Funferal

Irish broadcasters to podcast?

Fionse has a very interesting piece about Irish language podcasting on their site. It seems that irish langauge material, by virtue of its particular niche, may be where the most pressure will come for podcasting by RTÉ – I know it was a large part of my interest in chasing them down on this issue.
RTÉ have been reticent on this point, and it seems podcasting is not going to happen in the short-term, though RTÉ do, seemingly see it as inevitable eventually. Foinse mentions copyright concerns, but doesn’t seem to have more detailed information on the specific nature of RTÉ’s worries. I had wondered, myself, if the main concerns were not so much with external agencies, as the need to negotiate with employees and contractors about the additional rights to this material – as with the cases in the US over online rights of freelance journalists – but there is nothing to hone in, more particularly, on this point.
I would hope that RTÉ would make strides in this area. First, they are the largest single sources of contemporary audio in Ireland and particularly in the Irish language. Second, they have extensive archives. Third, while small by European PSB standards, they have sufficient scale (and resources, despite their general belt-tightening) to make a significant contribution to a development such as this. Sure, the BBC can do huge experiments in public participation, but RTÉ could do some very creative stuff in this area. They haven’t always been groundbreaking in the past, but nor have they always shied away from doing interesting things with broadcasting – witness for example their (admittedly shortlived) experiments in community-based broadcasting in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
I must also tip my hat to NEAR FM, a community station in Dublin, who never shy away from trying something new, who Foinse say may end up being the first broadcaster to provide podcasts of their Irish language programming.