'An opportunity missed': RTÉ will again not be televising any of Electric Picnic this year
The lack of coverage has been branded as an 'opportunity missed' by the Music and Entertainment Association of Ireland (MEAI), which says that Irish acts in particular would benefit hugely from the TV exposure.
RTÉ provided live coverage and highlights from Ireland's largest music festival for a number of years about a decade ago, but last did so back in 2017.
2FM will be broadcasting live radio coverage of Electric Picnic, and
three other music festivals this summer
, but RTÉ has confirmed to
The Journal
that no TV coverage is planned.
The BBC's coverage of the
Glastonbury festival has been controversial
this year following performances from Irish rap trip Kneecap and English punk rap duo Bob Vylan, but the annual coverage of the festival by the BBC has been extremely popular.
In 2023, more than 23 million people watched Glastonbury on the BBC and this year the broadcaster was planning over 90 hours of performances across its live streams.
The BBC chose not to broadcast Kneecap's performance at the festival this year but a live-stream of the gig by a woman on TikTok was
viewed by over a million people
.
Yesterday, it was confirmed that
Kneecap had been added to the bill at the upcoming Electric Picnic
and
The Journal
confirmed with RTÉ that no TV coverage of the festival is planned.
Asked why TV coverage of the festival hasn't been an annual commitment in light of the previous coverage, an RTÉ spokesperson said this was 'an editorial decision'.
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Asked whether the decision was based on resources and whether TV coverage of the event could return in the future, the spokesperson said:
RTÉ reviews all its coverage plans across all services on a regular basis.
'Missed opportunity'
Jackie Conboy, a co-founder of the MEAI which lobbies for
more airplay of Irish artists
, says that broadcasting Electric Picnic would be a major benefit both for the artists themselves and for marketing Irish music abroad.
'It's a huge opportunity that's been missed and I do not understand why. TV is a major platform and even to have the footage for them to have on their website or their social, like that's a major thing,' he told
The Journal
.
We're always on about festivals and about trying to get airplay. We've gone in front of various committees in relation to this and it seems to just fall on deaf ears.
'It's so obvious and it's common sense that if you're selling Ireland abroad this is one of the huge ways to do it, and a very simple way to do it and yet again we're being ignored.'
Conboy also references
the three-year €725 million funding package
that RTÉ was awarded last year by government under a new 'multi-annual' funding model.
'When you look at the €720-odd million given to RTÉ, and yet they're pulling back on all this stuff now. They're talking about putting 25% of content out to independent producers but here was a great example of doing something positive for the music industry here and for new acts.'
'Whatever about the well-known international acts they don't need that kind of coverage but the likes of the new acts do,' he adds.
Conboy acknowledges that the outside broadcast units that would be required to televise Electric Picnic would perhaps be expensive but there could be ways to fund that.
'You can get sponsorship and the fact that there seems to be so much money for other things but not when it comes to stuff like this,' he says.
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