Should/could RTE have turned News Now into an Olympic channel?

mike65

Just a thought, was anything stopping them? just one channel is proving quite hopeless when set beside the BBC. Another channel which simply screened live pictures with no chit chat, and ad breaks would have been great for other in "six channel land".

samarillo

yes they should have, but then again RTE is not about the viewing public.

mike65

I forgot to mention RTE1 +1 and the kids channel in the evenings and weekends. They really are a shower!

Sam Russell

If they were that interested in Olympic coverage, they could have fired up the second mux (in test mode) and shown 10 Olympic channels, if they wanted too. .... and had the broadcast rights. .... and the OK of the Minister. .... and the OK of the BAI. ...... and the finance to do it. ...... and the people to front it. ...... and the technical kit to do it. ..... and the audience.


Perhaps not.

icdg

The problem is that the Government saddled RTÉ's digital channels with so much restrictions on them that using them for alternative sports coverage is not possible. Thankfully, it doesn't happen too often, but occasionally does happen (the last two years, for example, there were international football windows on the first day of the Pro 12 Rugby season and RTÉ went for the football and relegated the rugby to late night highlights. The only thing that has avoided the same thing happening this year is that RTÉ have gotten Leinster's home fixture on the Saturday night instead).

It would have come to a head if Ireland had won a medal during the time the Olympics were off air on RTÉ yesterday, but that didn't happen (although I believe Rob Heffernan was in action at the time). Personally I thought RTÉ would ditch the news and show the Olympics on RTÉ Two and the GAA on RTÉ One, but they decided to drop the Olympics instead. I believe coverage continued on RTÉ.ie though, but having to tell people to use an online stream when there are digital channels that could have been used is not on.

But it was a Government decision to cripple RTÉ's digital channels so badly. RTÉ's proposals for the digital channels were much broader than what was proposed - for example RTE1+1 would eventually have become RTÉ Three, while News Now could have shown sport at weekends. Neither of those things will be happening now.

A separate issue is that News Now still isn't on cable, even though a carriage deal was signed for it back in February and we were promised it in June. I imagine that the need to reorganise the news section on the EPG is possibly holding that back.

Sam Russell

icdg wrote: »

The problem is that the Government saddled RTÉ's digital channels with so much restrictions on them that using them for alternative sports coverage is not possible. Thankfully, it doesn't happen too often, but occasionally does happen (the last two years, for example, there were international football windows on the first day of the Pro 12 Rugby season and RTÉ went for the football and relegated the rugby to late night highlights. The only thing that has avoided the same thing happening this year is that RTÉ have gotten Leinster's home fixture on the Saturday night instead).

It would have come to a head if Ireland had won a medal during the time the Olympics were off air on RTÉ yesterday, but that didn't happen (although I believe Rob Heffernan was in action at the time). Personally I thought RTÉ would ditch the news and show the Olympics on RTÉ Two and the GAA on RTÉ One, but they decided to drop the Olympics instead. I believe coverage continued on RTÉ.ie though, but having to tell people to use an online stream when there are digital channels that could have been used is not on.

But it was a Government decision to cripple RTÉ's digital channels so badly. RTÉ's proposals for the digital channels were much broader than what was proposed - for example RTE1+1 would eventually have become RTÉ Three, while News Now could have shown sport at weekends. Neither of those things will be happening now.

A separate issue is that News Now still isn't on cable, even though a carriage deal was signed for it back in February and we were promised it in June. I imagine that the need to reorganise the news section on the EPG is possibly holding that back.

That decision was made on the last day of a Government thrown out of office following the bankcrupting of this country through its incompetence and bad decisions. It was a decision made by a temporary minister in the job for a few weeks, just signing last minute SIs thrust in front of him by the Civil Servants, for their own purpose.

Any decent Minister, coming into office would have reversed those decions.

However ......

OldRio

An opportunity missed.

Awful coverage on RTE. Could and should have used the other channels available to follow the Olympics.

byte

Sam Russell wrote: »

Any decent Minister, coming into office would have reversed those decions.

Heh, yeah, any decent one.

I'd be pretty sure RTE would've gladly had better coverage of the Olympics, but due to the stupid restrictions icdg pointed out, alas no.

Maybe TV3 would've huffed and puffed if RTE had added Olmypics coverage across other channels, for some reason or other.

Sam Russell

byte wrote: »

Heh, yeah, any decent one.

I'd be pretty sure RTE would've gladly had better coverage of the Olympics, but due to the stupid restrictions icdg pointed out, alas no.

Maybe TV3 would've huffed and puffed if RTE had added Olmypics coverage across other channels, for some any reason or other.

TV3 are very good at huff and puff. Not so good at producing programmes of any value.

icdg

I think we'll continue the discussion here - despite the fact that this forum was probably more appropriate:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=80114620