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

I laughed me bollix off when you posted the blurb about the 'kitchen table' market.I never heard this term before but it says it all. The literal kitchen table market must be on average 80 years old now. The term reminds me of school mornings in 1983 when I was 9 years old and coming down to the breakfast table with a head on me. The father would have a transistor radio on and I would despair when I heard the ridiculous jingle of whatever show (maybe Derek Davies) they would listen to. It's burned into my memory in a hilarious way. It might be p^ssing down outside in mid November and this summer jingle would suddenly come on followed by the Nordie accent of Davies which didn't exactly communicate sunshine..

The so called kitchen table market in many parts of the country have been commuter markets for decades now. And that market is competing with pod-casters etc for at least a decade now. The consumer in Ireland has 100% sovereignty over what they listen to but RTE Still gets to charge us with this ridiculous fee on penalty of prison.

When you look at things like the toy show I suddenly wonder who actually watches it? I suspect its main audience could be people in their 40s and 50s. I showed it to my kids here in the Netherlands last Christmas and they were underwhelmed by it. There is just too much choice now.

I like television for the reason that there is a sense that I am interacting with human beings that might be using a camera to record and broadcast a dialogue between other human beings to me. However that element of broadcasting is something younger generations didn't grow up with so much, so won't miss. And what is left of it could be maintained at a fraction of the revenue generated by the license fee.

I spent some time traveling in the Baltic states about 15 years ago.The countries were still rife with corruption. I remember once one of my Lithuanian friends brought me to her brothers place of work where he was a receptionist for this PR type firm. Their equivalent of say Miriam O' Callaghan came along while I was there. She was a nobody who thought she was a somebody. If she had any real talent she would have been working in St. Petersburg or maybe Berlin and It immediately made me think of of RTE. Honest to God, when they are using terms like 'kitchen table' market they are on the verge of bring back 'Going Strong'.

what the fuurk are "cultural events of scale" ? and will the poor "talent" be sent to exile in cork?

Any word of charges being pressed for the fraudulent accounting of payments and waste of taxpayers money giving golden handshakes etc, the whole thing stinks,,dee must know where the bodies are buried.

And now I recall my late mother listening to harbour hotel in the mid 80's as I had lunch at home in secondary school.

Even then I was thinking wtf? People like this.....

Like fingers Fingleton and Anglo Fitzy, Forbes will balls this out in her locality not giving a pish.

So looks like a done deal

There is also a push within Government to get Revenue to collect the TV licence instead of An Post. However, ministers are worried about the political optics of it being perceived as a new tax as the country goes to the polls.

I can't believe they would leave the collection to An Post, isn't that what facilitates so much evasion

However,

privately, most in Government acknowledge these reforms will not be implemented by the next general election.

Still 100% RTÉ but the producer/director from Indo company was brought in from PK's company. He does a number other shows for RTÉ including Crimecall, which is outsourced to them.