand it is a new reality there. They, like all of us, read the papers. Everybody is interested in business now, they know that we are in a very different world.”

There are pictures drawn by his children, aged five and 10, on the wall of his office in the television centre. Killane is particularly passionate about creating children’s television with specific Irish references to counter the glut of imported programmes that is the diet of most Irish children.

A long-awaited revamp of children's television is planned for the autumn. Two new programme strands will be announced, one for pre-school children and another for older children which will replace the long-running Den.

“We want to make a very strong statement that we are fully behind young people’s programming, that we as a public service broadcaster need to serve all ages. It is really important for us to do that,” he says.

The ultimate aim is to provide a home-grown CBeebies-type channel when Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) is launched in 2012 – though obviously it will be achieved without the huge resources enjoyed by the BBC pre-school TV channel.

Digital TV will be the next challenge for Killane – but that is for another day.