The decision follows its warning last July to review spending on news and current affairs journalism after the Government’s decision to give RTE a bailout.
In a statement today Virgin Media Television’s managing director Áine Ní Chaoindealbháin said: “Virgin Media Television remains committed to public service broadcasting and will continue to invest in our news and current affairs output.
“However, due to challenging market conditions and the fact that our ask of government to financially support our public service content has not been met, we have been forced to make the difficult decision to reduce The Tonight Show weekly output.”
Asked about the implications for staff and if there were likely to be job cuts, a spokesman at the station declined to comment further.
Staff at Virgin Media were told yesterday by Mick McCaffrey, the Director of News and Sport, that from November 5 – next Tuesday – The Tonight Show’s output would be reduced to two nights a week.
“The show will air each Tuesday and Wednesday at 10pm as we continue to evolve our current affairs offering,” Mr McCaffrey said in the internal announcement.
He added that a further instalment of the newsroom’s documentary series will be broadcast on Monday. Focusing on the US presidential election, it will be presented by news correspondent Richard Chambers.
“Richard and Joan McKenna will also be in Washington DC reporting on the election,” Mr McCaffrey also pointed out.
Cutting the popular programme in half will be seen as a political decision by station management given that the general election is expected on November 29. The Tonight Show, presented by Ciara Doherty and Claire Brock, is one of the most viewed current-affairs programmes and is popular with politicians, who would regard it as a particularly important platform during a general election campaign.
Virgin Media was scathing of the cabinet decision last summer to bail out RTE, which it described as a reward for “inefficiency and all-round bad practice”.
Ciara Doherty
“RTÉ will now be in a more dominant position than ever before, where it will receive a guaranteed €725 million from the taxpayer over the next three years while continuing to benefit from the largest share of commercial revenue,” Ms Ní Chaoindealbháin said at the time.
Virgin Media, which employs about 280 staff, is owned by the US media company Liberty Global, which is controlled by the billionaire tycoon John Malone. It bought what was then the TV3 group in 2015, and subsequently rebranded the former TV3 channel as Virgin Media One.
Accounts filed for that channel, and the Virgin Media Player, last month showed show a 7.2pc increase in its revenue to almost €59.2m in 2023.
Last March, Virgin Media Television had called on media minister Catherine Martin to level the “unfair commercial market” faced by the firm and fund its €30m annual public service broadcasting budget.
In a letter to the minister on March 27, Ms Ní Chaoindealbháin said revenue generated from the licence fee needed to be shared among other media entities in Ireland. “Public service media is more than just RTÉ and TG4. It includes Virgin Media Television, radio, newspapers and other outlets covering news and public affairs on a daily basis,” she said.
“It is important to ensure that all bodies providing public service media are part of the future funding model and not to continue with the legacy focus on just RTE and TG4.”
