RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129499#Comment_121129499

She is Czech. She was a journalist. She did a Intensive course of fashion photography in London College of Fashion back in 2005. I'd say that she has some connection all the same.

I am happy to give benefit of the doubt. But she's been with RTÉ as a contractor since 2011, in a role that is largely unnecessary, I am sure the Executive producer at RTÉ could ask the directors of the show for some long shots of the cast as they work, so that they can take a still from.

ButtersSuki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129599#Comment_121129599

Wasn’t aware she was Czech. My surname comment was somewhat tongue in cheek given the rampant nepotism and cronyism in RTÉ.

I genuinely wouldn’t have an issue with RTÉ having 1 (one) full-time photographer covering ALL of the station’s output across TV, Radio, outside broadcasts, press calls, launches (hopefully a thing of the past now) etc. I wouldn’t even argue with that person being paid €80,000 per annum, assuming of course they’re developing film in house themselves (yes, film is still used in some cases), and doing all the required digital preparation etc. I mean they’d be well paid but you’re assuming they’re working hard for that and putting in lots of non 9-5 hours. You could make a valid argument it’s a cost saving over hiring a photography firm for each specific requirement.

I do however have an issue with a show as minor as Fair City having a dedicated full-time (on part-time hours) photographer who does nothing but produce 16 stills a week for that show. Even if she’s paid €60,000 for just that, she is overpaid. If she’s getting €80,000 she’s on the pig’s back.

And given what these are required for it’s not high art. we’re not talking Herb Ritts level photography here. Someone with some basic level of photographic knowledge could take these shots with a relatively modest €700 DSLR camera. If you know your way around an iPhone 12 or above there are some incredible tools out there to make images taken on those appear as good as anything on a high-end DSLR. There’s iPhone photography courses now the cameras on same are so good.

As it stands it’s just another example of RTÉ overpaying.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129599#Comment_121129599

And the other question for RTE is, was the original contract tendered? Or below the threshold for that process.

So then roll forward to this contract, which is tendered. The person has effectively already been filling the role... who else is going to get the gig?

ButtersSuki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129599#Comment_121129599

The contractor since 2011 part makes me very uneasy from a HR perspective. She should be a full-time employee by now. She’d have a case there I suspect.

awec

The fact she is a contractor does change things somewhat.

Am I the only one who thinks 60k a year for a contracted photographer working 30 hours a week is not that bad? That's about 40 an hour, which I believe is significantly below what the going rate for a photographer would be.

I think if you held an event tomorrow and you wanted a photographer you'd be paying over double that hourly rate?

ButtersSuki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129729#Comment_121129729

Yeah but the guaranteed €80/€60k for 30 hours a week without having to go out and search for customers/clients makes it very attractive.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129729#Comment_121129729

I think the question is whether this money actually is warranted in terms of what it brings to RTE \ Fair City i.e. Do the photographs warrant that spend at all.

Is this the most efficient way to get some photographs of Fair City, bearing in mind other productions may need photograph work too.

Or would it make more sense to have some professional photographs via contract work and others done by different means.

Is this "standard industry practice"?

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129753#Comment_121129753

Well yes, but I imagine that's why she's charging what appears to be significantly below the market rate?

ButtersSuki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129776#Comment_121129776

Well She’s not setting the rate, the employer/RTÉ are. And that’s true for almost any profession/contractor position - as in if you’re creating a position for that work the rate per hour drops.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129729#Comment_121129729

That is the max rate from the initial press release from RTÉ defending the spend : -

The contract is guide price and is for a maximum of €60,000 per annum, or €240,000 over four years.

The successful photographer must:

• Deliver a minimum of 16 approved photograph stills in both high and low resolution to Fair City each week, for 50 weeks per year, as specified by RTÉ.
• Be on set or on location an average of 20 hours per week over the course of three days. Occasional weekend and night shift work maybe required.

€60 per hour according to them or €75 per photo

My issue really is the necessity for such a role.

RTÉ have spent the last decade complaining but they've never considered backing down from certain aspects of what they do. For example does the news department have a similar contract and is it required?

I'd like to see RTÉ skimp and save in areas where they can, TV is expensive to make, no one denies this but to ad to the expense?

hotmail.com

RTE have 1,800 staff and can't find anyone to take a few pictures.

Given that the station is broke, surely they can do without this and let a runner take the photographs.

It gives a sense of the bloated nature of RTE. Far too many people and very poor efficiency.

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129826#Comment_121129826

60 per hour is still very cheap.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129874#Comment_121129874

This conversation is getting a bit silly now. This is the national broadcaster and we're talking about one of their flagship shows, and people are talking as if a runner can just pop in with their phone and take a few snaps, like it's something easy that anyone could do.

Maybe they could get a few students in to do the filming, sure all they need to do is point it toward the actors. In fact, why even bother with actors, they're expensive too, maybe just get the students to do the acting as well.

We must be careful that a sense of objectivity is not lost here, and this just doesn't turn into nonsensical ranting about everything and anything to do with the national broadcaster.

PeadarCo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121128920#Comment_121128920

So you respond with insults. Are actually going to refute anything in my post.

For me this thread is not about RT it's about RTE management. RT contract is only a symptom. For me RT is just the tip of the iceberg. The only reason there is scandal at all is because for decades RTE have repeatedly paid their presenters over the odds. Offering RT a new contract of 170k is a clear admission of that. Joe Duffy and pretty much ever presenter at the station should expect pay cuts going forward. It's also an admission that RTEs managment has been incompetent for a long time.

Letting RTE management off the hook just means no change in RTE and in few years time we end up with another scandal. It's RTE management that allowed the situation with the barter account to arise, it's RTE management that have wasted millions on presenters(RT is not he only person to have received a "generous" salary) salaries over the last few decades. The 60k for a Fair City photographer comes directly from the culture that offered RT his large salary. Unless you change this culture the scandal will repeat again in future. Getting rid of RT doesn't hurt the people that are responsible for this culture. There needs to be consequences for the people responsible for managing RTE.

I could understand people's frustration with RT if he ran RTE but he didn't. People have to remember he was just an employee. If RTE management had remembered that their presenters were just employees,the current crisis would not have happened and RTE would be in far better shape.

humberklog

I'm not gonna defend RTE having 1 photographer solely for 1 programme. It sounds wasteful and daft at best.

But a pro photographer will deliver a professional product that's going to represent the wishes of the client. A second cousin of Lottie with "an expensive camera" is not going to deliver the same product as much I'm not going to fix the turbo on your Audi with a Lidl middle aisle ratchet set and a head full of Ed China.

BTW she's not developing negs. No pro working that gig could or would.

hotmail.com

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129974#Comment_121129974

The national broadcaster is millions in debt every year for many years and you think 60 euro an hour is cheap.

They're about to receive another handout from the tax payer.

The photographer is a symtom of the bloated nature of RTE. It has 165 grades. It's been getting away with this nonsense for too long.

No handouts to Virgin or Newstalk.

HerrKuehn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121130126#Comment_121130126

Do they even need to be producing Fair City at a 2016 cost of nearly 11m per year? Is it part of the public service remit? I think ultimately RTE needs to be either trimmed down massively and focus on the PS part, or split into 2 with commercial and public companies. The public one would get some of the license fee, the commercial one will fund itself in whatever way it wants.

ButtersSuki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129974#Comment_121129974

True it's not as easy as the previous poster is making it out to be; but equally it's not as difficult as you are making it out to be.

As I said, were it a full-time job covering ALL of RTE TV, Radio, Press calls, and launches etc., I'd be ok with it.

But this is one programme FFS. Is there another Late Late Show official photographer, one for the news, one for Nationwide, one for Maura and Daithi etc.? We only found out about this because of the timing of the advertisement. Given it's RTE, I'd be shocked if there's only one.

ButtersSuki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121130125#Comment_121130125

Well the comment on the negatives depends. Some occasions call for film.

Not going to go into the minutiae of the differences between digital and film as that would bore even me - and I'm interested in photography.

This type of role could and should easily fill all of its requirements digitally - not debating that at all. My comments on devveloping neagtives was related to if the role was a broader one encompassing all aspects of RTE, in which case there might - on occasion - be a need or a preference for film over digital.

hotmail.com

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121130189#Comment_121130189

Well I don't watch it myself but I would categorise Irish drama with Irish actors about Irish issues as part of public service broadcasting.

Clearly this doesn't excuse waste and inefficiencies.

HildaOgdenx

Just on the books thing, Tubridy is late to the party there too, imo.

Rick O'Shea (RTE Gold) 'runs The Rick O’Shea Book Club on Facebook with almost 40,000 members and recommends the Eason Must Reads lists 4 times a year with author Sinéad Moriarty. He presents the occasional Youtube author interview chat show and recommends books on his Twitter and Instagram feeds. He conducts public author interviews year round including in recent years at Listowel Writers Week, Cúirt, Ennis Book Club Festival, International Literature Festival Dublin, Dalkey Book Festival, Bram Stoker Festival, and Dublin Book Festival.'

And so on.

HerrKuehn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121130269#Comment_121130269

Well RTE has been continuing on as if nothing has changed in the past 20 years, but people consume media differently. A lot of the "services" provided by RTE may not be needed anymore. I don't watch terrestrial TV at all personally, the only time I use the RTE player is for the odd match.

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121130126#Comment_121130126

There is absolutely no comparison to be made between RTE and Virgin. RTE actually produce content, Virgin just buy content from ITV. It's en entirely different business model, their approach is just spend as little as possible on UK shows (particularly game shows) and fill their channels with ads. The more repeats of a single show the better. You would barely know that Virgin is an Irish tv channel.

It's easy to avoid spending money on PR stills for shows if you just don't produce any shows. And Virgin are still losing money doing it...

60 euro an hour for a photographer is "cheap" (or at least, in line with the market). Whether or not the photographer is required, or if RTE could use them in a more efficient way is an entirely different discussion.

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121130282#Comment_121130282

But, but, but.....didn't you know that our Ryan is the only person so educated that he reads books?

He is on a different level intellectually than the likes of plebs like me and you. Whatever he recommends is high brow, advanced level literature. The fact that he probably hasn't read them is irrelevant, just like what you're told to like. He is Capt Kindness, the educated one, who loves history and other things that make him sound above us.

He'll soon be banging out amazing level book podcasts from his state of the art home studio, so be prepared to be stunned.

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121130298#Comment_121130298

I think a lot of these services are legally obligated and RTE could not make cuts without changes in legislation. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

For example I think they are obliged to air on Saorview (terrestrial), it's not like they could decide it's a waste of money and just stop.

RTE have to play by different rules to everyone else.

Sheep breeder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121127825#Comment_121127825

Yes and hopefully put the turd name out of mind, for one who hasn’t watch the LLS in years till last Friday night and will watch from now onwards due to the new style of the show.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129974#Comment_121129974

With respect to you, the vast majority of those expected to pay the TV licence or broadcasting charge or whatever - will be on far less than €60 an hour. That's equivalent pro rata to €2400 a week or c €120K a year. OK, they've got to fund their business expenses out of that rate and pay for own pension etc etc but so do many others. To think that cheap, you'd want to be on €100 an hour or something like that and that's way above average earnings of the average pleb paying the licence.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129974#Comment_121129974

What is the business case for professional photos. Surely the top heavy management and admin of the public broadcaster might decide to get rid of one of their own.

Again here is a company this is broke and has been broke acording to themselves since 2011. Yet rather than employ a new script writer they go with a photographer.

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121130426#Comment_121130426

This is completely irrelevant. Photographers do not define their rates based on the income of RTE license fee payers.

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121130427#Comment_121130427

I don't know, I'm not defending this to be clear.

But there's a bit of hysteria here about a photographer being paid 60k, which when you look at the details, is not that outrageous. People are again focusing on the wrong things. "OMG how can a photographer possibly cost 60k, why can't some runner just do it???"

Like last week when everyone got distracted by the car allowances, now they're getting distracted by this. It's taking away from the real issues at RTE, and this thread is descending into a whinge-about-everything thread about RTE in general.

HerrKuehn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121130396#Comment_121130396

€220m is collected in license fees, the vast majority of that goes to RTE. RTE is still operating as if it is still one of only a few channels available in Ireland. I think we need to rethink public service broadcasting because whatever it is, it doesn't look much like what RTE is now.