RTE Revamp 2006

cianclarke

The only revamping I want to see of RTE is the website. The fact that they publish prime time online is really *great*, as I don't watch much TV - an hour a week maybe. It's brillient that they publish plenty online, but I'd like to see them put a little more effort into it.

First, the quality of prime time real audio broadcasts can be seriously sketchy at times. Offer a higher res version, as well as the standard current res. Improve the quality.

Second, and most importantly - put a proper effort into their online news service. Firstly, get rid of those awful thumbnail pictures on the right and put some decent photos which can be enlarged to go with each news article. Consider more than one photo.
Less typo's, I've seen some seriously unprofessional stuff.

Finally, have their RSS feeds links go to the standard news page with photos, rather than one without.

RTÉ offer a great news service online, but it does need a little tweaking...

L1011

ateam wrote:

And how many people do you see watching them?? Normally the volume is off anyway. The figures are not misleading.

Quite a few actually. And the sound usually isn't off except when they're in a news agent

The BARB figures are calculated for homes only. Look at CNBC Europes UK figures - oh wait, they left BARB because it was returning "low but not none" every month. And yet CNBC is probably the most watched channel in businesses. They are inherently inaccurate for any channel which has more viewers out of the home than in it.

Elmo

In additon, I would like to know where you're getting the figures on the amount spent on imported programmes. And even if it is that much, so what! RTE 2 are excellent at showing the American series first such as Friends, Desperate Housewives, Lost etc.

From RTE's Director of Aquisitions and Broadcasting,

RTE do get first showings for Hit US TV shows but the majority of theses shows end up at the end of the schedules on either RTE ONE or RTE TWO. To make use of the 11,000 hours of suitable prime time TV , 2 additional channels should be set up for their broadcast it is a waste of money to put them on at 1am with no advertising and is certainly not beneficial to RTE or their viewers. Their are many Network TV Primeres that go out on RTE TWO at 1am in the the morning what a waste.

The Plus One RTE TWO channel would be a waste as RTE two rarely compete with RTE ONE or TV3 during the hours of 7 to 9 (they call it complementary programming, I call it not wanting to compete with Fair City, Coro St, Emmers and eastenders). RTE THREE could repeat or show the next episode of Lost, DH and Prison Break if they wanted just like Channel 4 and E4 or perhaps a Catch up Sunday. Either away your spending the same amount of money for an RTE TWO plus One and an RTE Three, as repeat showings cost money too. RTE TWO could repeat RTE Three's Prime time shows at the times that they currently show these shows.

RTÉ offer a great news service online, but it does need a little tweaking...

RTE cannot spend any of the licence fee on online material, however they are looking to change this.


Again I amn't asking that RTE invests a huge amount into the new services just to provide commercial TV that can support itself and prehaps give money towards homeproduced shows on RTE ONE and RTE TWO.

ateam

I really disagree with you on the possiblity of introducing a plus one channel. It would cost RTE nothing and would give the viewer added choice. The RTE 3 channel you are propagating sounds just like a plus one channel anyway. Do you want another channel just for the sake of it...

L1011

Bandwidth, encoders, storage (need to delay the channel, etc) all adds up to something quite significantly more than "nothing".

I'd like to see a RTE Film, actually, because the buy in many amazing films, including foreign-language stuff they'd get complaints from Mary Murphy, Boggertown, County Bog if they played on 1 or 2 in prime time; so its buried at 1/2am on RTE2.

ateam

Elmo wrote:

From RTE's Director of Aquisitions and Broadcasting,

(RTE do get first showings for Hit US TV shows but the majority of theses shows end up at the end of the schedules on either RTE ONE or RTE TWO. To make use of the 11,000 hours of suitable prime time TV , 2 additional channels should be set up for their broadcast it is a waste of money to put them on at 1am with no advertising and is certainly not beneficial to RTE or their viewers. Their are many Network TV Primeres that go out on RTE TWO at 1am in the the morning what a waste)

I'm sorry, but that is total rubbish. The reason they are shown at 1am is because they are dreadful and RTE knows they won't get viewers.. You want not one, but two additional channels to show imported programmes...The channels would be filled with repeats, showing programmes that can viewed on other channels..that would be a total waste of tax payers money.

Elmo

I'm sorry, but that is total rubbish. The reason they are shown at 1am is because they are dreadful and RTE knows they won't get viewers.. You want not one, but two additional channels to show imported programmes...The channels would be filled with repeats, showing programmes that can viewed on other channels..that would be a total waste of tax payers money.

If they think they are rubbish why to they insist on buying them?

Boston Legal and Medium both have Emmy Awards.
24 gets nominations and awards each year and is still popular and yet the put it on at 11:30 on monday nights
The West Wing considered by many to be one of the best US shows
Boston Public ratings of 120,000 every sunday night at 11:30 just to be put on at 2am on a thursday night????
The Practice 400,000 viewers every sunday night for 7 years to be put to the back of the schedules at 2am??????
Smallville and Alias Fridays at 1am both had 120,000 viewers during prime time??????
The list is endless. If you don't want to show them then don't buy them its quiet simple, RTE have over spend on late night TV by 20,000,000.

RTE TWO already provides many US shows during Prime Time that we can all look at on Sky One and E4. All of which would be show an hour later.

Also you will find that like CNBC E4+1 has 0%to1% viewers in the UK

ateam

Elmo wrote:

If they think they are rubbish why to they insist on buying them?

Boston Legal and Medium both have Emmy Awards.
24 gets nominations and awards each year and is still popular and yet the put it on at 11:30 on monday nights
The West Wing considered by many to be one of the best US shows
Boston Public ratings of 120,000 every sunday night at 11:30 just to be put on at 2am on a thursday night????
The Practice 400,000 viewers every sunday night for 7 years to be put to the back of the schedules at 2am in the the morning??????
Smallville and Alias Fridays at 1am both had 120,000 viewers during prime time??????
The list is endless. If you don't want to show them then don't buy them its quiet simple, RTE have over spend on late night TV by 20,000,000.

Your figures are baseless. Just because a show has won an Emmy doesn't make it good. Also, The West Wing is considered by many to be worst US show.

Elmo

Your figures are baseless. Just because a show has won an Emmy doesn't make it good. Also, The West Wing is considered by many to be worst US show.

My figures come from the ratings that they use to rate shows like Lost, DH.

I was never into the west wing but I rarely heard anything bad about it.

ateam

Elmo wrote:

My figures come from the ratings that they use to rate shows like Lost, DH.

I was never into the west wing but I rarely heard anything bad about it.

Your figures are baseless and incorrect, that's the bottom line. If a show is underperforming, it will be moved to a less high profile slot and often it can irritate regular viewers of that programme...but hey that's television.

Elmo

Your figures are baseless and incorrect, that's the bottom line. If a show is underperforming, it will be moved to a less high profile slot and often it can irritate regular viewers of that programme...but hey that's television.

My figures are good and correct. I would provide you with prove of these figures and I would also give you a direct link to these figures only I cannot access www.medialive.ie at this time but if you can go ahead.

I have been told by The Director of Aquisitions at RTE that they spend 25,000,000 euro on around 11,000 hours of Imported TV.

Shows that are considered "Complementary Viewing" on RTE rarely make it into the top 20 of RTE TWO yet these "compelmentary" shows have all replaced many of the shows that I have just spoken about because RTE TWO does not want to compete with the soap operas. These show get less then 120,000 veiwers during prime time.

I understand that if a show is not preforming that it is taken of the air but why do RTE continue to buy in the same shows. 24 would still perform well on RTE TWO if it was put back to Tuesday Nights.

RTE only ever market the top shows extensively they rarely if ever even market their "complementary shows" which don't get good viewing figures.

If my figures are baseless and incorrect then I am sure you can provide evidence of this.

ateam

The link you provided is inactive. No I can't provide a link, that's why I don't give statistics...you should follow that rule.

Elmo

I know what the stats are. I don't need references. The fact that my reference point is down does not prove that I am incorrect with my figures.

That site does go down from time to time.

7/12/2005
Thank you for your continued interest in our schedule.

Acquisitions remain excellent value for money for RTE and contribute over 11,000 hours of transmission per year. A mature broadcaster needs to offer an all day service to its viewers and Acquisition make up a large proportion of our off-peak hours.

Home Production target Prime Time for most of its output, with the exception of Sport and Children's programmes.

This means that the maximum number of people can watch original Irish productions.

We do schedule the very best of acquired programming across our two channels, but do not have the space in Prime Time to run all of these shows. This year has been the launch of such new acquired shows as "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost". These shows have had to replaced other acquired shows in the schedule.

Next year will be the return "The West Wing", "Monk", "Law & Order", "Law & Order: Criminal Intense".

Kind regards,

Dermot Horan
Director of Broadcast & Acquisition

As the head of programme acquisitions, I am the man responsible for acquiring the shows which you talk about in your recent e mail.

You are right in saying that there are several good shows which are transmitting quite late at night. Placing them instead of repeats, however, is not as simple as you may think.

All bar 'Grounded for Life' are one hour shows, which suit a post 9 PM slot, not only because of their content, but also because of the pace and appeal of the shows.

Several of the repeats are filling a half hour slot in the schedule in order to meet a junction afterwards.

The Simpsons repeats very well, is a unique property, which all broadcasters schedule in this way.

Friends does a similar job for a slightly older more female audience.

The reason we scheduled 'Lost' as a repeat at 7 PM on Friday was due to a demand from tweens and teenagers, who found the 9-11 PM slot on Monday too late. We have received no letters of complaint for the scheduling of the series at this time.

Scheduling is a complicated business, with RTE's two channels attempting to complement each other.

Thanks for taking the time to write in to us. I shall certainly pass your comments on to the head of scheduling.


Kind regards,

Dermot Horan

For some strange reason they stop the 7pm repeat of LOST ????? Which is an hour long show that seemed to suit fridays before 9pm ??????

Figure for aquired shows is actually 21,629,000 for last year. http://www.rte.ie/about/rte_ar05_english.pdf
PAGE 54

L1011

So you've gone from claiming BARB figures were pure and accurate truth to saying TAM figures are baseless then ateam? Thats some sudden change of tone eh?

Elmo

So you've gone from claiming BARB figures were pure and accurate truth to saying TAM figures are baseless then ateam? Thats some sudden change of tone eh?

Neilsen Ratings have some critics currently. C4, Sky, UTV and C6 all want a change in the gathering of the ratings in Ireland.

However Ateam has point out the good ratings for both DH and Lost so I assume that he is not disputing the figures, he only wants prove which unfortunately I cann't provide at the moment

L1011

BARB ratings are identically collected, just a different company and a different country.

ateam

MYOB wrote:

So you've gone from claiming BARB figures were pure and accurate truth to saying TAM figures are baseless then ateam? Thats some sudden change of tone eh?

I never said anything about BARB figures being "pure". I'm simply saying that a poster should be able to back up his/her statement with proof.

DMC

Elmo wrote:

Unlike the BBC RTE also have commercial revenue (fair enough the BBC also sell DVDs and International Rights to shows and have BBC America, Canada et al which provide a major amount of commerical revenue).

But RTE spend est 25,000,000 euro on Foreign Imports, RTE has a major amount of Sporting event which they will fight for before letting Setanta take
those rights (The BBC has little sporting events).

...

RTE SPORT

Again RTE has a major amount of sport available to them, RTE TWO basically becomes a sports channel during the summer months. It would be free to air and could support itself but I will say that it isn't overly commerical.

This really goes to show how baseless and ill-conceived your arguments are.

The BBC has plenty of sports events, it can still manage to fill a Saturday and Sunday afternoon, and it has prestige events, which, is not too dissimilar to RTÉ. If you believe that sporting event are not commercial property, then you must be the last person in the country who believes that there is still a Corinthian belief in sport and TV! :rolleyes:

Setanta have proven that an Irish sports channel can operate. Setanta can spend what ever they like on sport. RTÉ, on the other hand, has to spend money on other programmes. So, there are going to be things that RTÉ can not afford to bid against. Market reality, as the BBC showed us in the 1990's.

Elmo wrote:

My plan suggest 3 VERY commerical stations for RTE, those stations would be set up to fund the 3 VERY PBS stations.

With 11,000 hours of Foreign Imports RTE could easily start up two new services with out taking very much revenue from RTE ONE or TWO. While they wouldn't be great TV stations my question would be what is so great about Digital TV so far?

Now there is a quote and a half... I'll repeat that....

Elmo wrote:

While they wouldn't be great TV stations my question would be what is so great about Digital TV so far?

Woo. Film Board of Canada, The Beachcombers and Hallas and Batchelor cartoons will make a comeback with that scenario! :rolleyes:

Why dilute it further, when commercial channels can do that? My argument is, strengthen the output of the two existing channels that they contain more space for home produced programming, two more channels, such as a part-time news/current affairs channel with the capability to go 24/7 at breaking events, but not 24/7 when the need isn't there. 10 minute hourly bulletins and 1 min updates at the half hour would suffice imo) and a extra channel for expanded coverage eg sport but clearly defined as to serve the Irish public as PSB.

You clearly do not see that the likes of TV3 and Setanta will lobby hard that it will not allow RTÉ to smother the market like you suggest.

You're talking tripe. Troll off.

DMC

ateam wrote:

What RTE needs is not more channels, but a huge improvement in the current output in terms of production values in homegrown programmes. What RTE could do IMO, is create a RTE 2 Plus 1 situation like E4 Plus 1. That would definitely be a hit IMO.

Not really a waste of money, but a waste of bandwidth. How many +1 channels are on Freeview in the UK? None.

DMC

MYOB wrote:

Sky News and News24's UK viewing figures are misleading. Viewing figures are made from home users; yet the kind of audience that has Sky News or News24 on all day long is not in the home. How many newsagents, banks, gyms, office reception desks have you seen Sky News on a TV at?

Good point, as CNBC showed a year or two ago, by leaving the BARB ratings mechanism, as it doesn't count businesses, where according to CNBC's data, in financial businesses, 80% watched CNBC in their offices.

Edit: I'm reading the thread downwards, MYOB, and see you made the same point Great minds

L1011

ateam wrote:

I never said anything about BARB figures being "pure". I'm simply saying that a poster should be able to back up his/her statement with proof.

You did, you claimed that they were entirely accurate for Sky News. Now, the proof is out there, its on medialive.ie, unfortunately that happens to be the worlds least stable server...

Charles Slane

DMC wrote:

Not really a waste of money, but a waste of bandwidth. How many +1 channels are on Freeview in the UK? None.

Do E4 have a +1 on Freeview?

DMC

Charles Slane wrote:

Do E4 have a +1 on Freeview?

Did that not go when Film4 launched a few weeks ago? I'm open to correction.

ateam

MYOB wrote:

You did, you claimed that they were entirely accurate for Sky News. Now, the proof is out there, its on medialive.ie, unfortunately that happens to be the worlds least stable server...

I said the figures for Sky News are not misleading, please get your facts correct.

Charles Slane

DMC wrote:

Did that not go when Film4 launched a few weeks ago? I'm open to correction.

Just checked http://www.freeview.co.uk/channels/ and E4+1 is listed as well as Film4. I think Film4 may have taken a channel used by streaming Big Brother, but I'm not sure.

DMC

Hmm. I see that, still listed, so it must be there. Cheers Charles.

byte

No, I think DMC is correct. E4+1 has been dropped for Film4.

It's not listed on BBC website, which I'd have more belief in..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/digital/tv/tv_channel.shtml

EDIT: Every other site seems to suggest that E4+1 is still there. I don't think the BBC site is definitive list!

DMC

byte wrote:

No, I think DMC is correct. E4+1 has been dropped for Film4.

It's not listed on BBC website, which I'd have more belief in..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/digital/tv/tv_channel.shtml

EDIT: Every other site seems to suggest that E4+1 is still there. I don't think the BBC site is definitive list!

Its the BBC site I have less faith in, as for example, ITV Play isnt there.

byte

Yeah, i didn't read the start of the page, which says it's a list of the "main channels" available across all platforms. It's not a specific DTT list.

bk

The problem that RTE faces is that when DTT takes over from terrestial, every person in Ireland will have access to a large range of channels.

RTE can either decide to ignore that and loss viewers to other stations or it can create new channels to compete with these and if the new channels are run commercially, potentially help finance home grown content.

The thing is RTE is likely to get a lot of the DTT spectrum and using it to launch new channels is a good idea.

However where would RTE get the money to make such an investment? Well here is a radical idea for you, sell RTE's incredibly valuable Donnybrook property to a property developer for lots of money, build a larger, modern offices and studios in somewhere like City West and use the money left over (probably lots) to finance the setup of new channels.