Stop Paying Your RTE Licence?

What are you talking about? They had a great, balanced debate there the other day about immigration, where all of the panel agreed with each other on everything, which is how all good debates should go.

Exactly no TV no licence, simple.

And as a bonus you can continue to listen to your radio which doesn't require a licence.

I wouldn't be without a TV myself but it's just a personal preference.

The internet is very useful but contains a lot of misinformation.

You have to be careful and only use trustworthy sources.

FM radio is very versatile when you are out and about.

Should RTE (or any media) kowtow to far right agitators who create a "protest" for a new reason every few months?

3 years ago it was Covid, then they added masks, and then they were against the vaccines (now causing issues with utter fools not getting everyday vaccines) and this years flavour is immigration

The amount of misinformation these agitators spout out is quite unbelievable - but even worse is the very gullible fools that actually believe them.

The latest (and rather dangerous) statement was showing a convoy of 5 busses and stating that these were full of "military age men" (they love their agitatory descriptions), when the busses were full of YOUNG PRIMARY AGE SCHOOLCHILDREN returning from Norton stadium in Santry after a primary schools sports event. And it was rather amazing the amount of very very stupid people who actually believed the far right scumbag that they were immigrants. (and so what if they were - 1.3 million Irish born people live abroad and only 840,000 non Irish born people live here - another 460,000 before we have any right to complain

So no, RTE and the other media should not give the time of day to these scumbags

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Why should Irish people be forced to pay money to an organisation that insults them and their viewpoints?

Nobody is being forced to pay money to an organisation that insults them and their viewpoints, that’s not the basis upon which anyone is expected to pay for a license for a tv. If they still have a tv and they don’t want to pay a license for it, the easiest solution is just to get rid of the tv. Refusing to pay a licence for it simply means they get fined. If anyone has an issue with the content provided by RTE, there are actually avenues to address their complaints or concerns.

FWIW there’s plenty more RTE provides and funds than just current affairs programming where the panelists don’t reflect your views, and for the princely sum of €160 a year, they actually provide great value in terms of their overall output. Sure, they produce some absolute eye-watering stinkers too like the Toy Show musical, but they’re trying to cater for a much wider audience than just anyone’s particular personal tastes. There’s always premium subscription content if you want that level of curated content.

Paying the licence fee is not just all about news and entertainment, or even watching TV. There have been many important national issues exposed and detailed by RTE over the years, that would not have seen the light of day if the organisation did not exist.

That in itself is worth paying for, even if you never watched TV .... there literally is a much bigger picture to see when discussing the merits of the licence fee, including how many Irish online 'news sources' or social media outlets simply repeat or rewrite reports that originate from RTE.

As a TV station, I hardly ever watch RTE and there are some 'entertainment' programmes on it that should have been written off at the initial pitch meeting, but I rely heavily on it for a radio service and factual information and I appreciate the service it has provided in exposing major scandals that people in various governments down the years, would have preferred remain unknown.

Having that level of accountability is worth the licence fee to me. Of course there are those who don't trust it as a news source, but it can not be denied that they regularly lift the lid off issues that you would be waiting a long time for Newstalk or a website to uncover.

I pay for the licence because it's the law.

I don't watch, listen to, or visit the RTE website because none of it appeals to me.

This is how it is.

Nonsense as usual. Youtubers who cover news aren't a hive mind, some are right wing biased, some left, some try to be as impartial as possible.

The issue with RTE is that they don't report on issues honestly.

Could you give a few examples of RTE reports that have been dishonest?

RTÉ: Input coke, output woke.

So far we have established that selling your TV is a good way to avoid buying a TV licence.

All very straightforward and every individual has that choice.

The problem is if everyone did that there would be no money to run our Public Broadcasting Service.

What’s actually nonsense is the idea that content creators on YouTube are any more or less objective than RTE when the only comparison that can be made between the two is on the basis that they’re both dependent upon revenue from advertising. It’s nothing to do with YouTube content creators being any more or less of a hive mind than anyone in RTE. YouTube and any other social media platforms have to adhere to a set of standards the same way as RTE does.

Broadcasting standards means RTE are limited in scope in the same way as content creators on YouTube are limited in scope by the three strikes and other restrictions imposed by YouTube and their parent company Alphabet, who don’t care about left or right wing anything, they only care about any threat to their revenue streams.

RTE choosing not to provide the kind of content the OP likes doesn’t in any way have any impact on the idea of democracy. The OP is free to publish their own opinions and express their own views while adhering to Irish laws which place the same limitations on everyone’s freedom of expression. They’re just not entitled to a platform, and the license fee isn’t to provide RTE with a platform either. Their status as the national broadcaster is what gives anyone in RTE their platform. As you’ve pointed out above, the licence fee isn’t paid on the basis of funding RTE, it’s for being in possession of a tv on the premises. Getting rid of the tv wouldn’t have any impact on RTE, it would simply mean the OP doesn’t have to pay a licence for something they don’t have, and not paying their licence for a tv which is still in their possession only leads to the possibility of creating a loss for themselves in terms of being fined for being in breach of Irish law.