RTÉ Television is running its Christmas Day "iconic ad break" experiment for a second year, offering advertisers who have made "high-impact ads with enduring and iconic themes" the chance to be featured in two commercial breaks on RTÉ One on December 25th.

Last year was the first time that RTÉ Television ran advertising on Christmas Day, with breaks scheduled during Fair City and Mrs Brown's Boys. This year, two advertising breaks will again air on the day, each one bookended with specially created RTÉ break bumpers.

RTÉ’s media sales department advises that the ads featured “will be chosen based on suitability of content and appropriate fit”.

Last year it also asked for advertisements that were “classic, heartfelt commercials that give you that warm seasonal glow inside” – nothing to frighten anyone out of their post-turkey slumber.

Christmas Day is the highest television viewing day of the year – 3.7 million people, or 92 per cent of the available audience, tune in at some point during the day. RTÉ achieves an audience reach as high as 73 per cent.

Mrs Brown's Boys
A 30-second spot on Christmas Day is priced at €10,000, a price that reflects the fact that last year's Mrs Brown's Boys Christmas special was the third-most watched programme of the year, with almost 1.1 million viewers .

This compares to a cost of €25,000 for a 30-second spot in this year's Late Late Toy Show, the programme that typically takes the number one place in the annual ratings list.

Last year an average of almost 1.5 million viewers tuned in to watch Ryan Tubridy, some ecstatically happy children and several sleighs full of toys. Another quarter of a million settled down to the Sunday afternoon repeat.