The Government’s Dublin City Taskforce is reportedly considering a proposal that RTÉ move to the GPO. The three-year funding plan announced last June is a short-term response to the broadcaster’s problems, but a move to the GPO isn’t the answer. RTÉ was already based there from the 1920s to the 1950s, and everyone agreed it was unsuitable for broadcasting. That’s why it expanded to Donnybrook.
But RTÉ’s own strategy is also flawed. It wants to reduce its footprint in Donnybrook by selling more of its land, presumably for upscale apartments, while reducing its workforce by 25 per cent to 1,200. That’s the size it was 60 years ago when it expanded from the GPO, although Ireland has grown hugely in population, economy and media.
RTÉ management argues that because of technological change, public service media now need less land and lighter infrastructure. But professional media production still requires large, specialised buildings and equipment. The advent of digital streaming has dramatically increased the construction of studio buildings worldwide. Digitisation has made TV cameras, studio sets and control rooms more flexible and powerful, but not much smaller. Digital content requires physical storage in large and costly data centres.
RTÉ management insists its original buildings in Donnybrook, from the 1960s and 1970s, are “old” and not fit for purpose. However, they were specifically designed for modular expansion on a spacious campus but have been inadequately maintained due to underfunding. RTÉ’s strategy underestimates sustainability, which calls for denser cities with adaptation and reuse of buildings. Many similar studios have been successfully modernised and expanded – for example, CBS Television City in Los Angeles.
The broadcaster intends to decentralise more production from Dublin to Cork, Limerick and Galway – regional centres with proud traditions in making media. However, many efforts to save money by relocating public services have been controversial, and we need centres of excellence in media, as in medicine and other fields. A large and thriving headquarters is needed to underwrite and co-ordinate regional production hubs, and to distribute their product nationally or abroad.
RTÉ also argues that independent media producers have recently grown and can now provide many of the services and facilities it needs. Independents certainly deserve more support, but it is not clear they can run flagship productions like The Late Late Show and Fair City, and there are risks in growing independents by reducing our national broadcaster. Sky and Virgin are also “independent” but much bigger and richer than RTÉ and our indigenous independents combined.
A more empowering alternative to current proposals would be to redevelop RTÉ’s studios as a diversified Donnybrook Media District (DMD). This would double down on the potential of the site with RTÉ anchoring the space and sharing it with indigenous media companies. The current facility could be updated and expanded by up to eight new structures on underused portions of the land: additional offices and studios for TV, visual effects (vfx) and animation, a media archive and educational hub, a visitor centre, museum and live performance venue. International norms in studio construction would put the cost at about €1 billion over 10 years for up to 100,000sq m of facilities employing 2,500 people.
By clustering media industries in one place – a strategy proven to bring operational benefits, cost efficiencies and innovation to creative industries like television and radio – this proposal would be in line with international best practice. It would offer potential for increased revenues in streaming, 5G, VR, AI, vfx and gaming while boosting our media industries’ reputation, influence and staff morale. It would be physically close to the Government, transport hubs and large universities, and it would sit on a kind of “N11 media corridor” running from Google, TikTok and Amazon near Dublin city centre to Microsoft and Ardmore Studios in the Dublin and Wicklow suburbs to the south. This cluster within a cluster would fulfil existing policy such as the one for a “digital creative industries roadmap” (Creative Ireland, 2024).
Environmentally, DMD would aid densification, adaptive reuse, walking, cycling and public transport, supporting Dublin City Council strategy while reducing urban sprawl and long-distance travel. It would preserve and update RTÉ’s original buildings, which are internationally acclaimed examples of modern architecture. And the environmental impact of the new construction would be no greater than piecemeal residential development (ideally, the State would repair the RTÉ campus by buying back the land it was forced to sell in 2017).
Socially and culturally, by strengthening public service media and indigenous independents, DMD would enhance media pluralism. Its synergies would encourage more diverse media content and platforms, while its archive and educational facilities would increase media literacy and training. This would help the fight against disinformation, extremism and develop Ireland’s creative industries, dovetailing with the work of Coimisiún na Meán, Screen Ireland, Skillnet and the Arts Council.
Other EU capitals have undertaken comparable projects – for example, Hilversum Media Park in Amsterdam and Babelsberg-Potsdam Media City in Berlin. Ireland currently spends about €14 billion annually on capital projects so DMD could be added to the National Development Plan while maintaining RTÉ’s independence of Government and EU restrictions on State aid. Or DMD could be paid for with 7 per cent of the €14 billion Apple tax windfall, where RTÉ arguably has a special claim: housing, hospitals, education and transport deserve investment too, but media industries have been disrupted by big tech more than other sectors, and RTÉ competes directly with Apple for advertising revenue and in audiovisual production and distribution.
DMD could be an appropriate public investment in those industries, and a cultural-industrial landmark enriching the lives of people all over Ireland.
Mark Shiel is professor of media and urban studies at King’s College London and director of the Dublin-based consulting firm MediaUrbanism Ltd
