- BLOG BEAG –

National radio  RTÉ Radio 1 will be broadcasting all the key Heineken Cup games live and exclusive:

Quarter Finals: Weekend of 9th – 11th April

Leinster vs. ASM Clermont AuvergneMunster vs. Northampton Saints

Semi-final 1: Weekend of 1st – 2nd May

Toulouse or Stade Français Paris vs. Leinster or ASM Clermont Auvergne

Semi-final 2: Weekend of 1st – 2nd May

Biarritz Olympique or Ospreys vs. Munster or Northampton Saints

Final – 22nd May – Stade de France

To co-incide with this coverage, RTE Radio are offering a 20 spot ‘Heineken Cup Package’ 2010 for €7,950*. Advertisers will have priority access to all live games with this exclusive package Contact Kathleen to secure this package of *4 spots per match depending on Munster/Leinster qualifying. Otherwise cost will be pro-rated down to reflect actual number of games.

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From time to time we are asked about sponsorship opportunities on RTE Radio, especially for longer term brand leverage objectives.

Here’s a list we’ve compiled showing what’s currently available and what’s taken already, as of January 2010. We’ve included a note of the current incumbent sponsor where  applicable. Further details from Kathleen@easonadvert.ie.

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RTÉ 2FM’S EXAM SERIES “COUNTDOWN TO JUNE 06″ RETURNS MONDAY 25TH MAY

The RTÉ 2FM Leaving Certificate exam series, Countdown to 306 returns from Monday 25th May, 7pm to 8pm nightly on RTÉ 2fm.

Evelyn O’Rourke is back to present her nightly one-hour exam preparation programme in the build up to this year’s exams. As well as advice for students and parents on dealing with exam pressure, a panel of experts will also be in studio to answer questions relating to this year’s syllabus, exam preparation, exam questions and much more.

Every night the programme will tackle a range of subjects from the Leaving Certificate curriculum with experts answering questions from students. This is one of the essential guides to help students and parents through the exams. With Leaving Certificate exams starting on the 3rd June, this 15-show series is well worth considering for advertisers trying to reach that hard to get audience of 17 to 19 year olds.

Once the exams begin on Wednesday 3rd June, the show will focus on reviewing each of that day’s papers as well as offering an in-depth preview of the following day’s papers. This is a three week series which will also cover important CAO advice.

This year the exam series has developed a new one stop shop website www.rte.ie/exams with podcasts, audio, video and tips to help all students. It also features an ‘Ask the Expert’ section, Leaving Cert blogs and even an exam preparation play list for iPods. Last year’s series received over 50,000 downloads.

Advertisers can be part of this special series from only €192 for a 30 sec spot (excl production).

For further information, please contact Kathleen Murphy.

In a move to try and maintain revenues, RTÉ has introduced a new pricing system for its television advertising that it hopes will put a floor on its ad. income stream, which has fallen sharply over the past year.

After half a decade of growth in revenues, RTÉ expects its TV advertising revenue to decline by well over 20 per cent this year. Consultations between the Advertising Institute (IAPI) and RTE have resulted in a move from the current supply and demand system where TV ad. rates are charged based on a function of ratings (supply) and revenues (demand), to a fixed rate card offering set discounts to advertisers between June and December 2009.

RTÉ has said these discounts would range from 8 per cent to 16 per cent and would be in addition to existing discounts that have been in place for some months.

From RTE’s point of view it is an attempt stabilise steeply declining TV ad sales and to try and put a floor on ad. rates.

This move is not necessarily to the advertisers advantage.

More details will follow.

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For the first time ever – bonus airtime is now available on all RTE Radio packages across the three commercial stations during June, July and August 2009.

Earn up to 60% bonus spots extra free on selected packages. This translates into bonus spot value of up to €7,000! See previous post concerning listenership of RTE Radio in Ireland.

Please contact Kathleen Murphy for further details.

For the first time ever Eason Advertising has hit the # 7 position in the table of spend with the National Newspapers of Ireland 2008 year-end spend, a remarkable achievement for an agency its size.

Consistently holding 10th position up until now, this increase in our rating is good news for our clients. It secures our buying power and long standing influence within the Irish press. The battle amongst the multi-national conglomerate agencies intensifies. These figures go some way to proving that there is a healthy outlook for small Irish agencies supporting small Irish organisations.

Although overall ad revenue was down on the 2007 figure, the total amount spent by agencies on behalf of their clients remained stable, dropping by just 7% or €14 million.

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2 – The Intermediate Package

4 spot package running in the following programmes:

1 spot x Saturday Sport Saturday 14.00 – 18.00

1 spot x Sunday Sport Sunday 14.00 – 18.00

1 spot x Take Your Point Sunday 18.00 – 19.00

1 spot x Drivetime Sport Monday 18.30 – 19.00

Running for all 20 weeks, 10th May – 21st September

Total number of spots: 80 (4 spots per week x 20 weeks)

Rate Card Value: €34,260

Package Cost: €27,000 (€1,350 per week x 20 weeks)

21% saving vs. spot rate

3 – The Minor Package

10 spot Individual Weekend Package running in the following programmes:

4 spots x Saturday Sport Saturday 14.00 – 18.00

4 spots x Sunday Sport Sunday 14.00 – 18.00

1 spot x Take Your Point Sunday 18.00 – 19.00

1 spot x Drivetime Sport Monday 18.30 – 19.00

Total number of spots: 10

Available for 20 weeks, 10th May – 21st September

Rate Card Value: €3,453 per weekend

Package Cost: €3,000 per weekend*

13% saving vs. spot rate

* Priority access to the Hurling and Football Finals Weekend for a 10 spot package would cost €4,500.

All packages are subject to availability

Please contact Kathleen Murphy for further details.

The Irish Times have decided to postpone their Postgraduate Feature until Tuesday 24th March 2009. This supplement was originally scheduled to run on Tuesday 3rd March. The supplement will include general articles on the growing popularity of the postgraduate option and will describe the range and variety of the courses available nationwide in third level colleges including the private colleges.  It will also look at the opportunities available to gain further diplomas and degrees as well as the opportunities available to graduates in gaining further qualifications.

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Radio in Ireland is more popular than ever – total radio listenership in Ireland has now broken the 3m barrier according to figures recently release from the JNLR/TNS mrbi  survey covering Jan – Dec ‘08 .

85% or 3,008 million (+22,000) Adults aged 15+ living in Ireland tune in to radio programmes every weekday. People are listening in for over 4 hours every weekday.

The Top 20 Radio Programmes listened to are shown below. Nineteen of the twenty are RTE Radio!

Nineteen of the Top 20 programmes watched by Adults last year were on RTÉ Television and 17 of them were home-produced by RTÉ: