Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin, TD has today welcomed the announcement by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) of almost €2m in awards to 10 radio and TV projects under the Broadcasting Fund Sound and Vision Scheme.
The awards follow a special round of Sound and Vision for programming related to the live music sector, made possible by the allocation of additional resources to the Broadcasting Fund which was announced by Minister Martin in May this year.
Speaking today Minister Martin said: “The live performance sector has faced severe challenges over the past number of years, and I wanted to ensure a continuation of support measures as well as enabling further collaboration with the broadcasting sector.Not only are the awards announced today a further boost to the music and live entertainment sector, but they also provide further opportunities for audiences to engage through innovative and entertaining content across a variety of national and local platforms.”
The Live Music Sound and Vision round included a mandatory provision that at least 50% of the performers and 50% of the creative team should be women in order to qualify for funding. Commenting on this promotion of gender equality, Minister Martin noted: “Together with the BAI, I am committed to ensuring greater gender balance in broadcast content, and the enhanced emphasis on ‘women in a creative lead’ means that the voices and input of women will be significant across all the funded programme productions, including featured musical artists and presenters.”
Further details of the projects, which include 5 television projects and 5 radio projects to be broadcast by national, commercial and community stations, are available on bai.ie.
The Minister, in welcoming an exciting and varied range of projects, added: “The projects being announced today will provide audiences with opportunities to engage with music in different ways from live performance to explorations of our favourite songs. I particularly look forward to Irish Music Month 2022, which will broadcast nationwide on up to 24 commercial radio stations.”
ENDS
Press and Information Office
An Roinn Turasóireachta, Cultúir, Ealaíon, Gaeltachta, Spóirt agus Meán
Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Tel: 087 6737338 / 087 7374427 Email: press.office@tcagsm.gov.ie Website: Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
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Note to Editors:
This round of awards is one of several funded through the Sound & Vision Broadcasting Funding Scheme, which received an additional funding of €10.5m from Minister Martin, announced in May this year.
80% of the projects announced today will be produced by independent producers/production companies representing €1.94m of the total awards.
Details of the ten successful projects are available on bai.ie.