CENTER PARCS HAS made it clear to RTÉ that it will not be renewing its sponsorship of the Tubridy Show when its current contract runs out later this year.
There are also indications that the holiday destination company is considering pulling out of the current arrangement prematurely amidst the ongoing ‘secret payments’ scandal.
Center Parcs UK told The Journal that the sponsorship deal was “only ever a one-year deal” and that there were “no plans to renew”.
The Journal understands that RTÉ were actively pursuing a renewal. In the course of similar sponsorship deals, RTÉ’s commercial arm would always seek to renew the contract.
Previous partners such as Sky Broadband who sponsored the same show did opt to renew beyond the initial one-year deal, but the show has also had short stints without a sponsor in the past.
A source said that Center Parcs communicated that the €295,000 deal would not be renewed last week, a few hours before RTÉ released a statement declaring that it had paid top presenter Ryan Tubridy €345,000 more than it had publicly disclosed.
Center Parcs UK said that it had no further statement to make on whether it is renegotiating its existing contract with the broadcaster, which is due to expire in August.
Under the terms of the deal, Center Parcs is guaranteed three 10-second ‘stings’ – short ads – per show and cross station promos on other top programmes including Today with Claire Byrne and Liveline with Joe Duffy, as well as podcast and homepage placements.
As discussions continue around the current deal, it is understood that these stings aren’t being played on the show. Oliver Callan is standing in as the show’s host since the news of the Barter Account payments emerged last Thursday.
The homepage and podcast ads are still active.
The sponsorship deal was announced in November of last year. It was brokered by an Irish-based firm Starcom & Core Sponsorship.
Starcom and Core has told The Journal that it is not involved in any ongoing negotiations between Centre Parcs and RTÉ, as Center Parcs stopped being its client in April of this year.
The Journal has asked RTÉ for comment.
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