Dee Forbes banging the RTE TV licence drum again 60m uncollected fee *poll not working - pl ignore*

kneemos

political analyst wrote: »

RTÉ still has a great deal of GAA coverage - some live matches and regular Sunday night highlights - the Summer Olympics and Euro, World Cup and some League of Ireland football.

Do you not think RTÉ has enough sports coverage?

If you have to include the Olympics and world cup you're really trying to dress a pig.

political analyst

political analyst wrote: »

RTÉ still has a great deal of GAA coverage - some live matches and regular Sunday night highlights - the Summer Olympics and Euro, World Cup and some League of Ireland football.

Do you not think RTÉ has enough sports coverage?

Most of those sport events now are shared with tv3 (the soccer) or eir (the Loi and they barely show any interest in showing matches)

AndyBoBandy

It’s always funny when they try to justify the huge salaries of their ‘top talent’ by saying they have to pay such high wages or they’ll lose the talent to rivals!!!

What rivals? TV3??? They don’t exactly have millions in cash to fling at Tubs or Finucane to get them to swap sides!! (Finucane gets something like €120,000 a year to do 3-4 hours radio at the weekend. And that’s it.)


What’s also infuriating is the likes of Tubs et all aren’t direct employees of RTÉ, but rather they are employees of their own limited companies that sub contract themselves out to RTÉ for massive fee’s, then they simply pay themselves modest salaries from their companies to keep their tax as low as possible. So Ryan Tubridy Ltd might charge RTÉ €500,000 per year for Ryan’s ‘talents’, but Ryan Tubridy himself (an employee of Ryan Tubridy Ltd) might only be on €60,000 a year. Paying very little tax in comparison to an employee earning €500k a year, while Ryan Tubridy Ltd pays for the extravagant lifestyle (fancy house/car/holidays etc...)

kneemos

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

It’s always funny when they try to justify the huge salaries of their ‘top talent’ by saying they have to pay such high wages or they’ll lose the talent to rivals!!!

What rivals? TV3??? They don’t exactly have millions in cash to fling at Tubs or Finucane to get them to swap sides!! (Finucane gets something like €120,000 a year to do 3-4 hours radio at the weekend. And that’s it.)


What’s also infuriating is the likes of Tubs et all aren’t direct employees of RTÉ, but rather they are employees of their own limited companies that sub contract themselves out to RTÉ for massive fee’s, then they simply pay themselves modest salaries from their companies to keep their tax as low as possible. So Ryan Tubridy Ltd might charge RTÉ €500,000 per year for Ryan’s ‘talents’, but Ryan Tubridy himself (an employee of Ryan Tubridy Ltd) might only be on €60,000 a year. Paying very little tax in comparison to an employee earning €500k a year, while Ryan Tubridy Ltd pays for the extravagant lifestyle (fancy house/car/holidays etc...)

You under value our beloved Marian. More like 300,000,for the odd time she shows up.

VinLieger

political analyst wrote: »

RTÉ still has a great deal of GAA coverage - some live matches and regular Sunday night highlights - the Summer Olympics and Euro, World Cup and some League of Ireland football.

Do you not think RTÉ has enough sports coverage?

Nope they do not have the summer olympics anymore as Discovery did a 1.3B deal with the IOC to get all rights, that's obviously not RTE's fault but they will now have to bid for the irish rights and i fully expect them to lose if TV3/Virgin go in for it.

And no I don't think they have enough sports coverage as the only sport I care about watching, rugby, they have lost pretty much all coverage of except for 3 matches in November and yet I still have to pay a license fee for channels i never watch anymore for that reason?

srsly78

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

What’s also infuriating is the likes of Tubs et all aren’t direct employees of RTÉ, but rather they are employees of their own limited companies that sub contract themselves out to RTÉ for massive fee’s, then they simply pay themselves modest salaries from their companies to keep their tax as low as possible. So Ryan Tubridy Ltd might charge RTÉ €500,000 per year for Ryan’s ‘talents’, but Ryan Tubridy himself (an employee of Ryan Tubridy Ltd) might only be on €60,000 a year. Paying very little tax in comparison to an employee earning €500k a year, while Ryan Tubridy Ltd pays for the extravagant lifestyle (fancy house/car/holidays etc...)

None of that are allowable expenses, so would be subject to benefit-in-kind. More likely they pay massive contributions to occupational pension schemes to avoid tax legally.

Sephiroth_dude

ligerdub wrote: »

There are times when I think RTE get a break rep and I start to feel a degree of sympathy to them.......and then they completely outdo themselves with this sort of rubbish.

https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2018/0516/963899-amy-huberman-begins-production-on-new-rte-comedy/

It's so painfully predictable it's not funny. I can just see them there in their offices with some bar chart for gender splits in the various shows they've commissioned and the starring roles across the board. Must add another female comedy to the mix, let's hope it's as funny as Can't Laugh, Won't Laugh.

Amy Huberman is not a good actress.
Amy Huberman is not funny.

Amy Huberman should therefore not have had a comedy that she has written commissioned. I guarantee this was agreed before a word of this was written by the way. There's no way "Aymz" would have bothered to write this unless there was some sort of silent deal on the table.

I look forward to the countless sycophantic tweets and endless promotion of this on RTE, the Indo (Amy's propaganda machine), the Daily Edge, the Journal, all that other rubbish that publishes articles about "Why we love so and so" when that person is largely not universally loved. It'll be hailed as the greatest thing of all time.

As for the actresses involved, well at least Bea is an actress, but Whitmore? Where did she fit into all this? Could they not have found somebody who can actually act, or at least has a bit of charisma or humour to them? Who are these people who love Huberman and Whitmore where there's this sort of invisible demand for them to be on our tv screens? Any time I hear a general member of the public comment on them it's in the negative, in terms of their career anyway. This would absolutely not have been commissioned on a network that wasn't publicly funded and therefore requiring some degree of a return on investment.

At least the storyline is original though eh. Let the IFTA's flow on this one.

Tripe!

It won't be one bit funny, it will be cringey to watch no doubt.

cherryghost

It always pisses me off is, if I'm forced to pay a licence fee to fund RTE, why the **** do I have to put up with massive pop-up ads on the rte website?

FTA69

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

It’s always funny when they try to justify the huge salaries of their ‘top talent’ by saying they have to pay such high wages or they’ll lose the talent to rivals!!!

What rivals? TV3??? They don’t exactly have millions in cash to fling at Tubs or Finucane to get them to swap sides!! (Finucane gets something like €120,000 a year to do 3-4 hours radio at the weekend. And that’s it.)


What’s also infuriating is the likes of Tubs et all aren’t direct employees of RTÉ, but rather they are employees of their own limited companies that sub contract themselves out to RTÉ for massive fee’s, then they simply pay themselves modest salaries from their companies to keep their tax as low as possible. So Ryan Tubridy Ltd might charge RTÉ €500,000 per year for Ryan’s ‘talents’, but Ryan Tubridy himself (an employee of Ryan Tubridy Ltd) might only be on €60,000 a year. Paying very little tax in comparison to an employee earning €500k a year, while Ryan Tubridy Ltd pays for the extravagant lifestyle (fancy house/car/holidays etc...)

Very true. And contrary to popular belief, the BBC and Channel 4 aren't champing at the bit to pay over half a million quid to Ryan Tubridy should RTÉ not be forking out.

VinLieger

FTA69 wrote: »

Very true. And contrary to popular belief, the BBC and Channel 4 aren't champing at the bit to pay over half a million quid to Ryan Tubridy should RTÉ not be forking out.

Tubridy has tried his hand at the BBC a couple of times and came running back to the RTE safe space with his tail between his legs

SEPT 23 1989

Irish people with real talent down the decades got the big jobs on big money in the UK media

Red_Wake

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Irish people with real talent down the decades got the big jobs on big money in the UK media

Well the current crop of RTE pricks are certainly Irish, but can't get big jobs on big money in the UK media.

I wonder what's missing :angel:

AndyBoBandy

RTÉ have a new show starting next week about how people reacted to being interviewed by Gay Byrne on an RTÉ show!

This is the future people. Embrace it.

Yet another RTÉ show that’s main focus is another RTÉ show.

jippo nolan

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

RTÉ have a new show starting next week about how people reacted to being interviewed by Gay Byrne on an RTÉ show!

This is the future people. Embrace it.

Yet another RTÉ show that’s main focus is another RTÉ show.

Another payout for “uncle Gaybo”

lawred2

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

RTÉ have a new show starting next week about how people reacted to being interviewed by Gay Byrne on an RTÉ show!

This is the future people. Embrace it.

Yet another RTÉ show that’s main focus is another RTÉ show.

meta RTÉ

whisky_galore

jippo nolan wrote: »

Another payout for “uncle Gaybo”

Ah shur God love him, the investments didn't work out.

Sephiroth_dude

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

RTÉ have a new show starting next week about how people reacted to being interviewed by Gay Byrne on an RTÉ show!

Sweet Jesus.....

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

the purple tin

RTE and terrestrial television in general seems to be used mostly by people of a certain generation. In 20 years or so, their viewing figures will have flatlined.

AndyBoBandy

the purple tin wrote: »

In 20 years or so, their viewing figures will have flatlined.

So to make up for the loss of ad revenue in 20 years, the TV Licence should be about €360!

the purple tin

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

So to make up for the loss of ad revenue in 20 years, the TV Licence should be about €360!

And if you refuse to pay they sic Twink on you :eek:

conorhal

Red_Wake wrote: »

Well the current crop of RTE pricks are certainly Irish, but can't get big jobs on big money in the UK media.

I wonder what's missing :angel:

That's pretty simple, the previous generation like Gaybo etc got where they were largely on merit, the current crop were manufactured by crony RTE and never earned their slot, it was handed to them.

jippo nolan

conorhal wrote: »

That's pretty simple, the previous generation like Gaybo etc got where they were largely on merit, the current crop were manufactured by crony RTE and never earned their slot, it was handed to them.

The so called RTE “Royalty”

reubenreuben

grahambo wrote: »

Dee Forbes is at it again over the TV licence fee.

Whinging the €60m wasn't collected and RTE cannot compete.

That's about 375,00 homes not paying the fee, so evasion is about 15%

The whole TV licence thing REALLY bugs me.
I don't watch RTE, not even for the Soccer/GAA. I might listen to the radio when I drive the car in the morning (which is once a blue moon)
I don't use the service, why the hell should I have to pay for it!

Obviously we cannot get rid of RTE as there are a great many people that do use the service.
That being said massive reforms are needed.
Firstly, do we really need RTE1 and RTE2? One channel would be enough.
Same with the radio stations, we only need one.
Do we REALLY need TG4?

The land they are on as well is ridiculous, some of the most valuable land in the country. They don't need to be there, they could be out in Athlone or somewhere an no one would know the difference.

And then there's the salaries of the bigshots
Ryan Tubridy - €500,000 per year is the biggest Joke of all
That salary puts him on a par with the likes of Claudia Winkleman, Alan Shearer, Fiona Bruce of the BBC.
He is nothing compared to them.
BBC can justify big salaries as it is broadcast around the world, and the content is generally quite good.
No one outside of Ireland know's who Tubb's is.

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/rte-director-general-calls-for-changes-in-tv-licence-fee-as-60m-uncollected-annually-840770.html

Move to Athlone?, you must hate RTE

Billy86

Worse than all of that nonsense is paying through the hoop with taxpayer for foreign sitcoms, when they could be making their own ones (and shows of all kind) for a fraction of the cost over here. Many would be awful but some good, it would employ and develop Irish talent (not just actors, directors, writers and camera crew, but all sorts from editing to makeup to wardrobe and so on), create Irish products (and who knows... the fecking Lyrics Board got licensed out to 26 other countries), and also lead to further knock-on Irish employment in terms of catering staff and what-have-you. And in this day and age, yes these shows can be done on an absolute shoestring if needed.

Instead... they just flush the money down the toilet on sitcoms we can already see on British TV (as well as online in many instances), that would likely have been bought by TV3 at a lower cost anyway if RTE weren't so interested in using money intended for industry development on muscling out the private sector. As putrid and lazy as the "jobs for the boys" and "here's a show about one of our other shows!" culture in RTE is, that is far far worse.

Atlantic Dawn

Are they seriously going to go up to the 'famous' people who Gay interviewed and ask them how did he make them feel when he interviewed them?

fritzelly

Will they include the ones who replied "interviewed by who?" or is it just gonna be the Irish "celebrities" looking for air time and free booze?

kneemos

The attraction here presumably are the celebrities,never mind that they'll be talking about an interview they had thirty years ago.

It's the kind of thing you'd expect to see maybe a year or so after he'd passed away.

fritzelly

Or maybe an hour special of the most famous events of his life, not bringing back some has been's from the 70's

Infini

In all honest if I lived alone they wouldnt get anything from me since the only thing I'd own is a laptop and monitor for gaming. Dont watch TV so not paying for something I dont use, need or want.

Mr.Micro

Infini wrote: »

In all honest if I lived alone they wouldnt get anything from me since the only thing I'd own is a laptop and monitor for gaming. Dont watch TV so not paying for something I dont use, need or want.

Any device capable of receiving tv eg laptop...such as rte player ....a tv licence is required as far as I know. A licence for dire programmes that have been on Netflix or other channel. RTE still working on the premise that it is the only broadcaster. The politicians will keep it though as its a go to pulpit.

fritzelly

Mr.Micro wrote: »

Any device capable of receiving tv eg laptop...such as rte player ....a tv licence is required as far as I know. A licence for dire programmes that have been on Netflix or other channel. RTE still working on the premise that it is the only broadcaster. The politicians will keep it though as its a go to pulpit.

To correct you - any device capable of receiving a terrestrial broadcast signal (either by aerial or dish), downloading online like Netflix is not included in the requirements of a TV licence - tho they want to make it so it is

Venom

Mr.Micro wrote: »

Any device capable of receiving tv eg laptop...such as rte player ....a tv licence is required as far as I know. A licence for dire programmes that have been on Netflix or other channel. RTE still working on the premise that it is the only broadcaster. The politicians will keep it though as its a go to pulpit.

As posted above, this is completely incorrect but something RTE have tried to get the government to pass into legislation for a while.

the purple tin

VinLieger wrote: »

Tubridy has tried his hand at the BBC a couple of times and came running back to the RTE safe space with his tail between his legs

Gaybo did the same in the 60's. He did just one show in England and it was 'don't call us, we'll call you'. The rumour is that he always hated Terry Wogan because he was trying to crack the BBC at the same time as Gay but it worked out great for him.

kneemos

the purple tin wrote: »

Gaybo did the same in the 60's. He did just one show in England and it was 'don't call us, we'll call you'. The rumour is that he always hated Terry Wogan because he was trying to crack the BBC at the same time as Gay but it worked out great for him.

He had the offer of work in the US,the whole country however had conniptions that he might leave.
He looked eager to give it a try if I remember rightly.


How come he's not still on The Late Show anyway.
One day a week gig,perfect for him.

kneemos

Not entirely far-fetched I bet.

https://youtu.be/2xMXGUqAcqI

So lads if i'm correct 1. if i get a monitor that cannot receive a terrestrial signal i don't have to pay a tv licence ?

2. Does this include freesat, bbc itv channel 4 and the like ? Thanks.

fritzelly

A satellite dish requires a licence

kneemos

They're going to spend 1.7 million on a new set for the news.
1.7 million on a set! How in the name of JC? It's plywood and a few lights.


http://www.thejournal.ie/rte-news-studio-4052489-Jun2018/

NinetyTwoTeam

kneemos wrote: »

They're going to spend 1.7 million on a new set for the news.
1.7 million on a set! How in the name of JC? It's plywood and a few lights.


http://www.thejournal.ie/rte-news-studio-4052489-Jun2018/

while I don't agree with the license or the spend, a modern newsroom is certainly more than plywood and a few lights. they'll be modern digital doodads but still how they get 1.7 mil is beyond me even with the installation labour.

tho it got me thinking, could they not just replace a load of presenters with holograms and cut salaries that way? an Alexa type voice could handle the text to speech and it's not like they need to come up with stuff on the fly for the news like a talk show host does. a hologram wouldn't need sick days, holidays or maternity leave. it's probably the one job that most lends itself to a hologram.

heck, you could make a Tubridy hologram no bother, in fact a hologram probably would have more wit. the only drawback is you can't punch a hologram in the face. well you can, but it would be unsatisfying. though there would also be the advantage of a lack of legal repercussions and no danger of cutting your knuckle on one of the sharp angles of his pointy head.

fritzelly

Some of the figures beggar belief
600k for TV's - I mean seriously WTF? You can get a large 4k TV for under a grand (and even that would be too high tech for them but nothing wrong with future proofing)

LED lighting at 150k - someone needs to have look at aliexpress (probably where the contractor will be buying them from). How the hell can it cost that much just for LED's

As for the hologram comment - well I wouldn't notice the difference with the current evening news presenters. Also why do they need 2 presenters...Sky news have one most of the day

Ahh well grand to be sure you're still gonna get paid regardless what you do.

JohnMc1

NinetyTwoTeam wrote: »

while I don't agree with the license or the spend, a modern newsroom is certainly more than plywood and a few lights. they'll be modern digital doodads but still how they get 1.7 mil is beyond me even with the installation labour.

When they know that they have the population by the throat ["If you don't pay your TV license fee you can be fined or even face prison"]they think money's no object.

EdgeCase

News set build outs are never particularly cheap.

Most of the cost would be design, lighting systems, automation systems and so on. It's a significant enough project.

That's not the kind of cost that I would be complaining about in RTE. It's more the huge administrative overhead, the bits that are nothing to do with broadcasting and the very inflated salaries.

TVE for example, back in 2014:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsBWXVONjzU

kneemos

EdgeCase wrote: »

News set build outs are never particularly cheap.

Most of the cost would be design, lighting systems, automation systems and so on. It's a significant enough project.

That's not the kind of cost that I would be complaining about in RTE. It's more the huge administrative overhead, the bits that are nothing to do with broadcasting and the very inflated salaries.

TVE for example, back in 2014:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsBWXVONjzU

Design consultants I suspect are taking a big chunk of the 1.7 million.

EdgeCase

That stuff isn't cheap and there's been a big shift in uptake of HDTV which genuinely does warrant a total redesign to make use of it.

The current setup is looking very tired at this stage and doesn't make great use of the high resolutions available.

Capt'n Midnight

Instead of doing up the studio they could just get a couple of tins of green paint and do some CGI :P

kneemos

EdgeCase wrote: »

That stuff isn't cheap and there's been a big shift in uptake of HDTV which genuinely does warrant a total redesign to make use of it.

The current setup is looking very tired at this stage and doesn't make great use of the high resolutions available.

Does it need all the bells and whistles?
Simple can work just as well.

kneemos

Channel four is a table,a few chairs and a giant telly. No doubt they managed to design it all by themselves as well.
The BBC just has the newsroom in the background.
Why does RTE need carry on like they're some giant network channel?

EdgeCase

BBC spent 1bn on that building refurb...

Channel 4 news is also a bit more than a few chairs

https://www.channel4.com/news/channel-4-news-moves-into-pioneering-new-studio

fritzelly

EdgeCase wrote: »

BBC spent 1bn on that building refurb...

Channel 4 news is also a bit more than a few chairs

https://www.channel4.com/news/channel-4-news-moves-into-pioneering-new-studio

That wasn't just on a news studio (still under criticism for spending that much on the building)

Channel 4 can do what they like with their money - it's their money and not funded by Joe Public