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THIS YEAR’S LATE Late Toy Show was the most-watched programme on Irish television to date, with an average audience of 1.4 million viewers watching the show from beginning to end.
When you look at those who tuned in for at least one minute of the show, figures jump to more than two million, while on RTÉ Player, this year’s Late Late Toy Show was watched in 102 countries outside of Ireland.
Live streaming of The Late Late Toy Show was up 63% on last year, with people tuning in from the Cayman Islands, Lebanon, Jamaica, Qatar and Nepal. The top five countries streaming internationally were the UK, US, Australia, Spain and Canada.
Four in five people watching television at the time were tuned in to The Late Late Toy Show, with 77% of Irish TV viewers choosing to watch the show. This year’s Toy Show was more popular than last year’s – which had its highest TV audience since 2011.
Late Late Toy Show host Ryan Tubridy said he was “really happy to see that people appreciated it in such tremendous numbers”.
The Jungle Book-themed show featured more than 320 young performers and toy demonstrators with surprise guest appearances from Dermot Bannon, Jamie Heaslip and Rory McIlroy.
An average of 152,200 people watched the entire show when it was repeated on RTÉ One on Sunday.
Channel controller RTÉ One and RTÉ2, Adrian Lynch said: “The fact that four in five people watching television in Ireland at the time were tuned in to the Toy Show demonstrates how much it really connects with the audience.
“This is event television at its best and with more than 90% of children watching TV at the time enthralled by Ryan and a cast of hundreds, it really marks the start of the festive season”.
The figures quoted by Lynch are based on the average share of 91% of 4-14 year olds who watched the show.
The Toy Show figures arrive just weeks after RTÉ announced it would outsource children’s programming to independent contractors, resulting in job losses and the end of live children’s programming on the public service broadcaster. The decision has been put on hold pending discussions with RTÉ’s trade union, the TUG.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie in the run up to this year’s Toy Show, Ryan Tubridy said children’s programming was really important to RTÉ.
All toys featured on the Toy Show on the night will be donated to charity, and a list of all the toys featured is available on the show’s website.
A sample of 20 properties out of 48,000 can hardly be considered representative of the total, that is only 0.04%. To have a 95% confidence level, normal in statistics, the sample size should be over 100 times greater, about 2,000 properties.
@D. Memery: Sure that would likely cost billions just to complete the surveys!
@Chris Linehan: not sure it would be billions, but not cheap either, which in of itself highlights just how big the issue is. However, that still doesn’t diminish the fact that the report lacks any statistical foundation from which to draw valid empirical conclusions from such a small sample size compared to what is required.
Every town and village in the country has derelict /vacant properties.. they may not be derilict , but it’s a shame to see them empty.. I would love to see the properties chosen for this survey.
@Daniel Morrissey: it is a shame – but many are in the wrong place to assist with the homeless housing list despite the fact that many small villages could do with an injection of residents
@Daniel Morrissey: Many of which should be razed to the ground and a building with a suitable layout put back in it’s place. The trouble is, these properties are an expensive site so buyers are not interested – and often the owners don’t have the funds to carry out the work. Renovating them doesn’t appeal either because the costs are as much as the aforementioned replace and build. Then add in the stringent planning laws and people just say it’s not worth it. It’s a vicious circle.
Sure derelict buildings are costly to repair, but where and what type of ones. The ones with 50 acre land close to Dublin that nobody can buy bar the crony friend in government / council member / builder… who will get 100.000 free renovation ticket?
I can smell the trickery being cook!
Cpo them , put them up for auction and let the market decide , anyone not developing them within 3 years forfeits the property and what they paid back to the state
Of course a property that is not suitable for living in is exempt from LPT – local property tax – so the idea of paying someone to repair a property sounds great on paper but suddenly this property becomes liable to a tax that did not apply before. One would also be well advised to insure the property. There are ongoing maintenance charges Also, if one rents the property after renovation, one is faced with more taxes and responsibility and also the prospect of not being able to sell the property because of sitting tenants. Why not lease them to the local authority who then become responsible for repair and maintenance and all charges etc. not to mention being able to give homes to people on the housing list
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: I see where are you coming from Niall, do you think that if somebody has building connections or even a company, they could take the 50.000 or 100.000 free to renovate the house nicely, sell it to or even better rent it to the local authority that as you said “have people in the housing list” for a nice price, and pocket the money over and over and over… one house at a time or 50.
Another advantage will be that renovating cost less most times than building from scratch but you can sell it for the same market value pretty much. Better margin! Sounds like a great business to me.
Buildings not suitable for renovation should be forfeited to the state at site value. That might make the owners renovate them on time.
@Tom O’Hanlon: Unfair on owners who just don’t have the funds to renovate.
Total lies, fantastic Herbert Sims buildings lying idle in Ballybough under the shadow of Croke Park and have been for years not sure how many families they could house.
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