Television producers are seeking funds from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s Sound and Vision scheme at a rate that is “significantly in excess” of the total amount of money available, the regulator has warned.

The BAI has awarded a total of €5.1 million to 29 television projects and 93 radio projects in the latest round of funding from Sound and Vision, to which 7 per cent of television licence fee revenue is diverted each year.

However, the amount of funding requested from a total of 305 applications topped €20 million.

BAI chief executive Michael O’Keeffe said the funding amounts requested for television projects “greatly exceeded the capacity of the fund to deliver”. He indicated that the regulator would seek to discourage broadcasters from seeking this level of funding in the future.

“In the context of the BAI’s own resource capacity, this is an issue that will require dialogue with the broadcasters and careful consideration in the context of subsequent rounds in 2014 and beyond,” he said in a statement.

Only about half of the television projects that passed the initial assessment stage were approved as a result of this funding gap.

While the quality of the television submissions “remains high”, more than half of the radio applications were rejected in the initial assessment stage because they did not meet the standard.

“An analysis of the applications received has indicated that a large number of applications are under-developed, with a focus on the quantity of applications submitted, rather than addressing the quality of the proposals,” the regulator said.

In the funding round, some €4.56 million was allocated to television projects, while €574,000 was awarded to support radio projects. An additional €400,000 was allocated to the funding round, the BAI said, as a result of “careful management of revenue associated with the fund”.

The applications are usually made by independent production companies but they must have the backing of a broadcaster from either the commercial, public service or community sector.

The largest single award was a sum of €500,000 given to TV3 and the writer-director Gerard Barrett to help make Apostles, a six-part drama for the channel.

A sum of €370,000 was given to Dearg Films to produce a six-part drama called Fir Bolg for TG4. Mind the Gap Films was awarded €350,000 to make history show Lords & Ladles for RTÉ One, while Straywave was given the same sum to make an RTÉ Two eight-part documentary series called Nurses.