RTÉ report €13m defecit. Time to properly fund Public Service Broadcasting.

How Soon Is Now

super_furry wrote: »

What? Every weekend it's pretty much wall to wall GAA. There'd be even more if the GAA hadn't sold half the games to an English private subscription channel.

They have a limited amount of games they can show under the current deal and basically up until last weekend they took preference to the hurling. They should be showing an even amount of both.

What would they normally show at that time of day at the weekend? Some rerun of random ****e which no one watches!

Atoms for Peace

Why do rte 2 buy foreign shows and then show them at ungodly hours?

vriesmays

We need RTÉ television - who else will brain-wash with feel-good news stories on 3rd-world chancers enriching small Irish towns.

James Brown

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

Why do rte 2 buy foreign shows and then show them at ungodly hours?

Fills time and saves hassle. Your tax dollars at work.

salmocab

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

Why do rte 2 buy foreign shows and then show them at ungodly hours?

Often shows that 95% of the country could already watch elsewhere if the wanted.

Cryptopagan

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

The salary thing is yet another populist mouthpiece that doesn't stand up to even 5 minutes of scrutiny. People like Sean O'Rourke, Marian, Tubridy bring in multiples in what they are paid through advertising. They contribute positively to the bottom line.

This was the excuse for paying Pat Kenny so much for years. He’s a top broadcaster who brings in the listeners! Then he moved to Newstalk: without the production and research team he had at RTÉ backing him, he suddenly sounded like a fairly poor broadcaster with a limited grasp of current affairs (remember how he was supposed to be totally on top of that?), and the audience didn’t migrate with him. Same thing with Jonathan Ross in the UK—the biggest TV host in Britain, paid millions by the BBC, then upped sticks to another broadcaster and was soon forgotten about. The broadcaster makes the stars, not the other way around.

For Forks Sake

GarIT wrote: »

They need to make an effort to show more Irish sports. Cut out the highlights of the Premier League and start showing LOI matches.

They axed the premiership coverage in 2013.

They do show LOI matches. Though the clubs then grumble that having the matches shown live affects the attendance, and thus their revenues.

Cryptopagan

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

Why do rte 2 buy foreign shows and then show them at ungodly hours?

They probably cost buttons

For Forks Sake

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

Why do rte 2 buy foreign shows and then show them at ungodly hours?

Primarily to annoy TV3/Virgin I'd imagine.
Not like RTE are known for financial prudence.

Atoms for Peace

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

Get rid of all their stupid silly garbage entertainment shows.

Slash the budget harshly on 2fm

Concentrate on news and current affairs and let other operators do entertainment.

RTE radio one do some really good music programs, but their all on during off peak times. Maybe bring these shows onto 2fm and let the commercial stations play the top 30 dross.

GarIT

For Forks Sake wrote: »

They axed the premiership coverage in 2013.

They do show LOI matches. Though the clubs then grumble that having the matches shown live affects the attendance, and thus their revenues.

That's probably long after the last time I watched something on RTE.

I'm surprised to hear that about LOI. A compromise could likely be worked out.

Kivaro

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

RTE radio one do some really good music programs, but their all on during off peak times.

It's one of the reasons why I begrudgingly pay for the enormous television tax that is forced on us.

Elmo

Cryptopagan wrote: »

They probably cost buttons

25m a year goes to Imports not buttons.

CrankyHaus

RTE needs to decide if it's a Public Service Broadcaster or a Commercial Broadcaster showing things like British soap operas. For a long time it could be both and this allowed it considerable largesse. But those days are gone and they're not coming back. People have too many other options.

It also needs root and branch reform. It's wilfully inefficient and no longer capable of tapping Irish talent to produce quality programming. Over the last 10 years there was a considerable TV boom in Europe, with the Scandanavian national Broadcasters in particular producing a large amount of programmes that could be syndicated abroad. Many of these have a similar sized license base to us yet RTE was unable to match any of these successes.

The response of RTE to these challenges is to demand more cash from the public, this time presenting the bogeyman of "fake news" that it will protect us from.

TheDiceMan2020

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

RTÉ today reported a deficit of €13 million for 2018. We now live in an era of fake news, advertising masquerading as news, and clickbait designed to outrage consumers. I believe it's ever more important to have a publicly funded state broadcaster.


It's the done thing to criticise and berate RTÉ, especially in the cesspools of Facebook, Twitter, and The Journal. However I believe they do a very good job in difficult circumstances. Their current affairs, sports coverage, and documentaries are top class. They manage to balance the wants of the populace by providing stuff like The Voice and Ireland's Fittest Families, with more niche content like the wonderful Doc On One, live classical music from the NCH, Irish language content, Nationwide etc.

People complain about there being dross on RTÉ, but then don't want to pay the licence fee to fund additional content that meets their extremely high-brow tastes. This is having a serious impact on the independent sector who are being forced to produce ever cheaper and more salacious content instead of high-quality work. Yet you head onto the Sky channels and are met with hours of repeats, Dr Pimple Popper, and ads for online casinos.

I think a strong public service broadcaster is a sign of a strong democracy, and am in favour of deducting tax at source to fund it. What say the intellectuals of Boards?

JohnnyFlash

Cryptopagan wrote: »

This was the excuse for paying Pat Kenny so much for years. He’s a top broadcaster who brings in the listeners! Then he moved to Newstalk: without the production and research team he had at RTÉ backing him, he suddenly sounded like a fairly poor broadcaster with a limited grasp of current affairs (remember how he was supposed to be totally on top of that?), and the audience didn’t migrate with him. Same thing with Jonathan Ross in the UK—the biggest TV host in Britain, paid millions by the BBC, then upped sticks to another broadcaster and was soon forgotten about. The broadcaster makes the stars, not the other way around.

Pat Kenny is the finest broadcaster of our generation. A man with a towering intellect, and a voice that transcendences the classes. Sean O'Rourke v Kenny is the most difficult choice for those of us who love the medium of radio.

Beechwoodspark

I’m in the mood to name names

Tubridy
Darcy
Duffy
Finucane
Brendan Connors
Eoghan McDermott
Miriam callahan
Dessie Cahill
Jenny green
Marty morisey
Dave fcuking fanning

All should be either on 100k max if not happy terminate their contract.

Pintman Paddy Losty

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Pat Kenny is the finest broadcaster of our generation. A man with a towering intellect, and a voice that transcendences the classes. Sean O'Rourke v Kenny is the most difficult choice for those of us who love the medium of radio.

Nail on the head there Johnny. Its a very difficult choice. I tend to flick between the two depending on the guest. Or else podcast the show later on. Its a pity they couldnt leave SOR in his slot and NT admit defeat on that slot and switch Kenny and that wagon Dr Ciara Kelly around. Then you could have SOR followed by Kenny.

Larbre34

RTÉ need to lean the **** down. We neither need nor can afford Marian, Joe, Ray and plenty more doing what they're doing and I do not accept that they personally attract the advertising revenue, its about the product. I know Tubs personally, he's a very decent man, but his salary for a one hour morning show 9 months a year and 3 hours on a Friday night 9 months a year is just criminal (yes I know there's production time)

The thing is RTÉ E do have some very good talents like Sean O'Rourke, Tony Connolly, Sarah McInerney (in the middle of the damn night), Rachel English, Gavin Jennings, Cormac Ó hEadhra, Claire Byrne and some excellent sports and lifestyle/factual presenters, but really they have to make best use of what they have and put presenters on the payroll with sustainable remuneration, not a contract based cock-fight.

We do not need the Late Late and the Darcy show. In fact we need neither, put the brilliant Tommy Tiernan show in the Late Late slot through the winter months, and get rid of the other two. Even if Tommy doesn't want to do it as often, just do 6 weeks stretches broken up through the year.

Marian should be replaced by Rachel English, Joe could make way for, well anyone and Ray Darcy brings and all his formats simply do not need to be replaced.

When it comes to buying in dramas I have to hand it to them, they had Handmaids Tale and Killing Eve just a few days behind their broadcast premieres in America and in the latter case months ahead of the BBC in UK who produced the damn thing.

James Brown

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

I’m in the mood to name names

Tubridy
Darcy
Eoghan McDermott
Miriam callahan
Dessie Cahill
Jenny green
Marty morrisey

All should be either on 100k max if not happy terminate their contract.

It's funny how a captive audience needs to pay for 'quality' when, as RTE proves on a daily basis, any aul' crap would do just as good.

Harry Palmr

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

Why do rte 2 buy foreign shows and then show them at ungodly hours?

Because TV stations buy packages from rights holders, rte can get the premier of titles X,Y and Z but they'll also have to show programmes already seen elsewhere within most Irish viewers gaze.

n!ghtmancometh

Radio One makes some good docs and has some good off peak shows. Late Date every evening is a wonderful music show for instance, Arena is often very good, as is Seascapes. The TV side is a huge letdown, bereft of imagination and very stale programming for the most part. Some of the criticism about the imported shows is odd, they help pad out the schedule and are bought as a package with the sought after shows that garner advertising like Killing Eve and Blue Bloods etc, would imagine they cost less to produce than 100% 24/7 original content too.

Should definitely be more of an effort made to recruit complete outsiders into the organisation, should actually be a certain amount of license fee ring fenced for exactly that purpose. The Hardy Bucks lads coming through the Storyland project a few years ago is a great indication of what can be achieved. Multiple series on Netflix as well as a proper film. Would be a better way of spending money than giving more of it to beaten dockets like Kathryn Thomas, Brendan O'Connor etc.

JDxtra

Sell 2FM, or close it down. Reduce amount of transmitters used for Radio Na Gaeltachta. Close down all the digital stations, move RTE Gold to FM. Close RTE junior.

Cut overpaid stars loose or cap their salaries. Stop buying US imports. Licence the rights to the RTE back catalog to Netflix.

Larbre34

JDxtra wrote: »

Sell 2FM, or close it down. Reduce amount of transmitters used for Radio Na Gaeltachta. Close down all the digital stations, move RTE Gold to FM. Close RTE junior.
Stop buying US imports.

Frankly no.

minikin

Everyone’s a critic...

Beechwoodspark

JDxtra wrote: »

Sell 2FM, or close it down. Reduce amount of transmitters used for Radio Na Gaeltachta. Close down all the digital stations, move RTE Gold to FM. Close RTE junior.

Cut overpaid stars loose or cap their salaries. Stop buying US imports. Licence the rights to the RTE back catalog to Netflix.

Would agree.

Also no more rubbishy shows like dancing with the “stars”.

fritzelly

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

Also no more rubbishy shows like dancing with the “stars”.

Then the "stars" wouldn't have anything to talk about on every radio and talk show

NIMAN

To be honest, I thought their deficit would be a lot more.

€13 annually isnt so terrible, and it could be addressed if the will was there.

fritzelly

NIMAN wrote: »

To be honest, I thought their deficit would be a lot more.

€13 annually isnt so terrible, and it could be addressed if the will was there.

That's not taking into account (or at least not showing it there) the amount of loan debts they have

That 100m from the land sale seems to have vanished.

NIMAN

So are you saying that the €13mill is so small this year because of the land sale?

So next year, more huge losses?

bigroad

You would have to wonder what the 1800 employees all do day to day.
I would say slash that number by half and that might be a good start.
Also if the Duffy show brings in so much revenue why are most of the advertisements for either the TV licence or tubs or Darcy or whatever recorded sh1th they did last week and how great superstars they are.

Beechwoodspark

That Dee Forbes person arrived with great pomp and hype.

What’s she done to justify it?

sligojoek

bigroad wrote: »

You would have to wonder what the 1800 employees all do day to day.
I would say slash that number by half and that might be a good start.
Also if the Duffy show brings in so much revenue why are most of the advertisements for either the TV licence or tubs or Darcy or whatever recorded sh1th they did last week and how great superstars they are.

Don't forget ads for "Love your orchestra" and "RTE supporting the ar$e arts". Every break in Liveline has at least 2-3 RTE products.

Then you have Joe and Tubbs constantly promoting their Books. How much would that amount of prime time advertising cost Joe Soap if he had a book out.

Bass Reeves

I gave up on RTE after the Brendan O'Connor/Rat Darcey debacle. They headhunted Darcey for the afternoon show to get him they sidelined O'Connor Saturday night show and gave it to Darcey. Darcey is s brutal TV talk show host. If you watch he always is fiddling with his hint cards. He cannot extend an interesting guest or reduce s disintresting guest. If you ever watch him he never listens he is waiting to ask the next question. If Ray has 8 questions to ask all 8 have to be asked instead of listening to the guest.

O'Connor was a good talk show host he listened he be better on the Late Late Show than Tubs. He was like Byrne he knew when to shut up and when to listen. RTE current affairs is brutal. The Green's and Paul Murphy as well as Sinn Fein must get total prominence but Ming or the Healy Rae's must be ignored or belittled until lately.

I can understand that PSB must rain neutral but you definitely get the impression that they're neutral to an agenda. RTE have become bloated and there is an unwillingness to accept that s huge restructuring is needed as well as a change in directions

JohnnyFlash

Some of the 92IQ responses so far are powerful markers as to why we need a properly funded State broadcaster.

fritzelly

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Some of the 92IQ responses so far are powerful markers as to why we need a properly funded State broadcaster.

Carry on with your insults of nearly every poster on the thread and continue living in your delusions - you're making RTE happy

Blueshoe

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Some of the 92IQ responses so far are powerful markers as to why we need a properly funded State broadcaster.

You watch and enjoy it then by all means pay for it. I don't so I won't

Pintman Paddy Losty

Blueshoe wrote: »

You watch and enjoy it then by all means pay for it. I don't so I won't

If you own a television then you are breaking the law.

ILoveYourVibes

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

RTÉ today reported a deficit of €13 million for 2018. I believe it's ever more important to have a publicly funded state broadcaster.

Better than the 19 million deficit in 2016.

It's nothing to do with lack of state funding.

They have had no series cuts for the last few yrs.


It's poorly run.

They have zero idea of how to budget. They throw money on isolated huge events and OVER cover them but these events DON'T bring advertising.

One example would be the pope's visit. They couldn't sell ad time. Yet through money at it.

They have run bigger and bigger deficits year after year.

This is a TV company that has it's own CREDIT UNION!

They have received increases in public funding. They have increased the license fee.

You have ZERO idea of how badly it's run. They have their own gym. They have their own sports and social club etc.

Every single live show RTE does is badly produced ..the iftas are usually a disaster.

Staff get amazing benefits ...pensions etc much more than they would for a private company.

I mean people in front of the camera get wardrobe allowances.

Atoms for Peace

They've obviously never heard the phrase to cut your coat according to your cloth.

JustAThought

Nobodys talking about the scandal of the BAI licence fee payments to low or non paid radio workers who accept grants from the licence fee and work at less than minimum wage to make programmes that if they are lucky are shown on rte -usually fulfilling their culture/history/childrens slots. The very areas they claim to exvell in and which they say underpins their existance & right to the tv licence fees existance. On the flip side of this misery are the Joe's and Miriams who despite their eye watering saleries also have 'independent' production companies and also apply for huge 'independent' TV production grants -again from the 'independent' producers tv licence fee allocation. Talk about gred and one hand washing the other. Of course who are the judges for these grants -'industry experts' usuallt rte or ex rtes and what do they ask for in your application - every storyboard,contact, expert private details, entire compleye programme ideas and scripts you have - and what is a clause in the judging notes - they can decide to give it to someone who they know is 'experienced' . You couldnt make it up. Talk about gaurds policing gaurds.

As for the obsenity of 300k+ salaries and the likes of dying in his seat Marty who is simply allowed refuse to be fired/discontinued and continues with his mysognistic alzheimers style drivel - and the cult of giving programmes to family members (dreary lottie)and multi generations working in the same department... it should be just closed and rethought. Its a dinosaur in party clothes desperately clinging to its rock as the floods engulf it - out of date, almost useless, and immediately replacable.

We taxed water overnight and cut grants from childrens cancer charities -why is this obscene waste allowed waddle along.

Its not as though its independent or impartial either. Just pandering to its government paymasters and itinerants/criminals/lawbreakers in all their corporate forms and cowering before commerce.

Get rid of it.

ILoveYourVibes

I also think they haven't a clue about what attracts advertising and viewing figures.

There is very little talent in front of the camera and very little sense behind.

Plus several people there who are quite high up are actually making money RUNNING private film companies that would be in DIRECT competition with RTE. I don't have to spell out a conflict of interests issue.

ILoveYourVibes

JustAThought wrote: »

Nobodys talking about the scandal of the BAI licence fee payments to low or non paid radio workers who accept grants from the licence fee and work at less than minimum wage to make programmes that if they are lucky are shown on rte -usually fulfilling their culture/history/childrens slots. The very areas they claim to exvell in and which they say underpins their existance & right to the tv licence fees existance. On the flip side of this misery are the Joe's and Miriams who despite their eye watering saleries also have 'independent' production companies and also apply for huge 'independent' TV production grants -again from the 'independent' producers tv licence fee allocation. Talk about gred and one hand washing the other. Of course who are the judges for these grants -'industry experts' usuallt rte or ex rtes and what do they ask for in your application - every storyboard,contact, expert private details, entire compleye programme ideas and scripts you have - and what is a clause in the judging notes - they can decide to give it to someone who they know is 'experienced' . You couldnt make it up. Talj about gaurds policing gaurds.

I agree with you except for one thing.

Miriam Callaghan is one of the few who is worth her salary in there.

But yes as I said above people even on the consecutive board etc have independent production companies ..it's a direct conflict of interest but there you go.

Plus RTE is run chaotically and is just slow structurally.

They are way more concerned with bad headlines than what is actually going on inside.

They will avoid telling departments actual policy until it's too late to implement it on time because they are afraid of it being leaked to the press.

ILoveYourVibes

Why Marian Finucane is the highest paid woman in RTE i don't know. No one under 30 has heard of her.

Or rather I DO know ...she has been there the longest.

And that is the way RTE works. They don't have turnover.

Boxing.Fan

TV licence will never be deducted at source and rightly so. I've never paid for one and never will, RTE is absolute garbage..

Tokyo

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Some of the 92IQ responses so far are powerful markers as to why we need a properly funded State broadcaster.

Mod:

JohnnyFlash- quit it with the childish digs.

Reati

Great there is 8 pages of reasons why we need to get RTÉ fixed. How do we do this?

Start contacting politicians? One of those change.org petitions?

I think we should go whole hog and abolish the TV license. Only then will RTÉ have to produce the content people want to watch.

ILoveYourVibes

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Some of the 92IQ responses so far are powerful markers as to why we need a properly funded State broadcaster.

It is actually a properly funded state broadcaster that also takes advertising revenue. They also have a lot of other commercial activities some of which might surprise you.


They have also gotten into trouble with the public accounts committee for the way they have spent public money.

RTE has also refused to sign a contract saying they will be transparent with how they spend it. They say they have no legal requirement to sign up to such a contract.

The public accounts committee say there is an issue with public money being given for work that is out sourced to the private companies of individuals working in RTE who make the decisions where the money goes etc and its a matter of public interest.

50% of the entire Irish dept of communications budget goes on JUST RTE.

Yet RTE refuses to sign a contract saying they will be transparent with the dept and the public acc committee about what happens to this money.

There is a lot of bogus self employment arrangements etc in RTE and people being paid for work they did not do ...execs and presenters handing out contracts to their own companies ..or worse ...money to their companies that was never actually done.

There are no sanctions in place for RTE.

ILoveYourVibes

Reati wrote: »

Great there is 8 pages of reasons why we need to get RTÉ fixed. How do we do this?

Start contacting politicians? One of those change.org petitions?

I think we should go whole hog and abolish the TV license. Only then will RTÉ have to produce the content people want to watch.

It was doing better for a number of years. They got people into shake it up a bit and change practices ..but certain people didn't like that ...

ILoveYourVibes

https://www.independent.ie/business/media/adrian-weckler-rte-has-lost-plot-on-tv-funding-35712047.html


They are greedy dishonest and on the gravy train.