The future of RTE after Tubsgate.

See link towards the bottom of the page https://www.rte.ie/eile/2023/1113/1416288-a-new-direction-for-rte/

That's fine, but the RTE Player isn't functional.

If programmes clash the +1 is an excellent option.

I would rather miss something completely that spend an hour and a half getting more and more frustrated trying to catch up with a fifty minute long programme.

I'd argue that neither RTÉ nor TG4 should have started with +1, BBC have no +1 channels.

I think RTÉ should have been allowed to progress RTÉ Mix/THREE, largely it would have contain much of the +1 but at a different time or on a different day, along with other classic programming and imports and some sports, largely RTÉ News provides a +1 service for News and Current Affairs on RTÉ ONE in any case. RTÉ Mix/THREE would largely have just drop those shows, with maybe Fair City and EastEnders repeated at 10pm.

TG4 initial plan for TG4 +1 was all new home produced shows would air an hour after broadcast on TG4 +1, while all imported programming would be replaced by classic TG4 archive programming.

Didn't the BBC want to replace BBC 3 with BBC 1 +1 a few years back?

Granted, it is just a point of view, I think if you try setting up from scratch you'd be on to a looser. Freed up space is really only an option for Sky, in that case.

And if you had read what I was saying it was suggesting the new owner by month 4 would have rebranded and changed the +1 services to stand alone ones, with the potential of making arrangement with RTÉ for some of their imported programming as part of the sale. It's just a though, much like closing them down is just as much of a thought.

True, like buying a bucket of smoke, pop radio stations appear to 10 to the penny, albeit with a national rather than regional licence. As you say with the +1's, why buy it, wait till RTE close it and then rent the space, there don't appear to be too many bidders out there. Maybe a potential sale item might be the 2rn infrastructure, not for tv but for phone and data masts. I am sure they are being used for that purpose now and do/ could provide a revenue stream for the owner in the future.

I largely agree, I don't want to see either sold. But I think over the last decade much of the problems with both lie with the Mismanagement of RTÉ, along with that debate over linear versus on demand, that debate is not help by RTÉ's management team.

If a sale of RTÉ2 did occur it would have to come with some programming e.g. Aussie Soaps, UEFA champions league rights, potential Six Nation Rights, Some first run BBC programming like EastEnders, with the rest moving over to either RTÉ ONE or RTÉ News.

2FM would have to reduce itself in size for a commercial operator to be interest, I'd argue that lack of cuts to 2FM have been a huge issue for RTÉ something they've not dealt with, rather thowning money away on the idea that it retains a young audience.

Moya Doherty is wrong about 2FM when you have nothing surrounding it, when you cutting Drama, not investing in Comedy and cutting young people's programming then you are loosing that Youth audience and 2FM in that situation doesn't really matter and as we have seen becomes redundant.

The acting chair of the BBC suggested at a conference today that a subscription type fee costing as much as £400 p a would be one of the alternative ways of funding the PSB, how would a similar figure go down here, what is PSB worth and what value do people put on it.

Whatever about the logistics, the BBC are exploring alternatives to the tv licence, with separate subs for tv, radio and news. It removes the legal requirement for a licence and an optional subscription makes the income stream unpredictable. How do other countries fund their PSB, what options are open to an Irish PSB or do we need one.

If it requires a paid subscription then is it really a PSB at all?

It's disgusting what the Tories have done to a lot of things but gutting the BBC is one of the worst. In the meantime it's produced the desired editorial effects though.

Is that to say you would be happy with general taxation being increased to pay for a PSB or where are cuts made to transfer funds to the PSB.

In a situation where a once opposition party, now in government, feels they weren't given good press by the PSB previously they decide to cut funding.

Theres no need to increase general taxation. Just pay from it from the existing pot.

There is 23% VAT on every TV sold, on every sky or virgin bill which goes to the government coffers. Why can that not be used to fund the PSB?

It's continual funding that is the issue. I worked in the tv trade many years ago, we could not keep up with demand for tv for Italia90, sales were through the floor for a couple of years after. Sky and Virgin are continually loosing tv customers, that's why they push bundles so much. What happens when that source of revenue drops or dries up. Its that same "government coffers" that funds housing, education, health, social welfare, transport, yes we have a tax surplus at the moment but look how much the figures have changed from last year.

Well yeah. Successive governments have refused to increase the licence fee (although more because this would be unpopular, rather than a specific beef with RTE it seems) add that to falling advertising income and, yes, plenty of mismanagement and it's no wonder RTE is heading for the rocks.

But increasing the licence fee and / or exchequer funding without reforming RTE is just rewarding failure.

Performative nonsense like shutting down digital radio, or the +1s, or taking a night off Fair City are really just rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

--- The transmission of Young Offenders will also be deferred until 2025.

How is there savings here? It'll be broadcast on BBC One anyway over the next few months.

It have a feeling that only a financial accounting thing, I think RTÉ still spend the money in the year of production but the cost is only incurred in the year of broadcast. I think it is similar to Amber but in that case I think RTÉ were the main / if no the only financier.

I wonder if RTÉ have asked the BBC to do the same, because I wouldn't have thought that RTÉ spend much on The Young Offenders its mainly a BBC commission and financed by them.

Much of this is very little, RTÉ are basically telling us that cost in RTÉ go up during the summer months, something that successive boards / leadership teams have failed to address.

Which Saturday night chat show is being cut in 2024?

I have a feeling that it could be Angela Scanlon's Ask Me Anything.

The Tommy Tiernan Show would probably be safe next year unless both are there for the chop.

Cutting back programming and +1s means a loss in advertising too. Are they trying to make it harder?

Yes, the benefit of advertising and sponsorship and business politics outweighs such idea.

As an aside remember virgin didn't screen a football match because it hadn't paid the license fee to screen the match according to sky.