The TV Licence...

lintdrummer

Is it just me or can anyone understand why we have to buy a TV licence?
I mean it's fair enough in the UK where the BBC doesn't advertise and so rely on the revenue but when you look at RTE they're raking it in with ad money and they still charge a licence fee to every household in the country.

If you look at the quality of programming that the BBC comes out with - David Attenborough's Planet Earth springs to mind - then look at what RTE has produced.

Am I missing something here? Are the BBC getting more revenue because of higher population or whats the story?

The way I see it, if RTE are profiting from ads, then there should be no license fee, or if they keep the fee, they should drop advertising.

What do you think about this?

Jimbo

The BBC does have some advertising. Anyway, your comparing apples with.... larger apples. The poulation is bigger so the BBC will naturally have many times ratings that RTE has, therfore bigger revenue, therefore better quality programming

godtabh

emmettogara wrote: »

Is it just me or can anyone understand why we have to buy a TV licence?
I mean it's fair enough in the UK where the BBC doesn't advertise and so rely on the revenue but when you look at RTE they're raking it in with ad money and they still charge a licence fee to every household in the country.

If you look at the quality of programming that the BBC comes out with - David Attenborough's Planet Earth springs to mind - then look at what RTE has produced.

Am I missing something here? Are the BBC getting more revenue because of higher population or whats the story?

The way I see it, if RTE are profiting from ads, then there should be no license fee, or if they keep the fee, they should drop advertising.

What do you think about this?

Hasnt this been done to death enough?

mikemac

not this again!

Capt'n Midnight

micmclo wrote: »

not this again!

ditto

it's another stealth tax, since most households have TV's why do they bother with a separate tax ?

BBC show no ads. Very Very few other stations worldwide do this even in countries with populations much greater than ours and where the TV license is higher than hours. BBC license is way higher than ours, BBC make a bloody fortune selling stuff to us and US and to basically everyone so by you logice they should survive without a license, though tell that to the 1,000 or so loosing their jobs over there.

in times past there was a license needed to have radios,


and unless you've lived abroad for a time you won't realise just how good RTE can be. even UTV is one of the best of the ITN regions and TG4 is the curates egg lots of crud but when it good, damn it's good.

In italy during football matches, if the ball goes out of play there will be a 3 to 5 second Ad. Many programs have the old american style of presenters doing ads during the program itself.

Sky and many US channels cut back the titles of things like the simpsons to fit another few minutes of ads instead of the credits

and where else will you get TV news that isnt NATO centric, Ireland relates to different african countries to the UK so we get a different view

lintdrummer

Apologies, I haven't seen this discussed yet, perhaps it should be left to die a death....

Deliverance

emmettogara wrote: »

Is it just me or can anyone understand why we have to buy a TV licence?
I mean it's fair enough in the UK where the BBC doesn't advertise and so rely on the revenue but when you look at RTE they're raking it in with ad money and they still charge a licence fee to every household in the country.

If you look at the quality of programming that the BBC comes out with - David Attenborough's Planet Earth springs to mind - then look at what RTE has produced.

Am I missing something here? Are the BBC getting more revenue because of higher population or whats the story?

The way I see it, if RTE are profiting from ads, then there should be no license fee, or if they keep the fee, they should drop advertising.

What do you think about this?

Is it anything to do with the fact that Ireland is a smaller country and is still just coming out of being a third world country in the last 10 yrs? There is still a lot of development to come. In my opinion our artistic innovitive output is great but is given to other countries because our best people have left to ply their art abroad because there is no money to be made here because there is no structure for these people to ply their art based on the low funding available at the moment?
I'm working in the media and am considering the prospect of leaving my family temporarily on a financial basis to go and work abroad, very sad for me. If there was more money here for me here then I would definately stay, as it stands I feel we are landlocked by design with a relitavely small population. Even if everyone paid the tv licence our unimaginative government (by design and inexperience) would squander it somehow, I feel. Time will tell I guess.

copacetic

emmettogara wrote: »

Am I missing something here? Are the BBC getting more revenue because of higher population or whats the story?

They pay more in the uk ~ €200 and there are an awful lot more of them.
BBC license fee income well over 5 billion, RTÉ ~ 150million. The BBC also has about another 1.5billion in income on top of the fee.

Deliverance

copacetic wrote: »

They pay more in the uk ~ €200 and there are an awful lot more of them.
BBC license fee income well over 5 billion, RTÉ ~ 150million. The BBC also has about another 1.5billion in income on top of the fee.

In other words you cannot compare BBC shows to RTE shows. Give RTE a chance.

timmywex

rte should be made survive like tv3, fecking pat kenny and all them get paid too much!!1

Terry

For the love of god, just pay for it and shut the hell up.

Overheal

you know if the entire country went on License Strike it would be done and dusted.

OPENROAD

Far from a fan of RTE, but horse racing coverage is excellent, actually its the best imo. and couple of decent things on radio, so from that point of vew I will pay.

Kipperhell

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

ditto

it's another stealth tax, since most households have TV's why do they bother with a separate tax ?

BBC show no ads. Very Very few other stations worldwide do this even in countries with populations much greater than ours and where the TV license is higher than hours. BBC license is way higher than ours, BBC make a bloody fortune selling stuff to us and US and to basically everyone so by you logice they should survive without a license, though tell that to the 1,000 or so loosing their jobs over there.

You can't really compare BBC to RTE. They have a much larger network and cater for so many more people. BBCs revenue needs to be so much greater because it is so much larger. When RTE has a world service and international channels you can compare them

Many people don't use the full services here. The radio services are vital to retain many cultural aspects. Commercial services wouldn't provide shows for the deaf or even farming. I have gone to many interviews and performances at Donnybrook which I would have paid to see.

Jesus Wept

TV licence threads are the new Roma threads, there is one every few days now.

Capt'n Midnight

Kipperhell wrote: »

You can't really compare BBC to RTE.

people do.
If the neighbours didn't have some of the top broadcasters on the planet we' apreciate what we have more.

Imagine having only TV3 and channel 6 and the UK Satellite channels and Channel 5, and only having the dumbed down stuff from ITN. Lets not forget that RTE2/network 2 was originally setup to show UK and US imports.

The real competition to RTE are the good stuff on ITN and BBC and the special interest stuff on C4.
Channel 4 is a minority channel , they aren't allowed to make successful programs, IIRC anything over 7% of
the ratings and they could loose the show - they had a real fight to hold on to Brookside a while back.
BBC are big enough to develop technical standards, maybe NHK and ZDF could do to but mostly that's up to the equipment manufacturer consortiums and large groups of broadcasters.

people forget that RTE tends to show films before the UK and at christmas they drop the ads in eaxactly the same way ITN dont'


TG4 the exact opposite of lowest common denominator TV almost every program you love or hate, but you have to admit that if you hate one of the programs there is an audiance out there will really apreacate it unlike the old "Live at three, dead at 4 " or reality TV attempts at moving wall paper
For example, it broadcast popular US imports such as Nip/Tuck, Carnivàle, The Wire, The O.C., One Tree Hill, Everwood, Survivor, Invasion and Curb Your Enthusiasm before mainstream UK channels. Also in Oz , Fast Lane.

Terry

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

TG4 the exact opposite of lowest common denominator TV almost every program you love or hate, but you have to admit that if you hate one of the programs there is an audiance out there will really apreacate it unlike the old "Live at three, dead at 4 " or reality TV attempts at moving wall paper
For example, it broadcast popular US imports such as Nip/Tuck, Carnivàle, The Wire, The O.C., One Tree Hill, Everwood, Survivor, Invasion and Curb Your Enthusiasm before mainstream UK channels. Also in Oz , Fast Lane.

Dude, nobody is going to admit that there is an audience for shows they don't like.

The majority of people who complain on these threads are the type of people who want everything to cater to their tastes and everyone else can go to hell.

aidan24326

copacetic wrote: »

They pay more in the uk ~ €200 and there are an awful lot more of them.
BBC license fee income well over 5 billion

Total exaggeration. Do your sums again copacetic.

AlmightyCushion

aidan24326 wrote: »

Total exaggeration. Do your sums again copacetic.

There's around 25 million houses in the uk. It looks like he just multiplied the number of houses by the cost of the licence fee. It looks like he did the same for Ireland. He came pretty close though. If I remember correctly, the licence fee brings in about 3 billion pound for the bbc so convert that to euro and you get close enough to 5 billion.

copacetic

aidan24326 wrote: »

Total exaggeration. Do your sums again copacetic.

really? look it up, then come back to me

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

There's around 25 million houses in the uk. It looks like he just multiplied the number of houses by the cost of the licence fee. It looks like he did the same for Ireland. He came pretty close though. If I remember correctly, the licence fee brings in about 3 billion pound for the bbc so convert that to euro and you get close enough to 5 billion.

I rounded a bit, but didn't calculate anything almighty, these figures are all publicly available.

Lands Leaving

Amazing how many times this comes up. I've been a member of boards for a month and I've seen it at least 3 times.

Pay your bills. Yes we're being blasted in the ass over it, but theres worse ass blasting going on. Our taxes pay for public transport, which is easily the worst in europe. (well maybe not eastern europe, haven't been) etc. etc. blah blah blah taxes. So leave the licence crap!!

Terry

Lands Leaving wrote: »

Amazing how many times this comes up. I've been a member of boards for a month and I've seen it at least 3 times.

Pay your bills. Yes we're being blasted in the ass over it, but theres worse ass blasting going on. Our taxes pay for public transport, which is easily the worst in europe. (well maybe not eastern europe, haven't been) etc. etc. blah blah blah taxes. So leave the licence crap!!

It's cyclical.

There'll be another one in about a month and then it'll be the Roma, Nigerian scammers, Skangers and so on.

Sonnenblumen

I resent having to pay a hefty annual licence fee, especially as I raely watch the channel. If you omit the imports and the RTE rip of UK/US programmes, there's little apart from Current Affairs which could be argued as original/leading.

IMO Current Affairs is a public broadcast service and should be available free.

RTE is top heavy, and if the commercial model works for radio stars, why isn't it extended to other depts?

The posting might be cyclical but the fundamental issues persist and should be addressed.

copacetic

Sonnenblumen wrote: »

IMO Current Affairs is a public broadcast service and should be available free.

mmm, who do you think normally pays for public services? are you under the impression any of them are free?
presume you are not a sports fan either? Most people are.

Sonnenblumen

copacetic wrote: »

mmm, who do you think normally pays for public services? are you under the impression any of them are free?
presume you are not a sports fan either? Most people are.

Public broadcast programming should be free and funded by central exchequer( ie taxe revenues). Entertainment (Sport/GAA, Chat Crap, Talent comps etc etc ) broadcasting on the otherhand should be charged and paid by separate fee.

BTW, most people are average.

RuggieBear

Sonnenblumen wrote: »

Public broadcast programming should be free and funded by central exchequer( ie taxe revenues).

Yep let's just add 160 euro to everyones income tax....

happy?

Papad

Sonnenblumen wrote: »

The posting might be cyclical but the fundamental issues persist and should be addressed.

Most definitely.

Terry wrote:

It's cyclical.

There'll be another one in about a month and then it'll be the Roma, Nigerian scammers, Skangers and so on.

And don’t forget about the Travellers.

There’s a reason why these threads are cyclical.
(Reason: They are affecting people’s lives).

But if we don’t talk about it, it ain’t happening. Right?

davejones

I think its 160 euro well spent.:rolleyes:

aidan24326

copacetic wrote: »

really? look it up, then come back to me

I rounded a bit, but didn't calculate anything almighty, these figures are all publicly available.

Apologies copacetic, my sums were askew not yours.

Privatise all TV stations and get rid of the stupid license fee altogether.

RuggieBear

aidan24326 wrote: »

Privatise all TV stations and get rid of the stupid license fee altogether.

Make every channel TV3'esque?:eek:

aidan24326

RuggieBear wrote: »

Make every channel TV3'esque?:eek:

To be fair most of them are little better (ok TV3 is particularly sh1te)