RTE couldn't find it's own arse even with an RTE Arse Finding Machine

DublinWriter

Here’s my argument – RTE currently receive 75% of its revenue from commercial advertising and 25% of its revenue from the licence fee.

In the light of the above fact, this makes RTE (select a, b, or c from the following selections) :

a) A National Public Service Broadcaster
b) A Commerical Broadcaster
c) A Commerical Broadcaster using tax payers money to shore up it’s own management ineptitude

If you’ve selected (C), then well done. If you answered (a) and are still hanging on to the pipe dream that RTE are a national public service broadcaster, then please explain to me why they make a €247K Golden Handcuff payment every year to a ‘retired’ ex-presenter in order that he doesn’t go work for the commercial opposition?

It’s hard to define exactly what RTE are in terms of its organisation. It seems to combine the worst of both public/private sector worlds by marrying the dynamism of the Civil Service with the sense of public-duty of a commercial fast food chain.

Then there’s the usual conspiracy theories that abound….Opus Dei infiltration….cancelling Scrap Saturday and Bull Island at the height of their TAM ratings because of behind the scenes political pressure when Licence Fee increases were being sought….pulling the plug on Open House after it was discovered that Marty Whelan was putting subliminal Satanic messages in the closing credits…

The real truth of the matter is that RTE and Leinster house both have each other by a mutual ball-squeezing agreement. So don’t expect change anytime soon.

I’m a spoilt brat mancub of the Cetlic Tiger. I demand something better for my licence fee than a national broadcaster with all the production values and middle management layers of Albanian State TV.

Just look at what TnG manage to achieve on a budget that is a half of what TD pay themselves in personal expenses annually.

Anyway, in true Management Consultancy style, here’s the executive summary. I’ve trimmed my initial 387 points of grievance about RTE down to a slender list of just ten:

1. The guy behind the scenes at The Late Late show who halfway through the programme has to change the switch setting at the back of Pat Kenny’s head from ‘Chat Show Host’ to ‘Renault Ireland Salesbot’, then switch it back to its original setting five minutes later.

2. Marion Finnucaine’s scary ‘Hellloooo there….’ every weekday at 9.03am after the initial jingle for her radio show.

3. Destroying the original tapes for Wanderly Wagon

4. Ryan Tubridy

5. Ryan Tubridy

6. The quality of acting on Fair City and the huge effort involved in having to cover the entire cast with a protective coat of Cupronol every year.

7. Allowing Claire McKeown anywere near a microphone and/or camera.

8. Thinking in the year 2004 that broadcasting on Long Wave radio was a leap forward after most of Europe’s public broadcasters went digital in the late 1990’s.

9. Thinking that middle-aged, middle-class, double-chinned, over-weight ex-solicitors appeal to a youth demographic. Lads, just give the €600K annual salary to Zig and Zag instead, say a great big sorry to Ian Dempsey while you’re at it, and all will be forgotten.

10. …and finally, no matter how many times I enter the ‘Be an Extra on Fair City’ competition, I never win.

flogen

Its true that RTE has some serious problems, but what do you expect from a company that for years was allowed to just do what it liked, and get paid serious amounts of cash for it, and now, with the markets supposedly opening up they get TV3 as competition...??

I would consider it a PSB, despite its commercial revenue, however. Ireland is too small for a PSB to run completely ad-free like the BBC does, although I'm sure with some careful money managment, they could go somewhere towards it.

I am hoping, against hope, that over the coming years, as the market does truely open up more and more with the ease of digital access, that RTE will either cop on and get off its holiday, or die and rot away. Ireland is a wealth of talent, if we could just be arsed into using it... how is it that a country renouned for its comic genius cannot produce a good comedy show of any description without the help of British television??
If they continue to bump up licence fees with no sign of decent work in return, I think we should all get black and white TV's and laugh our heads off.

/edit, I will say this though, they are generally pretty good for their news, and some... some of their radio is ok

Flogen

monument

I pick...

d) A National Public Service Broadcaster with...

Originally posted by flogen
some serious problems

As for Tubridy, he is on the apparently profitable 2FM, which apparently pays for Radio One... although I don’t what his ratings are like.

alleepally

Very enjoyable post Dublinwriter. Although I agree with the sentiments of your post, I think we will always have a bad opinion of RTE's role in terms of PSB when we are so close to the UK and see what the world's foremost public broadcaster produces. Far off hills look green... There are many in the UK who resent having to pay a license fee to the BBC also who don't think it provides value for money (bizarre as that may seem)

So, tell us all, what commercial broadcaster do you work for please?

DublinWriter

I don't work for any commercial broadcaster.

I see an awful lot of people come back to this 'lack of money'arguement in relation to RTE's shortcomings.

Maybe I should have phrased my original arguement a bit more clearly.

Bascially, I'm not expecting RTE to have several big-budget costume dramas and umpteen digital radio stations.

There's a bit of a difference between having a lack of imagination and a lack of money.

I think that for the money RTE already receive they could do a hell of a better job in terms

The recent documentary on Moore St. produced by the DIT Media Unit looked as slick as anything done by the beeb and much slicker than anything RTE could have pulled off. It probably cost 1/4 of what it cost RTE to re-run the last episode of 'Friends' for the gazillionith time.

..if you want to get even cheaper, just look at what Paddy O'Gorman can do with just himself and a cameraman.

These are rare examples of truely entertaining and challenging RTE public serivce programming that cost peanuts.

But what do we normally get? Repeats of English soaps, a saturday morning schedule that hasn't changed in 30 years (Six Million Dollar Man, Charlies Angels et al), and I could rant on.

As I said, there's wee bit of a difference between a lack of imagination and a lack of cash.

alleepally

I'm not even thinking of costume dramas when it comes to comparison with the BBC. Nor am I making a case that lack of money is the problem with RTE. I can reel off at least a dozen programmes I think are very worthwhile on RTE but I'll just name a few now anyway .

Turas Teanga - a major effort to encourage use of our native tongue. Book and Cd's reached top seller list in bookshops.. PBS at its best

Would You Believe series of documentaries. Have a look at the archive of what was covered here...

http://www.rte.ie/tv/wouldyoubelieve/archive.html

outstanding quality broadcasting....

Prime Time - don't need to justify this one.

Sports coverage - RTE do a great job. Knowledgeable experts, quality commentary

People in need - laugh or mock about production values, but who cares - money in the bank for deserving causes.

Motoring programmes, holiday programmes, quizzes, Choirs, orchestras etc etc. Nah, I think I'll stop now but my basic point is that we tend to be too negative about RTE and overlook the good stuff that is there. I think RTE may suffer from a siege mentality. All they see and hear is attacks on all sides. This has to have an effect on morale within the organisation and resulting in lack of drive, imagination, motivation.

I agree that there is a way to go but for 150 euro a year, I think I get superb value for money in the programming. Maybe it's harder to please a "spoilt brat mancub of the celtic tiger"

DublinWriter

It's a shame that you have to get into specific examples when trying to justify RTE's existance.

One swallow does not a summer make.

So they produce some of their own programming. Bula bus lads. Have a look at their TV schedule for any given day an it amount to about 25% of their overall daily programming.

Oh boo hoo, they have a seige mentallity. Is this seige mentallity anything like the seige mentallity P&T had in the 80's before they were privatised?

Once Aer Rianta goes, I think eyes will start to look in the direction of Montrose.

flogen

RTE will never be privatised, and if it is, it'll be a nail in the coffin of Irish culture. RTE has many problems, but if all we had was tv3 and tv3-2 (:D) where would we be??

I can find many faults in the station, and some may be bad managment, some is lack of funds, and some is laziness, but I am more than happy to pay a licence fee to stop RTE turning into another TV3 or UTV or C5. Look at the US, no PSB there, and the quality of television is notorious across the world. Sure, they have some good shows, but we just get the good bits (and they're not always good) out of a pile of trash.

Its worth noting that Net2 is setup with the intention of reflecting international culture (not exclusively) and be more entertaining, while RTE 1 has a more Irish feel with often a more serious tone (again, not exclusively). While I would love to see more good Irish comedies, I'm happy to settle for good American and British ones until they get themselves together

alley makes a good point, RTE have the bad fortune of being constantly compared to what is without doubt one of the best TV Companies in the world (while having no possible way of ever truely competing). There are many problems, but I don't think we need to do anything drastic like privatisation to sort them out, just get a better managment team (and the new charter should help somewhat too, once enforced).

Flogen

monument

“Soaps”…

If the viewers are ‘rolling in’ in good numbers, and if they support “truly entertaining and challenging RTE public service programming”, I cannot see much wrong with them.

alleepally

Originally posted by DublinWriter
It's a shame that you have to get into specific examples when trying to justify RTE's existance.

One swallow does not a summer make.

I'm trying to keep perspective on the whole thing. I think the publication of the charter on June 2nd by Ahern was a positive move and should bring about changes which will ultimately benefit the viewing and listening public.

Regarding my using examples. I use them because basically your post (although more witty and eloquent than mine) used specific examples to justify your point of view that RTE couldn't find it's own arse etc. I can see the bad things as well as the good too.

pork99

Originally posted by DublinWriter

8. Thinking in the year 2004 that broadcasting on Long Wave radio was a leap forward after most of Europe’s public broadcasters went digital in the late 1990’s.

Exactly 10 years ago I did a stint as a student work experience intern in the design department in RTE. The head of Dept. use to give us briefs to work on. I remember he was chatting to us one day and the subject of computers came up. I said that I thought the internet (which I had only just seen for the first time and was quite excited by) and digital broadcasting were going to change everything in the broadcasting industry in the near future.

Head of Dept. gives me a blank glassy eyed stare, utters an embarrassed cough and changes the subject.

(maybe I was just stating the bloody obvious though)

btw excellent post DublinWriter

Capt'n Midnight

Originally posted by flogen
alley makes a good point, RTE have the bad fortune of being constantly compared to what is without doubt one of the best TV Companies in the world (while having no possible way of ever truely competing).

And the license fee is higher over there too.
re 2FM - I'll listen to Ryan before 9 , but it's been over a decade since I've listened to the other one - and its not a format problem since it's OK when someone is filling in for €1m waste of space that is driving potenital revenue away. Gotta agree to you about that "good morning" on the other side.
Yeah RTE has problems - still wished they'd drag more stuff out of the archives - but in a democracy you need independent/different sources of news. (why don't TV3 have news on teletext ??) - remember scrap saturday - political satire can be done where there is a will.
RTE radio 1 at times throws up intersting programs - not BBC radio 4 but without it all you would have is music and newstalk.