RTÉ Weather Sponsorship Debacle

Telefís

People may have noticed the missing sponsorship stings for RTÉ Weather over the past few days, disappearing around Wednesday or Thursday of last week. This is due to the ending of the current €1 million per annum deal with Eircom, and indeed a longer-term relationship between the former state telecoms company and RTÉ that spanned no less than 17 years.
So right now we're getting a very rare glimpse into how things look without sponsorship - i.e. very neat and tidy

The 1st of July is the start date for the new two-year sponsorship deal, however the tendering process for a new sponsor was not without its problems, ending up in the High Court.
RTÉ invited tenders from companies for the contract, with a new minimum rate set at €1.25 million pa. Being such a lucrative deal, four different companies expressed interest, two of which were Glanbia and Smart Telecom. These four firms were then asked to submit sealed bids, with the contract going to the highest bidder: the contract was awarded to Glanbia at a whopping €1,595,500 pa for a minimum of two years.
However Smart then brought RTÉ to the High Court, claiming that its offer of 5% above the highest price of any other bidder ought to have won. They lost.
Mr Justice Kelly's judgement makes for interesting reading:

http://www.courts.ie/judgments.nsf/09859e7a3f34669680256ef3004a27de/1a0da9e1971785dc8025718e0051bf24?OpenDocument

Phen

I had no idea that the weather sponsorship was worth so much. €1,590,000? Thats unbelievable. Interesting though seeing the weather with no sponsorship stings. And a new sponsor might mean more interesting stings than the names of random places in the middle of nowhere being read out.

DMC

When you factor in that it will be shown 4 or 5 times a day, before and after an item that gets huge viewership and exposure, it's still a small amount, I reckon.

byte

I agree with DMC it seems a good enough deal to me.

Were Eircom one of the 4 in the bidding for the deal? Or did they just have enough?

Telefís

No, Eircom have had enough, saying the sponsorship has 'run its course'. This includes the sponsoring of TV3's weather.

Agreed that the figure is not astronomical, but is nonetheless substantial in contrast with the former €1 million pa. Other deals done with RTÉ Radio for news and weather stings have been along similar lines.

byte

I wonder when TV3's Sponorship deal with Eircom ceases.

watty

Some of the Eircom sponsership was actually illegal too. But that's another story.

DMC

byte wrote:

I wonder when TV3's Sponorship deal with Eircom ceases.

It already has, Smart Telecom have started on TV3's weather now, and its the same campaign as seen on Sky News Ireland.

Incidently, back to the bid, its interesting that RTÉ did take Glanbia, but in a tender process involving a semi-state, its no wonder that they accepted the top cash bid, rather than a speculative bid that Smart Telecom tabled. As proven.

Telefís

watty wrote:

Some of the Eircom sponsership was actually illegal too. But that's another story.

Indeed. In fact that's the very reason I looked this up, deeming their last set of broadband stings to be very much so of the advertisment variety and much less sponsorship. I was wondering if they had been pulled such was their commerical nature, and that RTÉ were left with no stings for a few weeks while a new batch was hastily composed.

Glanbia ought to be very careful. Also, here's hoping they produce a polished set of stings - none of the typical muck RTÉ churns out for many of its sponsored programmes.

JohnC.

Could eircom also be on shaky ground with a new Broadband ad I heard on Monday on the radio encouraging you to get broadband so you can download your favourite TV shows before they are shown here. Is that not piracy?

Mossy Monk

jesus, are you for real?

that is indeed piracy

JohnC.

I am for real. I've only heard it once so far, on RTÉ Radio 1.

Telefís

Not at all - some US programmes are made available on the internet before being broadcast in Europe as far as I know. Was Lost not one of them?

Mossy Monk

available to download in Ireland legally? do tell me where

SPDUB

Mossy Monk wrote:

available to download in Ireland legally? do tell me where

There was a loophole in Itunes when it launched in the US that if you had an American credit card you could download material even if you were based in Ireland like the the Irish Times Karlin Lillington

I don't know if that loophole still exists and even if it did how legal it would be to download TV shows from the US Itunes service

bk

There are many TV shows legally available on the internet. For instance many news channels stream their coverage around the world. RTE do.

Mossy Monk

i know that, i am on about sites that allow you to legally download US tv shows before they air in Europe

iTunes doesnt allow you to do that anymore

flogen

@ bk, besides Mossy's point about it being before Europe no Irish channel broadcasts imported programming yet (obvious rights issues and they've yet to implement any kind of IP block etc.); so you can watch old Prime Time on RTÉ from anywhere, but not, say Scrubs or The Sopranos.

Same with TG4 and their new service, it's homegrown content only by the looks of things

Telefís

Legally you say Mossy? - ah, well then......




No as mentioned above, certain services did allow you to do this, as did with 'programme sharing', something of a grey area I have since learned
Just a relative got lots of incredible quality downloads of US programmes via the latter - I assumed it was legit given the amount of people I've heard doing it, but it doesn't seem to be fully above board...

So what's the exact wording of the Eircom ad Kahless do you know?

SPDUB

Telef&#237 wrote: »

Legally you say Mossy? - ah, well then......




So what's the exact wording of the Eircom ad Kahless do you know?

Here's a copy of the ad from Thursday the 29th Morning Ireland at about 815am

http://rapidshare.de/files/24512827/Eircom_Ad.wma.html

scroll down and select the free option

flogen

SPDUB wrote:

Here's a copy of the ad from Thursday the 29th Morning Ireland at about 815am

http://rapidshare.de/files/24512827/Eircom_Ad.wma.html

scroll down and select the free option

Ha! Brilliant...
anyone for a mass letter writing campaign to the relevant complaint groups in relation to this? It is false advertising at best, and incitement to commit a crime at worst.

Telefís

Well they do say www.eircom.net rather than the internet in general, though saying that I can't find much on their site other than this page...

http://home.eircom.net/broadband/entertainment/movies/

Cleary this is what they mean - essentially trailers :rolleyes:


My relative says Channel 4 used to permit the downloading of certain programmes, and also that there's a huge 'industry' in programme sharing on the internet - a grey area at the minute. Seemigly programmes are available to download in the US are then transferred individually to others elsewhere via file sharing.

bk

ISP's have always known that the sharing of music and video on the internet is the number one reason why people sign up for BB. If piracy didn't happen then the majority of people wouldn't bother to get BB. The ISP's know this and they have always turned a blind eye to it, if they stop it they will only put themselves out of business.

There is a great article abut the struggle between ISPs and the content industry here:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/24/iptv_vod_content/

BTW I am not a lawyer, but in Ireland I don't believe it is illegal to receive copyrighted goods without permission (download), only to distribute (upload).

BBTW I have heard of people who have gotten rid of their TV and now download all their favourite TV shows when they are shown in the US using Bittorent, etc.

flogen

bk wrote:

ISP's have always known that the sharing of music and video on the internet is the number one reason why people sign up for BB. If piracy didn't happen then the majority of people wouldn't bother to get BB. The ISP's know this and they have always turned a blind eye to it, if they stop it they will only put themselves out of business.

It's one thing to turn a blind eye, but a whole other ball game to encourage and promote it

BTW I am not a lawyer, but in Ireland I don't believe it is illegal to receive copyrighted goods without permission (download), only to distribute (upload).

Both are illegal, on the music-side of things IRMA are only pursuing uploaders at the moment which may have caused some confusion on the legal situation.

Mossy Monk

thats true. i know of 4 myself who have gotten rid of the tv

frankly i am watching tv myself less and less these days

Our man in Havana

Heard that ad on the radio on yesterday. Couldn't believe my ears. WTF were they thinking? The mind boggles.