The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has today awarded €2.26m to ten successful applicants under the second round of its Archiving Scheme.
The Scheme, which is provided for under the Broadcasting Fund, has been designed to provide funding support for the development of an archiving culture in the Irish broadcasting sector, contributing to the preservation of Ireland’s broadcasting heritage. Similar to the initial funding round, the focus of the second round of the Scheme was to “prioritise and safeguard broadcast material at risk of obsolescence”.
A total of 18 applications were received by the closing date of 16th April, seeking funding support of approximately €7m. All applications were deemed valid and were considered by an assessment panel made up of four independent experts and one representative of the BAI.
The initiatives to be funded include: the archiving of music and documentaries on TG4; the archiving of news, current affairs and cultural content on TV3; the archiving of various types of content on Newstalk 106, Connemara Community Radio and RTÉ; the archiving of advertisements from the 1960’s to the 1980’s, held by the Irish Film Institute; and, the support of a digital GAA games archive.
Speaking about the announcement, Michael O’Keeffe, Chief Executive of the BAI said: “In approving the award of funding to these ten projects, the Authority was satisfied that each project in receipt of support fully met the objectives and that a noteworthy level of broadcast material would be safeguarded, that could otherwise be lost. The Authority was also particularly pleased that commitments to digitisation and accessibility were features of the projects in receipt of funding support.
“The Archiving Scheme was approved for implementation in May 2012 by the Minister for Communications and the European Commission until the end of 2014. The Authority has, through the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, sought an extension to the Scheme to the end of April 2016, in order to operate a number of further rounds over the next two years and to facilitate an analysis of the operation, effectiveness and impact of the Scheme. The BAI looks forward to receiving confirmation of the Scheme’s extension at an early date, in order to facilitate its continued operation.”