Do RTE Respond to Criticism?

Round Cable

One night after looking at BBC 1 and UTV I saw quite clearly that Irish television is about a decade behind so I wrote the following to RTE:

As a licence fee payer I have two questions. 1) Why are RTE and foreign programming not displayed in widescreen, as they are on U.K. channels, 2) Putting the RTE logo on the screen, in an age of digital TV there is no reason for these logos as using one button on a remote control can determine the channel and I find it unslightly. I feel my 25 years of paying a licence fee unjustified and disappointed that when other broadcasters take one step forward RTE seem to be taking two back.

Nearly two months later and no word back, did I strike a nerve?

Greenman

Who did you write/e-mail?

Round Cable

I emailed info@rte.ie

Elmo

I have got replies from them.

Their whole branding thing is a bit out of hand all right.

As for widescreen I would say that most people don't care. However I have viewed RTE One in widescreen and it automatically goes to the ordiary screen type which is highly annoying, but then I dont have a widescreen TV.

As for the dogs, Other then BBC 1, BBC 2, UTV and C4 name another channel that does not use DOGS?

Unfortunately I cann't and that I guess that is RTE's reasoning, I don't like it either. And not everyone has Digital TV, I think it more important that we all have access to DTV. not just sky viewers.

Five in the UK doesn't use dogs, so I guess that means all the UK terrestrials do not use them

Greenman

I emailed info@rte.ie

Try http://www.rte.ie/about/contact/index.html I find they normally reply but nothing changes!! I feel its a "don't rock the boat organisation" I just want a TARA TV FTA station!!!

PK - the king

Five in the UK DOES use DOGS. It's the numeral 5, surrounded by a circle. The image is a light grey. However, if you're watching Five on a 4:3 tv, you won't see it because the Pan&Scan function cuts it off (just like E4's logo). The DOGS logo is annoying. We pay a substantial amount in licence fee - I don't need some stupid logo telling me what channel I'm watching!!!

I think it's also ridiculous that in the digital age, RTE don't provide widescreen broadcasts. Even if they were to only broadcast widescreen on satellite, as sky and ntl:digital source those channels from the sky satellite. I e-mailed them once, and they came back with a load of waffle about it being too expensive to upgrade our transmitters. That's a load of crap. Just update the satellite transmission!!!

As for the licence fee - what a rip off!!! doesn't look too well now, though - Sunday Times has a damning report about all the earnings of RTE presenters. Shocker.

Originally posted by PK - the king
Five in the UK DOES use DOGS. It's the numeral 5, surrounded by a circle. The image is a light grey. However, if you're watching Five on a 4:3 tv, you won't see it because the Pan&Scan function cuts it off (just like E4's logo).

Channel five does not use dogs and hasn't used them in at least a year or since they re-branded as "five"
The pan and scan has no dog to cut out because it aint there anymore.
I have five both on terrestrial aerial and via my digibox so I should know

mickeyboymel

Agreed, Five were the only UK terrestrial channel to use a dog since their start and up until they changed their name from Channel5 to Five.

This was probably to make the channel stand out a bit as they were the only terrestrial channel broadcasting on Satellite at the time (old Analog days)

Round Cable

After three months I get this crappy responce:

Apologies for the delay in responding to your query.

However, you are probably aware that there is no
accepted / agreed International widescreen format.
BBC and Sky use a widescreen 16:9 and some of ITV is
also part 16:9. RTÉ does produce some programmes in
this format but RTÉ's network does not support this
16:9 ratio.

The on-screen branding of the RTÉ channels was a
management decision taken last year in order to
highlight RTÉ's presence in the multi-channel
environment in which RTÉ now operates.

Go Figure!

Originally posted by Round Cable
After three months I get this crappy responce:

Apologies for the delay in responding to your query.

However, you are probably aware that there is no
accepted / agreed International widescreen format.
BBC and Sky use a widescreen 16:9 and some of ITV is
also part 16:9. RTÉ does produce some programmes in
this format but RTÉ's network does not support this
16:9 ratio.

It really pisses me off how RTE blame everybody but themselves. They should have chosen the same widescreen format as the British channels years ago and introduced it. They are a disgrace and an embarrasment compared with their international rivals.

ShaneOC

I received the exact same widescreen response from them. However as was noted here recently, RTÉ have been mucking about with widescreen broadcasts on Sky digital. While watching the west wing a few weeks ago, it was broadcast in anamorphic widescreen for a few minutes before going back to the usual black bars format.