Newstalk will continue to provide news bulletins to 18 local radio stations for another five years following a contract renewal.
The contract is a continuation of the three-year deal agreed in 2010 following the end of Independent Network News.
John Keogh, Newstalk’s director of news, said: “By and large what happens is that stations do their own local news during the day and have their own newsreaders from 9am to 6pm, or 7am to 6pm, and they have their own reports on their local patch and then they pick from the national and international news that we supply.
“From 7pm or 8pm in the evening, they stop doing their own bulletins and join our networked news feed.”
In addition to serving stations such as WLR FM, Tipp FM and Clare FM, Newstalk also provides content for sister stations 98FM, Spin 1038, Spin South West and Phantom 105.2.
Newstalk won the contract in 2010 after winning a pitch over UTV to provide a replacement for INN.
John Keogh continued: “All our reporters are very much geared towards digital and it would be very common now for reporters to be shooting video, as well as recording audio for radio. That’s very much the road we are going down at Newstalk at the moment.”
/Via IrishTimes.com