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RTÉ Documentaries & Series
RTÉ Documentaries & Series
Commissioning Editor Factual Documentaries & Series
T: 01 208 3977
E: grainne.mcaleer@rte.ie
RTÉ Documentaries & Series Commissioning Brief
The programmes that RTÉ One airs between 9 and 11 are channel defining. The Documentaries and Series department commissions into three key slots Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays at 9:30pm on RTÉ One. As the week progresses the tone of our post-watershed offerings will change to reflect our audience’s mood and expectations. Across all nights, we need to offer a broad audience stories that reflect their lives and the society in which they live now. We need ambitious offerings that will always stand apart in the TV schedule. We need propositions that the audience will make an appointment to view.
Factual Documentaries & Series – Sunday Nights
Sunday nights have the biggest available TV audience of the week but competition from big drama is often fierce. Sunday is a night for routine and audiences have come to expect great entertaining TV on this night in particular. The very best factual series will be rewarded by loyal audience. This is the home of big returnable formats and short, highly entertaining factual series.
Information
Duration: Series of 50 minutes. Two to six parts.
Budget Range: 90,000 – 110,000 per hour
Broadcast: Sundays 9:30pm RTÉ One. Autumn 2021 / Spring 2022
NB In exceptional circumstances budgets with a higher cost per hour may be considered. In such circumstances, Producers should supply details as to the background to the increased cost
Full Brief
Emotional Engagement
Sunday is a time for stories, characters and entertainment. Room to Improve delivers big audiences because of the quality of its story telling as well as the popularity of key talent. Great House Revival similarly tells big stories over a protracted time-frame guaranteeing a pay-off. Although DIY SOS plays earlier in the evening, it has all the ingredients for a Sunday night: strong talent, great storytelling, laughter and tears. Can you develop other loosely formatted factual series with big dramatic arcs?
Entertainment
The blend of Factual and Entertainment that have delivered well on Sunday Nights include Brendan Grace: Thanks for the Memories and Dr Eva’s Great Escape. Both are good examples of programmes that combine talent and entertainment and The Way We Were brought a host of big names to an archive based, social history project.
Travel isn’t part of our new normal but when we’re able to travel again, it’s likely that our audience will have a renewed interest in exotic locations. In the meantime, high quality nostalgia, entertainment and formats that celebrate universal human values, are all welcome.
We ask, in the first instance, that producers submit ideas into the eCommissioning system: https://e-commissioning.rte.ie/SWIFT.Web/skins/rte/login.aspx under the programme category Factual Documentaries & Series " Sunday Nights”
Factual Documentaries & Series Monday Nights
Monday 9:30pm is one of RTÉ’s most important slots. With the right subject, the right talent, and the right treatment, it can shape the national conversation for the entire week.
It’s been a tough year and audience research tells us, unsurprisingly, that our audience is suffering. Audiences are more likely than ever to respond on an emotional level to programmes and this year documentaries that celebrate love and human kindness in a really authentic way have proved to be welcome salves for anxious souls. And what will our priorities be in 2021 ? As commissioners and producers we need to track and forecast audience sentiment.
We need exceptional storytelling and revelatory programmes. If it’s a traditional subject matter like health, education or policing then the approach must be original. We want programmes that command attention with brilliant stories or ones that transport viewers back to happier and more certain times. But we also need docs that are particular to these times. We all know that audience sentiment is more changeable than ever so we remain keen to explore fast turn-around, high impact subjects that resonate in the moment – A Big Week in September is a recent example.
Information
Duration: 50 minutes. One-offs and short series of two to three parts.
Budget Range: 100,000 – 120,000 for one-offs. 90,000 – 110,000 per hour for series.
Broadcast: Mondays 9:30pm RTÉ One. Commissioning into Autumn 2021 / Spring 2022
NB In exceptional circumstances budgets with a higher cost per hour may be considered. In such circumstances, Producers should supply details as to the background to the increased cost
Full Brief
Emotional Impact Docs like Abbeyfealegood, The Francis Street Photographer and Let the Rest of the World Go By have reminded us of what’s really important. In an uncertain world these Docs have celebrated love, kindness and community. Big-hearted films remain a priority but the approach should be as arresting as the subject. These films have all showcased strong directing talent and we’re keen to foster the very best documentary directing talent.
National treasures - Documentaries like Marian, Brendan Grace - Funnyman; and Open: the Shane Lowry story have all played strongly. The relevance and popularity of the subject is important but so too is the point of view. Marian was a recent stand-out in this regard. It offered a unique perspective but again revealed so much more about the depth of human relationships than most singular portraits do.
NOTE: We’re not interested in docs about issues but we are interested in programmes that raise issues. Stories that relate to the world we live in but that work on many other levels as well. Burnt By the Sun hit a raw nerve as well as bringing us to sunnier climes at the start of lock down. The Confessors gave us the experiences of ordinary priests at a very reflective and extraordinary time and A Big Week in September was a beautifully crafted celebration of the return of children to school. It also gave us a moving snapshot of families in society and the ties that bind them. The former demonstrated the benefit of a very small crew over a very long time while the latter captured a snapshot of Irish families over one particular week. Both programmes highlighted love and community and elevated us beyond the practicalities and miseries of Covid.
Stranger than Fiction – These are ripping yarns: difficult to realize but compelling and satisfying to view. Films like The Du Plantier Case, The Many Lives of Kevin McGeever and The Real Field are recent RTÉ examples. We have a number of others in the pipeline. We are open to looking at longer durations and multi-part treatments in really exceptional cases. Development and access to key protagonists is crucial here as is the ability to develop a narrative over a number of episodes.
We ask, in the first instance, that producers submit ideas into the eCommissioning system https://e-commissioning.rte.ie/SWIFT.Web/skins/rte/login.aspx under the programme category Factual Documentaries & Series "Monday Nights”
Factual Documentaries & Series Wednesday Nights
Documentaries & Series Wednesday Nights
Traditionally, the Wednesday 9:30pm slot has been the home of the Midweek Movie. However, in recent years we have been placing more commissioned content there. Wednesday 9:30pm is the new home of Operation Transformation. We continue to look for lightly formatted series that will work post-watershed mid-week.
Information
Duration: 50 minutes. Series of three to eight parts.
Budget Range: 85,000 – 100,000 per hour
Broadcast: Wednesday 9:30pm RTÉ One. Autumn 2021 / Spring 2022
NB In exceptional circumstances budgets with a higher cost per hour may be considered. In such circumstances, Producers should supply details as to the background to the increased cost.
Full Brief
Meaty factual formats and observational series
Our research tells us that our audience is ready for more challenging and informative programming on Wednesday nights. The week is now well under way and we should challenge, provoke and inform. Ultimately we would hope to have a small number of returnable formats and observational series here. The Case I Can’t Forget, a returnable crime series, worked very well here and The Rotunda, although currently playing on RTÉ2, could find a home on Wednesday nights on One. Davy’s Toughest Team, played strongly on Sundays in January but it is the kind of series we would envisage working well on Wednesday nights.
All these series have a layer of storytelling and production which give a distinct identity to individual series. We need to know what access you have but we also need to know what kind of programmes you’re going to make and what your stylistic references are.
Factual Brands
Consumer oriented Truth About… type of programmes and series haven’t worked particularly well for us here so while we’re open to formats, audiences need for character and story still trump issues at this time.
We ask, in the first instance, that producers submit ideas into the eCommissioning system https://e-commissioning.rte.ie/SWIFT.Web/skins/rte/login.aspx under the programme category Factual Documentaries & Series "Wednesday Nights”
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