RTE A poor excuse for a Public Service Broadcaster

Het-Field

RTE is a unique Public Service Broadcaster. It is one of the few which draws revenue from advertisers, and the average punter who watches it. The BBC (one of the worlds greatest and reknowned Public service broadcasters) do not seek revenue from advertising.

I dont believe that the licence is required, and it is an unnecessary burden on people who use the Television to avail of shows like the 6 one News, Questions and Answers, Prime Time, and the array of "public interest documentaries" which have been shown over the years. Of course people will argue for and against the benefits of shows like Q&A, as its questionable how beneficial a staged political show is ! However,as a public service broadcaster people should be entitled to these rights for free. Feck it, RTE earn enough in advertising rights anyhow, even the weatherforcast is sponsored by Avonmore Milk.

The licencing fee is being spent on creating rubbish like "Failte Towers", "Celebrity Farm", "Your A Star", "Celebrity Banaisteoir" and the likes. These fall outside the remit of Public Service Broadcasting. While I agree that people need to be entertained, I believe that its sufficient to provide Australian soaps, The Simpsons, and other indigenous comedy shows, which have been quite successful. These have always been available. However, the reality show is a waste of taxpayers money, and should be scrapped. It should be up to the likes of TV3 and Channel 6 to provide such shows.

I also believe that RTE is wasting huge money on keeping the Channel running through the night. I think it is an inexpert use of taxpayers money to utilise mind numbing shows like Shortland Street and Laguna Beach, and Immature (yet highly funny) MTV shows like Jackass, Wildboyz, and Viva La Bam. The fact that thy show a weekly repeat of Prime Time and Questions and Answers with 30 mins of Euronews at 6am, doesnt validate this flagrant waste of money. The BBC closes down at Between 3.15 and 4.15 on most nights (after a nightly showing of Panorama) and converts to BBC News 24 until 7am. If RTE cannot provde a service such as this, then it should effect closedown at 2am, with a rousing rendition of our National Anthem of course. If people wish to watch television beyond that, then they should seek to install NTL or Sky digital.

While i conceed that RTE's sports coverage is second to none (I doubt any indigenous channel gets as much coverage of sports as RTE does), I believe that there needs to be some changes. These include

1.The Abolition of the Licence Fee
2.The Removal of the ridiculous Reality TV which has become so prominant
3.The reversion to Closedown at 2AM, or do a deal with a NewsChannel which would provide information relevant to Irish People
4.Reform of Questions and Answers from a watered down snore fest, to a more enlightened and fast moving discussion
5.Earlier Transmission of "The Week In Politics"

I would welcome other suggestions on how our National Broadcaster could improve its service

mike65

I thought most "Nations" broadcasting companies had both advertising and licence fee income. Running RTE 24 hours a day costs bugger all more than running it for 18 hours a day.

Mike

Sangre

The BBC don't need revenue from ads because their license pool is 60 million people and with that they can create enough quality programme to sell abroad.

copacetic

any real need for the same thread on multiple forums with the same rubbish in it?

Mr. Presentable

Shortland Street and Laguna Beach, and Immature (yet highly funny) MTV shows like Jackass, Wildboyz, and Viva La Bam.

OP, RTE get this stuff for free. Seriously, would you pay for it? What happens is the same as with buying movies. You have to take a bundle. Want Greys Anatomy? You have to take Laguna Beach also.

If you don't want to watch it then switch to your beloved British channels or go to bed.

Gu3rr1lla

Who needs TV anyway when you've got the internet! I havent turned on my tv in years! TV, to me, is just a bunch of fear mongering BS. :P

Just get one of those free view boxes and stop paying a license fee. And if a tv license inspector comes to your door just tell him you're not interested at the end of the day he is just a saleperson for the corporation aka government :rolleyes:

April Raine

Het-Field wrote: »

I believe that there needs to be some changes. These include

1.The Abolition of the Licence Fee
2.The Removal of the ridiculous Reality TV which has become so prominant
3.The reversion to Closedown at 2AM, or do a deal with a NewsChannel which would provide information relevant to Irish People
4.Reform of Questions and Answers from a watered down snore fest, to a more enlightened and fast moving discussion
5.Earlier Transmission of "The Week In Politics"

I would welcome other suggestions on how our National Broadcaster could improve its service

How do you intend to achieve the changes you say are needed

Tomk1

I hate saying it but RTE's news is really well balanced, and the only real news for the whole country, compare rte to sky news, no comparison. Just news no "24hr day NEWS FLASH" or 3 hrs talking about the same thing over and over again. What rte does in half an hour doesn't nearly get covered by a full day of skynews.

Also the idea of creating home-made shows is
1. Employ people in Ireland and generate talent for the future.
2. To create revenue by selling DVDs and shows to other countries. Look at how much "The lyrics board" has made for rte.

Here is the thing, I never if rarely watch rte, and zero tv3

inforfun

I totally agree.
Paying a tv license and still get the same amount of commercial breaks as when watching a commercial tv-station should not be happening.
If they only show ads between 2 programs i could maybe live with the tv license.
And you may end up actually seeing the entire episode of series for once that way.

flogen

Sangre wrote: »

The BBC don't need revenue from ads because their license pool is 60 million people and with that they can create enough quality programme to sell abroad.

Aye - doing a bit of (perhaps fuzzy) maths you can see why the BBC don't need advertisers:

Irish license fee - €160; British license fee - £139/€175
Number of Irish households - 1.5m (or less perhaps); Number of British households - 24.7m
Amount derived from license fee (assuming there's 100% compliance and all pay the full amount):
Ireland - €240m; Britain - €4.33bn.

Then you can look at the money derived from DVD sales and overseas rights, both of which RTÉ only do on a far smaller scale.

Given that RTÉ can only raise through advertising the same amount it raises through the License Fee it means RTÉ bring in less than half a billion a year, while the BBC brings in nearly 9 times that through the license fee alone.