\n\tDUBLIN: RTÉ has announced several initiatives to strengthen its support and development of the Irish animation sector, including an RTÉjr Android app and a new season of kids’ programming.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe ad-free app, which was originally only available for iOS, is geared toward kids up to 7 years old. It was developed to enable little ones to watch the RTÉjr TV channel live and to access RTÉjr TV and radio programming on demand and for offline downloads. Meanwhile, the new RTÉjr season will debut eight children’s shows covering themes such as education, wildlife, family, history, culture and arts and crafts. The commissions include the animated title Havananimal<\/em> and the docuseries Dig In Diner<\/em>. The broadcaster also revealed the Animated Shorts for TV Scheme, which will seek up to five original shorts for TV broadcast.<\/p>\n \n\t“We are very proud to announce our new programs for the season, which feature a huge range of strong public service content across many genres,” said Sheila de Courcy, controller of RTÉjr and cross divisional head of children’s content. “Our new Android app adds to the service we provide for Ireland’s youngest citizens and will further enhance the RTÉjr experience for little ones.”<\/p>\n \n\tRTÉ also announced a new scheme to further help Irish animation companies develop international co-production partnerships with a dedicated fund of €100,000 ($113,900) per year. The new scheme will see RTÉ actively seek at least one opportunity per year over the next three years. That initiative joins a commitment from the broadcaster to increase its baseline investment in animation commissions to more than €550,000 ($626,300), calculated across three years.<\/p>\n \n\t“There is a wealth of talent in Ireland’s animation industry,” de Courcy said. “Over the past ten years, RTÉ has worked with approximately 15 Irish animation companies on 34 original series. We have watched and supported Irish companies to go out into the global market with their ideas and have seen how their creative and business talents are respected internationally. The new schemes announced today further underline RTÉ’s commitment to support the growth and development of the Irish animation sector, from emerging talent in our new TV shorts scheme, to a focus on international co-production, to increased investment in the commissioning of animation programming. We love having Irish animation on RTÉjr and are proud to play a part in enabling Irish animation to reach Irish and international audiences.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DUBLIN: RTÉ has announced several initiatives to strengthen its support and development of the Irish animation sector, including an RTÉjr Android app and a new season of kids’ programming. The ad-free app, which was originally only available for iOS, is geared toward kids up to 7 years old. It was developed to enable little ones …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-top-stories","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\n