Nothing in program for government for broadcasting

Damian F

From what I can see, there is nothing in the program for government about the long proposed licence fee reform etc.

Widescreen

Isn't that good news though?

No matter what reform they do, the price won't be coming down!

Sam Russell

Widescreen wrote: »

Isn't that good news though?

No matter what reform they do, the price won't be coming down!

Well not necessarily. If those that do not pay had to, then there is scope for a reduction. If the collection fee paid to an Post was reduced through collection through the electricity bill, there would b scope for a reduction.

However, that is unlikely because RTE is broke and need more income. And that is not god news.

Elmo

Sam Russell wrote: »

Well not necessarily. If those that do not pay had to, then there is scope for a reduction. If the collection fee paid to an Post was reduced through collection through the electricity bill, there would b scope for a reduction.

However, that is unlikely because RTE is broke and need more income. And that is not god news.

In fairness RTÉ need reform. For example the PfG could have provided a few simple commitments: -

1. That TG4 is 100% funded from the Exchequer as before, this would help increase funding to RTÉ by around €7m (I think the firgure could be lower in the last few years).
2. That the NSO will move to the NCH again giving RTÉ around €7m in savings.

That's 14million right there.

Other's could have had to do with increase RTÉ's requirement towards independent producers.

Sam Russell

Elmo wrote: »

In fairness RTÉ need reform. For example the PfG could have provided a few simple commitments: -

1. That TG4 is 100% funded from the Exchequer as before, this would help increase funding to RTÉ by around €7m (I think the firgure could be lower in the last few years).
2. That the NSO will move to the NCH again giving RTÉ around €7m in savings.

That's 14million right there.

Other's could have had to do with increase RTÉ's requirement towards independent producers.

There needs to be increased reach of the TV licence so that it is unavoidable. That would increase the funding for RTE by 15% by those who currently do not pay, plus add the 5 to 7% that goes to An Post for collection. If it is unavoidable, then there will be no need for TV Licence Inspectors.

I am sure there are plenty of ways to achieve a fair way to increase the funding for RTE.

Elmo

Sam Russell wrote: »

There needs to be increased reach of the TV licence so that it is unavoidable. That would increase the funding for RTE by 15% by those who currently do not pay, plus add the 5 to 7% that goes to An Post for collection. If it is unavoidable, then there will be no need for TV Licence Inspectors.

I am sure there are plenty of ways to achieve a fair way to increase the funding for RTE.

Reform also needs to happen you can't just give RTÉ an increase on top of what they should be getting from the licence fee without some true reform of the company.

I have no problem saying the collection method needs to change, but if it does and RTÉ finances improve I'd expect more from RTÉ.

Damian F

Why is the current board of RTE so useless? They chicken out about going ahead with any cutback the moment any gombeen politician makes noise.

The Cush

Damian F wrote: »

From what I can see, there is nothing in the program for government about the long proposed licence fee reform etc.

Isn't the Commission on the Future of Irish Public Service Broadcasting, established last Dec, due to report back to the Dept by Sept 2020 on this, in time for Budget 2021. Professor Brian MacCraith was appointed in Jan to chair the Commission.

In the Programme for government they propose to expand its remit and rename it Future of Media Commission and to report back within 9 months.

Expand the remit of the Public Service Broadcasting Commission to become a Future of Media Commission and to consider the future of print, broadcast, and online media in a platform agnostic fashion. It will report within nine months on the necessary measures that need to be taken to ensure that there is a vibrant, independent public service media for the next generation. The current funding model for public service broadcasting is inefficient and the Commission will publish recommendations.

Elmo

The Cush wrote: »

Isn't the Commission on the Future of Irish Public Service Broadcasting, established last Dec, due to report back to the Dept by Sept 2020 on this, in time for Budget 2021. Professor Brian MacCraith was appointed in Jan to chair the Commission.

In the Programme for government they propose to expand its remit and rename it Future of Media Commission and to report back within 9 months.

I assumed they were only meeting at the end of this year

Sam Russell

Elmo wrote: »

Reform also needs to happen you can't just give RTÉ an increase on top of what they should be getting from the licence fee without some true reform of the company.

I have no problem saying the collection method needs to change, but if it does and RTÉ finances improve I'd expect more from RTÉ.

I agree RTE needs reform, but it needs to be reinforced to make its public broadcasting remit more robust, and broaden its cultural remit.

TnsG is OK, but it does not have enough funding to promote the Irish language such that it results in a revival of it. Instead it broadcasts very old movies, but I am not sure what else it could do on its funding.

RTE is quite happy to broadcast Dr Phil rather than a home produced programme. What possible justification is there for that kind of programming? It is this low ball programming that needs to be banished. They should see themselves a the bastion of Irish culture in every respect, not just another TV channel trying to do enough to get advertising.

Why do RTE see themselves as a 24 hour channel?

frozenfrozen

Sam Russell wrote: »

I agree RTE needs reform, but it needs to be reinforced to make its public broadcasting remit more robust, and broaden its cultural remit.

TnsG is OK, but it does not have enough funding to promote the Irish language such that it results in a revival of it. Instead it broadcasts very old movies, but I am not sure what else it could do on its funding.

RTE is quite happy to broadcast Dr Phil rather than a home produced programme. What possible justification is there for that kind of programming? It is this low ball programming that needs to be banished. They should see themselves a the bastion of Irish culture in every respect, not just another TV channel trying to do enough to get advertising.

Why do RTE see themselves as a 24 hour channel?

those programs probably earn them money though to pay for 100% irish culture content.

As to why they can't just spend their money only on irish culture content and stop transmission for the other 17 hours of the day, well that answers itself, if you can have a full day of content with some of it being foreign cheap bought in stuff that subsidises the other stuff by pumping up advertising numbers, what's the drawback.

That's with the assumption that dr phil makes them money. I have absolutely no idea about that

Charles Babbage

Sam Russell wrote: »

There needs to be increased reach of the TV licence so that it is unavoidable. That would increase the funding for RTE by 15% by those who currently do not pay, plus add the 5 to 7% that goes to An Post for collection. If it is unavoidable, then there will be no need for TV Licence Inspectors.

I am sure there are plenty of ways to achieve a fair way to increase the funding for RTE.

Add it to the property tax, you could even make the addition €10 less and RTÉ would still get more money, so everyone would be happy (except An Post perhaps).

Give some of the money to support the infrastructure so that everyone gets Saorview in HD and perhaps allow some minority or local broadcasting on Saorview.

Sam Russell

frozenfrozen wrote: »

those programs probably earn them money though to pay for 100% irish culture content.

As to why they can't just spend their money only on irish culture content and stop transmission for the other 17 hours of the day, well that answers itself, if you can have a full day of content with some of it being foreign cheap bought in stuff that subsidises the other stuff by pumping up advertising numbers, what's the drawback.

That's with the assumption that dr phil makes them money. I have absolutely no idea about that

They have lots of archive material, from documentaries, dramas, music - both trad, pop, and classical, as well as news programmes, etc. etc. that they could raid to fill some of these hours. Just look at the popularity of 'Reeling in the years' to see what can be achieved.

They do not need to transmit 24 hours - a shutdown from 1 am to 6 am would be OK, and anyway they could fill it with Euronews which costs them zilch.

They also need to turn RTE News Now into a fully grown up news channel. Perhaps they could go into partnership with a few newspapers to provide some of the content.

They need to open their minds - they might open ours.

Sam Russell

Charles Babbage wrote: »

Add it to the property tax, you could even make the addition €10 less and RTÉ would still get more money, so everyone would be happy (except An Post perhaps).

Give some of the money to support the infrastructure so that everyone gets Saorview in HD and perhaps allow some minority or local broadcasting on Saorview.

The problem with the property tax is that it is not paid by the user but by the property owner. However, the ESB Networks bill is paid by the user, and if it is not paid, it gets disconnected. Hence it gets paid. $10 a month might not be enough, but €12 would bring in extra money, but not a lot extra.

Another option would be to broaden the basis to include an extra charge to broadband connection like say €5 per month, or add a similar amount to TV subscription contracts. Of course, the VAT on these charges could be ring fenced for RTE.

The BAI need to change the terms for Saorview so that all channels are in HD. It is ridiculous that so much bandwidth is just burnt off for no-ones benefit. Fuzzy vision is not good for anyone.

frozenfrozen

I don't think there's enough space on the two muxes for all HD channels. I think it's ridiculous that TG4 is in SD on saorview.

Charles Babbage

Sam Russell wrote: »

The problem with the property tax is that it is not paid by the user but by the property owner. However, the ESB Networks bill is paid by the user, and if it is not paid, it gets disconnected. Hence it gets paid. $10 a month might not be enough, but €12 would bring in extra money, but not a lot extra.

Another option would be to broaden the basis to include an extra charge to broadband connection like say €5 per month, or add a similar amount to TV subscription contracts. Of course, the VAT on these charges could be ring fenced for RTE.

The BAI need to change the terms for Saorview so that all channels are in HD. It is ridiculous that so much bandwidth is just burnt off for no-ones benefit. Fuzzy vision is not good for anyon.

Yes, an ESB is not a tax or public charge (except for wind energy), it is unwise to link two unrelated things in my opinion.

The property tax provides services to your property, one of which is broadcasting, and probably should be paid by the house occupant rather than the owner.

Sam Russell

Charles Babbage wrote: »

Yes, an ESB is not a tax or public charge (except for wind energy), it is unwise to link two unrelated things in my opinion.

The property tax provides services to your property, one of which is broadcasting, and probably should be paid by the house occupant rather than the owner.

I know that ESB N is a service, but you pay VAT on it which is a tax. You also pay a public service levy as well, which is also a tax. An Post is not a taxing authority, it is merely a collection agency for the TV licence. Is there a difference between An Post and ESB N.

Property Tax is a tax on the owner, not the occupier, while electricity is a service paid by the occupier.

I do not see your problem using the ESB N to collect the TV Licence fee.

dulpit

Sam Russell wrote: »

I do not see your problem using the ESB N to collect the TV Licence fee.

The only arguments I can think of are either that An Post will be annoyed or people won't be able to easily opt out (ie if they don't have a TV). The former isn't an issue to me, and the latter can be accomplished with some sort of self declaration and limited inspections.

Anything else is just people objecting because it will make it harder to not pay...

Sam Russell

dulpit wrote: »

The only arguments I can think of are either that An Post will be annoyed or people won't be able to easily opt out (ie if they don't have a TV). The former isn't an issue to me, and the latter can be accomplished with some sort of self declaration and limited inspections.

Anything else is just people objecting because it will make it harder to not pay...

Well, the current one is called a TV Licence, but it could be called something else. The current licence fee pays for two orchestras plus many cultural activities. Maybe if it was called a Culture and Media levy then if you do not have any culture or you do not have a phone or broadband you could opt out.

Elmo

that commission hasn't met and only the chair has been announced.

Damian F

Elmo wrote: »

that commission hasn't met and only the chair has been announced.

It's a joke, it was another kicking the can down the road move by the government. It makes absolutely no sense that the government do absolutely nothing to reform or increase the licence fee but criticize RTE every time they announce a cutback. The government wouldn't even allow RTE TWO show a few hours of imports in the RTE Junior slot which would bring in a few euro in advertising because of lobbying for TV 3

The Cush

Elmo wrote: »

that commission hasn't met and only the chair has been announced.

That's correct, there was a written reply about it in the Dáil last week

Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment (Deputy Richard Bruton): In December 2019, the Government agreed that a Commission on the Future of Irish Public Service Broadcasting would be established by the Department of the Taoiseach.

Professor Brian MacCraith, President of DCU, was appointed as Chair of the Commission earlier this year. However, as a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the appointment of further members to the Commission has not yet been finalised by the Department of the Taoiseach and no meetings have taken place.

SPDUB

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