The awards for Round 50 of the Sound & Vision funding for radio and television through Coimisiún na Meán have seen €2.4m in additional funding announced for commercial radio stations in Ireland.
Round 50 sees 29 funding awards in total, ranging from €35,000 to €95,000, with funding set to be used for programming specific to a range of topics including media literacy, digital transformation, GEDI (gender, equality, diversity and inclusion) and developing communities and communities of interest. Per media development commissioner Rónán Ó Domhnall, this latest round of funding “will also assist stations to explore opportunities that increase audience engagement through training and outreach activities, in particular for minorities and newer communities.”
The majority of independent radio stations around Ireland are included in the awards list (PDF) among them, FM104 who have secured €70,000 for their project Dublin: Rainbow Rising, Midlands 103 and KCLR who both take the maximum €95,000 award for two projects respectively, Collective Communities and Amplifying Voices Less Heard.
Bauer Media have also secured €200,000 in funding to be split between Spin 1038, Spin South West, 98FM and Cork’s Red FM.
Other projects set to begin development include Futurescape: Shaping Tomorrow’s Waterford (WLR) and Ctrl Shift Save – Life in a Digital Age (Newstalk).
Round 51 funding open
While Round 50 may have been a special round, Round 51 is currently open for applications from broadcasters and independent producers, for both television and radio. In all, €6.9m has been made available for the final funding round of the year.
Per CNAM, Round 51 “will also have a specific focus on programmes that support gender, equality, diversity, and inclusion, with a particular focus on integration and the voices of new Irish communities. “
Full details and support documentation can be found here. The deadline for this round is 12pm Friday 14 December.
Sound & Vision is a funding mechanism for television and radio projects, supported by the television license fee.
