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RTE Guide has skyrocketed in price

  • 13-10-2024 4:20pm
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 603 ✭✭✭Shan Doras


    The RTE Guide has gone up 50c to €2.90c , TV Now went up a much more modest 10c to €1.75.



«1

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,099 ✭✭✭iseegirls


    The Christmas Guide will probably cost 10euro so.

    Haven't bought it in a long time. Join your local library, and get access to Borrow Box with your library card, and the edition is there for free every week.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 36,563 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    I can't imagine who still buys the RTE Guide. They tried to sell it off but there were no takers.

    I'm partial to your abracadabra,

    I'm raptured by the joy of it all.



  • Site Banned Posts: 1,409 ✭✭✭Luna84
    Mentally Insane User


    Especially when you can go online and find out what's on for free. I get the Christmas one though as it's nice to read it.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 603 ✭✭✭Shan Doras


    I've seen with my own eyes who still buys it weekly, Oaps who collect their pension in cash at the post office on a Friday buy it afterwards along with the local paper, basically its average reader is about 83 years of age, so it's easy to figure out the lack of buyers. It has 10 years left if lucky



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 36,563 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    I'm partial to your abracadabra,

    I'm raptured by the joy of it all.



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  • Posts: 0 ✭✭ Louis Itchy Peacock


    Until you realise its basically the same every year.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 103 ✭✭hibble


    So are the programmes.... Killinascully anyone?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13 autogrow


    why buy that muck ?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 36,563 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    The target audience might not realise this 😶

    Post edited by Boards.ie: Mike on

    I'm partial to your abracadabra,

    I'm raptured by the joy of it all.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5 Ruadhri Downes


    The Christmas RTE Guide costs €5.80, very poor value when the TV Now equivalent Christmas edition is 2.95€



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,938 ✭✭✭StevenToast


    The RTE Guide still exists....how and why...

    Surely loss making...should be binned

    "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining." - Fletcher



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,337 ✭✭✭standardg60


    Agreed, cannot believe it still exists, every edition is a 'feature' of a merry go round of the staff, literally everyone who's ever appeared on rte has been on the front page.

    Hard to believe it only contained rte listings for years when every newspaper carried BBC and ITV and satellite listings. It's worthless, but habits are hard died.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,640 ✭✭✭✭elperello


    According to RTE it's Ireland's best selling magazine.

    They claim about 250,000 readers per issue.

    Sales have been in steady decline for some years.

    I haven't bought it for years.

    I suppose as long as it can wash it's face there is no harm in it continuing.

    https://mediasales.rte.ie/solutions/rte-guide/#:~:text=RTE%20Guide%20remains%20Ireland's%20largest,weekly%20buy%20in%20Irish%20Households.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,191 ✭✭✭✭Seve OB


    I picked it up at the till in Centra today….. for nostalgia purposes really, was always good for Christmas tele in fairness

    Girl scanned it and it was €5.80.

    It's still at the checkout in Centra



  • Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 12,252 Mod ✭✭✭✭icdg


    UK seven day listings magazines were regulated at the time - basically only the Radio Times were allowed carry BBC listings and only the TV Times were allowed carry ITV and Channel 4 listings. It’s hard to believe now but if you wanted seven day listings for all four UK terrestrials you had to buy both and if you wanted RTE listings then you had the RTE Guide on top of that. This only ended in 1991 when ITV was being restructured.

    TLDR it wasn’t RTE’s fault.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,337 ✭✭✭standardg60


    Yes i remember the big hullabaloo at the time and the announcements from the publications that they would carry all listings, but was it ever actually regulated or was it purely down to the individual broadcasters not sharing their info? Certainly at the same time we had a door to door seller who simply collated the info from each and sold a tv journal for way less than the cost of all 3, where are the radio and tv times now?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,828 ✭✭✭✭road_high


    I can understand people buying it for nostalgia and in the 90s it was as much a part of Christmas as the turkey or Cadbury roses. But no, I wouldn’t spend €6 on it- don’t watch much tv and I’d never read it.
    I always remember they used have a great prize at Christmas- win a new Opel Astra and one for the charity of your choice



  • Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 12,252 Mod ✭✭✭✭icdg


    Legally speaking, the position was that RTE, BBC Enterprises (predecessors of the current BBC Studios) and ITP (the company jointly owned by the ITV companies which at the time published the TV Times) each held copyright in the tv listings and each held to the strict position that they would only license these to third parties on a daily basis and not weekly.

    Vincent Browne published a tv listings magazine in breach of copyright and was sued over it by the three copyright holders. The magazine went under but the case went to the ECJ and he won and that is one of the reasons deregulation occurred. (Not because the listings weren’t copyright, but because the three broadcasters were acting in restraint of trade by refusing to license them on a seven day basis).



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 336 ✭✭exiledawaynothere


    that’s genuinely interesting. Vincent Brown did have his moments.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,093 ✭✭✭yagan


    Up until she died a couple of years ago the mother in law bought it every week and planned out her viewing for the week and then did the puzzles. I kinda messed up her TV routine by introducing her to the rosary live streamed from Lourdes and Knock on her phone during the pandemic. But yeah, a certain demographic close to life support is keeping it going.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 573 ✭✭✭Jim Herring


    The number of readers is meaningless though:

    “RTE Guide remains Ireland’s largest selling magazine with a circulation figure of 32,510 (Jan - Dec 2022).”

    That’s 2 years ago, must be well under 30,000 now, but presumably still profitable for them.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,828 ✭✭✭✭road_high


    It’s hard to believe that many go into a shop every week and buy that thing. Clearly plenty of people with money to waste but in saying that it’s not expensive for a magazine these days at what €2.95?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,095 ✭✭✭✭Akrasia




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 36,563 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    I'm partial to your abracadabra,

    I'm raptured by the joy of it all.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 34,901 ✭✭✭✭odyssey06


    The Radio Times and TV Times still on the magazine shelves in Dublin supermarkets at least…
    RT supposed to readership of a million in the UK.

    "To follow knowledge like a sinking star..." (Tennyson's Ulysses)



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,974 ✭✭✭✭Fr Tod Umptious


    Old and all as the demographics of boards.ie has gotten I still don't think the posters here are the demographic for buying the RTE Guide.

    So what if the EPG is free, some people prefer to use the magazine.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,957 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    Alzheimer's is what's keeping it going.

    Same articles slightly changed up with same RTE carousel of "stars", same cookery slots with Skeehan or one of the Allens.



  • Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 12,252 Mod ✭✭✭✭icdg


    There are some comments on this thread which are now crossing the line into ageism and anti older people and in one case into demonising suffers of mental illness.

    It’s okay to have a thread on the place of television listings magazines in the streaming age, but the ageist comments have to stop now or the thread gets closed.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5 Ruadhri Downes


    Long before everyone had an EPG, TV schedules had all become very stripped and standardised on every channel since about the early 00s, Even RTE One, i.e weeknights Nationwide, Eastenders, Fair city cooking/makeover shows.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,640 ✭✭✭✭elperello


    I find this site very useful.

    Free to anyone with a smartphone.

    https://entertainment.ie/tv/



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 123 ✭✭RAKM


    I've just turned 60. Not sure if that makes me old. I've been getting TV Times for about 20 yrs since I dropped cable TV. Used to be known as piped TV. I went FTA then and got TVT cos it had ITV 3 and 4 listings but also gave BBC Wales variations which was good for rugby progs and other timings of progs on very late on BBC NI. I read a few articles which are shorter than RT. I do prefer reading a mag on the kitchen table than scanning the epg on a screen....and the odd time I mark a prog on the page.



  • Site Banned Posts: 1,409 ✭✭✭Luna84
    Mentally Insane User


    Funny you should say that. A few months ago on some forum on here someone called it cable and I was like where are you from and they said Dublin and I said I'm from Dublin and we always called it the pipe. I remember as a kid we would be asking people do you have the pipe. They all ganged up on me and said it was called cablelink not pipelink. So it was called cable. I left it at that.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,661 ✭✭✭pureza


    indeed you can still get the Wales editions of both in Easons in Arklow



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,337 ✭✭✭standardg60


    Yep always called it the pipe too, 'the pipe is gone' being a rather regular phrase when the signal went.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,066 ✭✭✭✭Wishbone Ash


    This.

    My father is 89. He doesn't buy a daily newspaper. He doesn't use the internet. He doesn't have a smartphone (or any mobile phone).He doesn't have an email address, a credit card, a passport or a driving licence. He wouldn't have a notion of what EPG is. He likes watching the telly and likes the RTE Guide at Christmas. What harm is there in that?

    (Although he does complain about the same sh!te being on all the time, particularly Mrs Brown's Boys which he can't stand).



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 123 ✭✭RAKM


    Luna 84. I'd have jumped to your defence. It was definitely piped TV. I'd say it stopped being called that around 1980.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,640 ✭✭✭✭elperello


    Absolutely no harm at all.

    As long as the RTE Guide can turn a profit it will be there for him.

    Long may he enjoy it.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,518 ✭✭✭galtee boy


    Was in Easons in Cork today, Christmas Radio Times was marked at £5.95 sterling and €9.75 euro, what an absolute rip off.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,568 ✭✭✭DublinWriter


    It's on a complete hiding to nothing as it's basically old print media supplementing old linear broadcast media.

    I'm in my mid 50's myself, but I haven't watched broadcast TV in many years. I don't know many of my generation who watch either. Like "Ireland's Own", it's demographic are gradually dying off.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,552 ✭✭✭Quantum Erasure


    Hard to believe it only contained rte listings for years

    That must be 30 years ago or more,



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,552 ✭✭✭Quantum Erasure


    My father is 89. He doesn't buy a daily newspaper. He doesn't use the internet. He doesn't have a smartphone (or any mobile phone).He doesn't have an email address, a credit card, a passport or a driving licence. He wouldn't have a notion of what EPG is.

    He must have led a very sheltered life, the vast majority of 90 year olds would have most of the above



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,132 ✭✭✭Photobox


    It was 'the pipe' for us too and I grew up in the south east, we also got HTV, which was the Welsh version of UTV, most of the shows were in Welsh, got to know the names of Welsh towns and Cities though! still remember some of the presenters.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 34,901 ✭✭✭✭odyssey06


    I notice a lot of copies still unsold in shops around the place.

    "To follow knowledge like a sinking star..." (Tennyson's Ulysses)



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,099 ✭✭✭iseegirls


    Surprised they don't sell them off for 1euro once the first few days of the guide elapses.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,483 ✭✭✭dalyboy




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,790 ✭✭✭JVince


    Cable? Piped?

    You must be talking about RTE Relays!!!

    Mid 70's before cable link took over.

    RTE guide is a bit like Ireland's own. Has a certain market who like the familiarity of it.

    But their claim of 250,000 readership is just laughable on sales of about 30,000. They must still use a calculation from the 70's when most families consisted of 7-10 people.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,420 ✭✭✭appledrop


    I buy the Rte guide every Christmas and I'm not that old! I'd never buy it any other time as all TV listing's for the week are on weekend supplements in weekend paper.

    I wouldn't watch that much T.V normally, with 2 young kids rare that I'd have time to watch a programme when it's actually broadcast, Netflix etc much better can put a progra.me on when it suits.

    However it's great for picking out the gems over Christmas, watched the 1970s Charlie and Chocolate Factory with 8 year old over Christmas and he thought it was great!

    Years ago I'd buy it weeks before Christmas and have my highlighters out marking all the things I wanted to watch, back when subscription channels didn't exist🤣



  • Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 12,252 Mod ✭✭✭✭icdg


    Can we please drop the age angle please. Final warning.



  • Posts: 4,214 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    I still buy the Christmas RTE Guide out of nostalgia. Price doesn't bother me.

    Grew up in south east so could get S4C and HTV on the "piped" TV.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8 fogeke78


    Actually what really made the sale of the RTE Guide unviable for another publisher was "TUPE" which are rules and regulations about having to keep employees of a taken over business on the same deal as they always had.



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