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

That's news to me.

She did work for Jaguar.

Nevin Maguire has a free car from Volkswagen.

Diarmuid Gavin is a brand ambassador for Rover.

etc. etc.

The question is are these arrangements in breach of any of their contracts?

I'm not sure why car companies bother with celebrity endorsements my self but I guess their advertising departments know what they are doing.

I certainly wouldn't buy a car because a celebrity says it's good.

I don't care because I know exactly how small a fraction of a TV licence goes towards paying RT's salary.

In short I have more to worry about than someone else's pay when I pay so little of it.

Get google to pay for RTE's content... and ' a deal being discussed with facebook'...

So Dee is literally on a wing and a prayer. Ain't no way in hell she'll get Google to pay her. Google can just say 'we'll get the content from a competitor'.

She's being ridiculous.

Let’s not notice the transfer of the national symphony from RTÉ to national concert hall. Dee is standing behind Martin after the announcement. So a big saving for RTÉ. Saving of €8mil right there.

Probably a few passengers there though,

Is it clear what alternative funding model RTE top brass favour?

The 'reliable' bit suggests they are leaning towards direct exchequer funding.

I see that Moya Doherty has been calling for national debate on the future of RTE - let's go and do that (properly) first then...

I have been saying that for some time on here and now I find myself in agreement with Moya Doherty.

I didn't see that coming but a good idea is a good idea no matter who has it.

That's exactly what we need to do, decide what we want and then how to pay for it.

I hope they will go for direct funding because it is the most efficient way to do it.

No collection costs, no chasing people and TV free at point of use like radio is today.

You have to laugh when Dee complains about the loophole of those 15% who don't have a TV so don't need to pay a licence fee. She thinks they're watching RTÉ on their computers? Like heck, the only thing anyone can view on Rté player is adverts. Endless adverts.

I'd like to hear Moya's thoughts on how this 'thorough national debate' would take place and between which parties. Also, how would she envisage that all the little people around the country get their say? Not the 'Have your say' PR stunt which returned 10k submissions.

Perhaps she might suggest - that at the next referendum/GE, there are a few Q's at he end of the polling card - A bit like the options in the poll at the start of this thread (those %'s are a complete mess since the boards change btw)

Moya would have lots and lots of 'food for thought' for a debate when the results came in.

Public Service Broadcasting Moya. This does not mean RTE can throw any ol sh!te at the public and run it like their own personal fiefdom, which seems to be RTE's interpretation of it.

It's not a misconception.

RTE is 100% state owned, it has no other shareholder other than the Government who hold it in trust for the citizens.

Of course a TV Licence doesn't confer voting rights any more than Motor Tax gives you a direct say in which roads will be upgraded.

Intel is a multi national corporation which is in no way relevant to the discussion on RTE.

Sean Lemass passed away in 1971. Things have changed over 50 years, for instance the BAI was set up in 2009.

Quickly getting back to matters at hand - Pa ElGrande is right, everyone needs to take up the matter of RTE with the Government. It's only when politicans are put under pressure by the people that elect them (and more importantly, can also make them redundant), will we see any change for better!

Dee Forbes and her gang have been cupping away at the Government for quite a while now. If the Government doesn't come under more serve pressure from the outbox, then they'll just give Dee and RTE what they want, to get them off their backs.

Don't leave it to someone else - everyone needs to put their local politicans under pressure

So no ads?

Re: RTE is 100% state owned, it has no other shareholder other than the Government who hold it in trust for the citizens.

Exactly, the correct communication channel for the public when it comes to public service broadcasting charter is the Irish government. In real terms for voters* this means engaging your local TD or the minister with the portfolio for RTE.

Only TDs and the Minister with communications portfolio are responsible for the charter that RTE operates under and these are the only group that the RTE executive answer to for their performance under the charter (or lack of it). The RTE executive exists to manage service contracts and operational resources under a charter granted by the government.

The BAI (BCI, ITRC before them) are consultants appointed by the government, their function is presumably to provide expert opinion and reports to the minister and to oversee direction from said minister in relation to their brief.

Going by the complaints against RTE the issue revolves around the charter they operate under which seems to lack suitable quality metrics under which they can be measured and held accountable. This is presumably the reason they can claim that X% of their output is as Gaeilge plus other quotas, the fact that only the cat is watching or it is a repeat does not matter they have met their service obligation under the charter. I don't watch or listen to RTE and I have no idea how their performance is measured.

Then if the RTE executive are meeting their obligations under the charter granted to them as defined and measured by the government, How does the voting public even know it is receiving poor service? We might conclude the current state of RTE is a lesser of two evils and its performance is an acceptable trade-off for scarce tax revenue.

* non-voters are ignored unless there is a deal on the table that works to said TDs advantage.

No I don't.

This is a quote from my earlier post today -

The "national debate" would include those who wish to see RTE closed down and those who think it is ok as it is and every point of view in between.

I have no problem with an open debate on the future of Public Service Broadcasting.

However unlike a lot of posters here I reject the "sack someone, cut someone's pay, close something down, sell something off" arguments that are appearing here almost daily.

Everything should be on the table in the context of an agreed, planned move forward.

Possibly but it would mean more public money being invested though we don't know the bill until we decide what sort of PBS we want.

I also believe that Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) has an important part to play - but RTE aren't delving exclusive PSB, in fact it only represents a minute percentage of what they are doing, and I'm not happy letting them continue squandering tens of millions on non core PSB !

I think there is a lot of support for a publicly owned PSB but as you say times have changed and the future is uncertain.

All the more reason to decide what the country wants a PSB to look like like.

News and current affairs, sport, culture, music and drama are the areas I consider to be at the core. Of course there are others also.

The piece about the IT is interesting and of course they are a Trust rather than a purely commercial company and unlikely to be taken over by outside interests.

I'm not sure they want to get into broadcasting but some sort of synergy between them and a PSB could be fruitful.