RTE - the end is nigh - high wages come home to roost

Elmo

Nehaxak wrote: »

Oh and also, the lack of transparency in regards what the license fee is being spent on exactly, in detail, or indeed what any money made in RTE is being spent on is just shocking. They still haven't released to the public domain any updated finance/accounts nor what their employee's/broadcasters are being payed. We get drip fed information from leaks within, that's about all. That's no way for any publicly funded broadcaster to operate and gives off nothing but a sense from the public of RTE mismanaging and misappropriating their finances for the benefit of lining their own pockets.
The figures I've heard and read around in regards what their directors and senior management get paid are absolutely shocking !

RTE are hugely transparent I have gone through this before.

you can look at their Annual Reports, The Department of Communication carry out annual reviews each year, the provide details of their top salary earners and they have to up hold the FOI act as it applies to them. I amn't going to list the website where you can find all of this information but I know you can google it at www.google.ie

or just have a look at this forum
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055441948&page=10
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055441948&page=11
were I have had this argument out before.

I change my mind about Cathal Goan (DG) Salary which IMO seems pretty high alright when expenses are included €441,000 for 2007, salaries for high up people have been far to high for far too long. But all of this information has been transparently provide yet it is only now that people start to speak up.

I would have thought it was in the 250,000 region. I wonder how it compares to other Semi-state bodies.

Elmo

Nehaxak wrote: »

Aren't all the opinions expressed normally our own ? I thought that was taken for granted without a need to state it every single time. If you're quoting or giving someone elses opinions, or indeed acting on their behalf, you'd usually say as such out of at least good manners.

No some are facts.

Oh come on, you quoted the Neilson figures so at least you must know some background to how they get those figures ?

http://www.agbnielsen.net/system/system.asp
http://www.aaronsilvers.com/2007/04/nielsen-ratings/

Google yourself for more.

I have looked at both the British and the Irish viewing figures and they aren't dissimilar bar RTÉ, TV3 and TG4, the viewing figures for the likes of Sky Sports, Sky News etc seem in line with the UK figures. It should be expected that RTÉ, TV3 and TG4 get the majority of viewers in Ireland as they aim themselves at this market and also have news and current affairs for this country.

Heresay, word of mouth, friend of a friend stuff, no evidence to quote but nonetheless, no evidence put forward or forthcoming from RTE to the contrary either and as far as I know, it's also not against the law for viewing figures to be skewed in favour of one broadcaster over the other by the use of family, friends or whatever to skew those figures - so I guess all is ok then, carry-on. Everyone above 4 in Ireland is watching the news on RTE 1 instead of the Simpsons for example.

I have put up many arguments against most of what has been put on this form and I have corrected myself when wrong how ever those who haven't done any research or think that RTÉ lacks transparency need to go looking for the information before making broad assumptions. TV3, RTÉ, Sky, TG4, UTV all are involved in attaining viewing figures through TAM Ireland.

Yes well it would be nice to know those exact figures, but the thing is, they're (RTE) so secretive about what they pay their own staff, or their finances in general, that all we can do is go on what some whistleblowers from within might leak out. Some figures were quoted earlier in this thread if I'm not mistaken.

RTÉ Six One gets on average 500,000 viewers, RTÉ Nine gets a bit above that , if you had read the stick in the TV forum you would see an outline of what TV3, RTÉ and TG4 get and their is another form which gives viewing figures for 3e.

...and your answer seems to be typical of those defending RTE/license fee.

The ability to accept criticism, however much it might piss you or your business off, is a big step toward improving that business and actually giving people what they want, rather than rely on pats on the back from your collegues/friends/whatever saying you're doing a great job. No, no your not, you (RTE) are total and utter **** and you (RTE) need to get the finger out and sort out your own mess that you (RTE) created in the first place with mismanagement, greed, stupidity and neglect - or don't and go belly up because of that mess you created. How much is that happy smack faced Tubridy getting paid ? Hmm, yeah, totally justified... Let's get rid of a couple hundred normal staff so we can continue to pay that muppets wages

I have constantly said that I think the wages are way to High at RTÉ (However I was under the impression that their DG was on allot less than he actually is). As I have said the stars of RTÉ can't say the deserve the high wages because by cutting their wages RTÉ could invest more money into Irish programming. RTÉ must use their advertising revenue and licence fee on programme making.The money that they make commercial remains public money. It is far to easy to be anti-license fee.

jonsnow

Elmo wrote: »

. It is far to easy to be anti-license fee.

Fun too.Why should my money go towards talentless connected hacks that I despise.I watch whatever I want on sky or on dvds.I listen to today fm.The only thing I watch on rte is sport (hurling,football and rugby only) or the occasional q and a in my freinds house..I might tune into rte or rte 2 or whatever their calling it now 5 times a year.If the sport was on sky i,d probably never watch it.The tv in my bedroom has,n,t got them tuned in and I,ve been living their for 2 and a half years.
But like every other established institution in Ireland it is run for the insiders benefit and our political system is incapable of any real reform of Irish institutions.They,ll probably whack up the licence fee again-and we,ll just have to eat it.

Elmo

jonsnow wrote: »

Fun too.

You possibly wouldn't be happy no matter who got the money.

watch whatever I want on sky or on dvds.I listen to today fm.

No one ever suggested that you should watch RTÉ, by sky I assume you mean TV channels from BBC, ITV, C4, Virgin Media, Viacom etc.

But then all the drama that sky make your subscription is well worth it

Venom

Elmo wrote: »

You possibly wouldn't be happy no matter who got the money.

Yes how dare people object to having to pay for a service they neither want or need :rolleyes:

Dustaz

The amount of childish "i dont like it so it must be crap" attidudes in this thread makes me almost wish a lifetime of tv3 on them.

jimmycrackcorm

Venom wrote: »

Yes how dare people object to having to pay for a service they neither want or need :rolleyes:

Too right - why do I have to pay the health levy from my pay - I'm quite well and I do have VHI cover too.

Biggins

Nehaxak wrote: »

Oh and also, the lack of transparency in regards what the license fee is being spent on exactly, in detail, or indeed what any money made in RTE is being spent on is just shocking. They still haven't released to the public domain any updated finance/accounts nor what their employee's/broadcasters are being payed. We get drip fed information from leaks within, that's about all. That's no way for any publicly funded broadcaster to operate and gives off nothing but a sense from the public of RTE mismanaging and misappropriating their finances for the benefit of lining their own pockets.
The figures I've heard and read around in regards what their directors and senior management get paid are absolutely shocking !

Totally agree. Yet again we are seeing for the umpteenth time that the big boys are looking after themselves and if there is any accounting of costs, aaa hell.. make the public pay over and over, more and more each time!

There should be more accountability!

thebman

RGDATA! wrote: »

I'm guessing that many of the people who are dissatisfied with RTE and the license fee are those who, broadly speaking, don't care much about Irish news and current affairs, Irish documentaries, Irish arts shows, Irish language shows, Irish daytime/chat shows, lifestyle programs from an Irish point of view. Which is fair enough, but the facts are the majority of Irish households (who do have more channels than RTE) are interested in some or many of these things and the viewing figures reflect this.

I watch Irish news, documentaries occasionally but I'd rather have the choice of subscribing to these than being locked up if I don't.

I don't think there is any good defense of RTE having mandatory subscriptions which is essentially what a TV license is (It is laughable to suggest that it is for what it says on paper as RTE gets the money).

It just isn't needed. You can have the current RTE network infrastructure put into state ownership and sell the station and then the private companies can put in money for upgrading and improving the infrastructure along with some state funding if necessary.

I still can't see why we need a state funded TV station in 2009 and nobody has really provided a reason why it is necessary. Every suggestion for why it needs to exist could be done privately with a fund for Irish related programming so the state can still sponsor non-profitable Irish specific programs such as documentaries about Irish history.

The state has no business hiring presenters or owning sets for soaps in 2009 IMO.

Elmo

Biggins wrote: »

Totally agree. Yet again we are seeing for the umpteenth time that the big boys are looking after themselves and if there is any accounting of costs, aaa hell.. make the public pay over and over, more and more each time!

There should be more accountability!

Hello! Hi! I have just answer several of the supposed secretes of RTÉ because I read their Annual Reports , I have on several occassion FOIed RTÉ and got substantial information, I look carefully at the TV Ratings (more TV Ratings), look at their annual reveiws from DCERN, take an interest in where the 5% of TV Licecne Fee is going to from the BCI and while also checking out TG4 Annual Reports.

Now how more transparent to you want them to be?

Elmo

Venom wrote: »

Yes how dare people object to having to pay for a service they neither want or need :rolleyes:

No I was just pointing out that the poster wouldn't be happy giving it to a private company as suggested, he would like to remove the license fee altogether. Sorry for the sarcastic tone.

Biggins

Elmo wrote: »

Hello! Hi! I have just answer several of the supposed secretes of RTÉ because I read their Annual Reports , I have on several occassion FOIed RTÉ and got substantial information, I look carefully at the TV Ratings (more TV Ratings), look at their annual reveiws from DCERN, take an interest in where the 5% of TV Licecne Fee is going to from the BCI and while also checking out TG4 Annual Reports.

Now how more transparent to you want them to be?

...enough to explain the justification and relationship between what is spent and the VALUE gained from that expenditure.

Its all fine and dandy just throwing out the figures. Anyone can do that!
But when it comes to explaining just how and why the stupid amounts of expenditure is strewn about with little, poor or no result, there is no transparency as to why the over paid muppets are still allowed to carry on wasting money without explanations of justification!

We can know what you spent - now finally tell us whay the frak you spent it and continue to do so when what is being gained is little or nothing in many cases.
...but no, ask them to answer that and they quickly run and hide shouting "no comment" as they (the "stars", the directors and management) scatter to the four winds!

Elmo

Ok so I know that I said I would leave you all to agree with one another but let me explain the so called waste in RTÉs very very detailed set of accounts and reviews.

The question you have to ask yourself is what are you looking for from a National TV organisation?

If you look at RTÉ TWO schedule you will note that 12 hours are dedicated to Children's TV. Currently their are no other Irish children's channels. Of these 12 hours 3 hours are dedicated to pre-schoolers and RTÉ as a PBS choose not to run adverts during these hours. No other channel is interested in Children's TV. The rest of RTÉ TWO is made up mainly of imports and sports all of which up to now made a profit for the company providing more funding for PBS programmes on their services such as RnaG (which also doesn't run adverts) and Lyric FM.

If you are look for all out Documentaries, Drama and Comedy then you are going to have to pay more, they are hugely costly to produce and don't earn returns, so the little drama that they do provide comes under PBS which is funded through profits on the above mentioned shows and by the license fee, Fair City breakseven down mainly to the fact that they own the set and need little outside location work.

News and Current Affair across all of their services allows for Economies of Scale.

Again I do agree with the amounts paid to so called "stars" is OTT. I do not beleive that the earn any more money for RTÉ to continue to produce other programming, while personalities are important I think RTÉ should reduce their reliance on them and reduce their pay, they aren't worth it.

jonsnow

Elmo wrote: »

No one ever suggested that you should watch RTÉ,

Thats true you only suggested that I should have to pay the licence fee-even though theres sweet FA I want to see on it.

Elmo wrote: »

But then all the drama that sky make your subscription is well worth it

Don,t quite know what you mean by that quote to be honest but I get enough "drama" from The Hills reruns and ross kemp is making a very dramatic and interesting documentary about pirates.

jonsnow

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Too right - why do I have to pay the health levy from my pay - I'm quite well and I do have VHI cover too.

Yeah because paying smug gits like ryan tubridy,gerry ryan or pat kenny multiples of what their worth is exactly like maintaining a public healthcare system.Nice straw man.

Elmo

jonsnow wrote: »

Don,t quite know what you mean by that quote to be honest but I get enough "drama" from The Hills reruns and ross kemp is making a very dramatic and interesting documentary about pirates.

My point being that your TV license is used to pay for TV and Radio production across Ireland. Unlike a UPC or Sky connection, they do not produce any of the types of shows that you are talking about since they are bought in from America. Even though you have more and more TV channels you still have the same amount of production.

Sky in fairness have Sky News and Sky Sports but outside of those channel Sky does very little Sky 1, 2, 3 have very few original productions. And yet they are quite happy to buy Lost for £1,000,000 per episode.

StaticNoise

I really wouldn't mind RTÉ going belly-up. I work in media and broadcasting, and the internal format of the broadcaster is shocking.

If anyone heard 'The Last Word' on Today FM this evening there was a debate on this matter. Basically, RTÉ got ripped to shreds over it's 'dual-funding' format, and the lack of transparency.

We're waiting for 2 years accounts to be published, the 10% paycut was from the newer rates (more than likely) and there's a terrible overlap with the public service and commercial end. It's disgraceful.

I also am personally highly irritated by the broadcaster's attitude and waste of resources. RTÉ 2FM is the popular music and youth radio station, yet they still have an aged progamming schedule. It's madness. They try to be like BBC Radio 1 and they fail by not fulfilling youth interests. C'mon, Newsbeat? Surely you needn't directly take from our British counterparts.

Seriously RTÉ: Get your backside in gear, cut the nepotism and stop making a show of us in the broadcasting world. You're not BBC or any other PSB, so stop trying to be an imitation.

*Rant Over*

Elmo

StaticNoise wrote: »

I really wouldn't mind RTÉ going belly-up. I work in media and broadcasting, and the internal format of the broadcaster is shocking.

If anyone heard 'The Last Word' on Today FM this evening there was a debate on this matter. Basically, RTÉ got ripped to shreds over it's 'dual-funding' format, and the lack of transparency.

We're waiting for 2 years accounts to be published, the 10% paycut was from the newer rates (more than likely) and there's a terrible overlap with the public service and commercial end. It's disgraceful.

I also am personally highly irritated by the broadcaster's attitude and waste of resources. RTÉ 2FM is the popular music and youth radio station, yet they still have an aged progamming schedule. It's madness. They try to be like BBC Radio 1 and they fail by not fulfilling youth interests. C'mon, Newsbeat? Surely you needn't directly take from our British counterparts.

Seriously RTÉ: Get your backside in gear, cut the nepotism and stop making a show of us in the broadcasting world. You're not BBC or any other PSB, so stop trying to be an imitation.

*Rant Over*

You prob wouldn't be employed if RTÉ went belly up or you would see your work load reduced. (You prob would, I cann't really back that statement up ) What I would say however is that most Independents rely heavily on RTÉ for productions.

I thought The Last Word broadcast was very welcome and not as hard as you suggest, I think the opinions on both sides where very well laid out and all saw the importance of PBS broadcasting. They where particulary soft when you think that it was 5 againist one, I was sure it was going to be very unbalance in favour of the IBI.

I thought they lost Newsbeat I don't listen to 2fm any more since they began to treat their audience like counterparts in the private sector. 2FM should be more like TodayFM but I suppose that wouldn't give us much choice.

I am only waiting for 2008 accounts, 2007 have been up since last year. They generally appear on the website in mid-summer no? I could be wrong and be waiting until Jan 2010.

If the independent services want rid of Dual funding (or a reduce in the need for commercial funding) they are going to have to pick up the slack.

One of the independent producers (on the last word) seem to think RTÉ should give them a grant so they can distribute programming without RTÉ getting a return.

You are right to suggest that RTÉ departments (at least in Television) are all over the place, I have heard some bad stories from Some indepenents on that front.

As for the transparency again I would ask how transparent do you want RTÉ to be? Should RTÉ show the detailed accounts for all shows? and how would the likes of Tyrone, Screentime:Shinawhil, Adare, Green Inc etc feel about the public seeing their accounts?

RTÉ break their funding down into various categories

Genre (Drama, News, Childrens etc)
Department (News and CA, Network etc)
By radio and TV station

TV3 got 3,000,000 in license revenue in 2008. Most of the sound and vision goes to TV.

Biggins

RTE asks public to bail it out

RTE, who lose €1m per week through appalling management and hefty salaries, have asked that the public stump up their losses.
The State broadcaster have lodged official requests to increase the TV licence fee in these troubled times.
The broadcaster has reportedly made two separate applications for the increase, one during November of last year and another in March.
It hasn't received an answer to either request, but said that it cannot afford to spend €70m on the projected digital television roll-out by June 2010.

RTE collects almost €200m annually from the €160 fee and sells more than €200m in advertising on TV and radio. However, adverts are now costing half their 2007 levels, new figures have shown and RTE is facing a deficit of up to €100m. There is also a €102.3m black hole in its pension scheme.

Future licence fee increases have to be approved by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

Deadline

In February this year it was announced RTE needed to cut costs by 12.5pc or face job losses. It is reported that the broadcaster will not be able to pay staff by October unless a programme of cost cutting is implemented in the coming weeks.
A total of 85pc of RTE workers are expected to have voted on proposed pay cuts, ahead of the deadline of next Monday. Union sources said that the turnout among the station's 2,300 staff has so far been "unprecedented".

Source: HERE

enniscorthy

Rented Mule wrote: »

So what if RTE goes under

....we'll still have RTE2.

:eek:

DEFO MATE hehehehahahahaahhohohohohohohhohoheheheheheahahahahaha

:P:D

Elmo

Biggins wrote: »

RTE asks public to bail it out

Source: HERE

The Herald

You will note that RTÉ in the late 1980s bailed out Ardmore Studios and the IFB/BSÉ, and for a number of years owned the studio.

vodkababy

Some of the staff of RTE, including presenters, earn too much!!! Can't believe they earn more than Obama...and he runs a country...how can they justify earning so much??

They need to take a pay cut...the rest of us have...why should they get special treatment??

Dennis the Stone

They live in their own world. It's a big boy's club out there, where everyone is a superstar. Chatshow guests are all from the RTÉ canteen. On that new ad for Miriam O'Callaghan's chat show they have a quick glimpse of the dazzling guests that have graced her couch in the past: Larry Gogan and Ann Doyle.

My name is URL

I heard something about this on Newstalk today, RTE are refusing that it's heading for bankruptcy and Cathal Goan said that there'll be reductions in both domestic and imported material to ensure that they incur no yearly loss

So what does that mean..? Repeats =(

holidayhere

vodkababy wrote: »

Some of the staff of RTE, including presenters, earn too much!!! Can't believe they earn more than Obama...and he runs a country...how can they justify earning so much??

They need to take a pay cut...the rest of us have...why should they get special treatment??

IMO - its a good station and they do a good job, but seriously, they get paid way over the odds. How many of they have the brains to succeed in business. Big ego'd chancers.... many of them.

Elmo

My name is URL wrote: »

I heard something about this on Newstalk today, RTE are refusing that it's heading for bankruptcy and Cathal Goan said that there'll be reductions in both domestic and imported material to ensure that they incur no yearly loss

So what does that mean..? Repeats =(

I think it means that they will possibly reduce their daytime output and concentrate on prime-time productions. and that they have budgeted for 2010 which I am guessing will be much worse than 2009 since they have don't have has much advertising revenue to spend on winter/spring 2010/2011.

But we will all see when they release their 2008 accounts. 2007 saw them making a profit of 10,000,000 euro.

My name is URL

Elmo wrote: »

I think it means that they will possibly reduce their daytime output and concentrate on prime-time productions. and that they have budgeted for 2010 which I am guessing will be much worse than 2009 since they have don't have has much advertising revenue to spend on winter/spring 2010/2011.

But we will all see when they release their 2008 accounts. 2007 saw them making a profit of 10,000,000 euro.

If they're only making profits of 10 million atm, they need to cut more than output.

A quarter of that revenue is used to pay a handful of salaries, it's ridiculous to sacrifice new content while the old talent remains unaffected

Elmo

My name is URL wrote: »

If they're only making profits of 10 million atm, they need to cut more than output.

A quarter of that revenue is used to pay a handful of salaries, it's ridiculous to sacrifice new content while the old talent remains unaffected

I agree with the salaries paid to broadcasters and management at RTÉ and their is really no way any company in the current economic climate could really defend such prices.

However RTÉ have a turnover of 441.2million which it spends across the company. Of that they had 10million extra which is used to provide programming rather then going to investors (but it looks like most of it really goes back to high earns at the channel).

What RTÉ have report is that the 441.2million revenue that they had in 2007 will now look more like 380million in 2009 (this could be less if they are talking about their 2008 figures, I do not know their turnover for 2008 yet, I am assuming it isn't much different to 2007).

So RTÉ are stating they won't have as much revenue not that they are making losses of 65million, and they have taken steps to reduce costs at the channel.

Indeed their are many areas where they could make reductions e.g. anyone on over 200,000 should take a pay cut to just the 200,000 mark again anyone earning over 200,000 isn't worth it. And TBH if they refuse the cut they should not have their contracts renewed.

TV3 will be in a similar situation where they where earning 60,000,000 in 2007 and 2008 they will see this reduced back to about 50,000,000 they have taken steps to reduce cost e.g. Pulling back on current affairs commitments which IMO include researchers for their news shows. Play TV is just an example of such fisical decisions.