RTE's top ten earners paid €3.6 million in 2011

Iwannahurl

RTÉ has released figures for its top ten earners: Tubs, Pat, Marian, Miriam, Joe et al.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0327/378701-rte-releases-highest-earners-list/

The total remuneration amounts to nearly €3.6 million, if I've done my sums right.

One way of looking at that figure is to consider that over 22,000 people had to pay their TV licence in 2011 to compensate RTE's top ten presenters.

That's the equivalent of every man, woman and child in Athlone paying €160 each to keep Joe & Co. in the style to which they had become accustomed, up to 2011 at any rate.

Meanwhile, in the same year 194 people were sent to prison for non-payment of TV licence fines, compared to 31 in 2006 at the height of the boom.

Perhaps Joe, champion of the woahking class and trouserer of €378,000, might care to dedicate a programme to whatever part of this story he thinks is a scandalous injustice.

orestes

Didn't the same news report on RTE salaries on the 6 o' clock news tonight say that they had all taken a pay cut of at least 30% each this year?

Or are you just giving out about something from two years ago that has already been changed just for the hell of it?

Hootanany

Here here.

Fromthetrees

Iwannahurl wrote: »

RTÉ has released figures for its top ten earners: Tubs, Pat, Marian, Miriam, Joe et al.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0327/378701-rte-releases-highest-earners-list/

The total remuneration amounts to nearly €3.6 million, if I've done my sums right.

One way of looking at that figure is to consider that over 22,000 people had to pay their TV licence in 2011 to compensate RTE's top ten presenters.

That's the equivalent of every man, woman and child in Athlone paying €160 each to keep Joe & Co. in the style to which they had become accustomed, up to 2011 at any rate.

Meanwhile, in the same year 194 people were sent to prison for non-payment of TV licence fines, compared to 31 in 2006 at the height of the boom.

Perhaps Joe, champion of the woahking class and trouserer of €378,000, might care to dedicate a programme to whatever part of this story he thinks is a scandalous injustice.

It's absolute insanity that people go to jail because they can't/won't pay the massive tv license fee.

We pay enough as it is.

squod

I want topless TV presenters for that kind of money.

GLaDOS

The fact that after a 30% pay cut Tubridy earns nearly half a million a year makes me feel genuinely ill.

oppenheimer1

Iwannahurl wrote: »

RTÉ has released figures for its top ten earners: Tubs, Pat, Marian, Miriam, Joe et al.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0327/378701-rte-releases-highest-earners-list/

The total remuneration amounts to nearly €3.6 million, if I've done my sums right.

One way of looking at that figure is to consider that over 22,000 people had to pay their TV licence in 2011 to compensate RTE's top ten presenters.

That's the equivalent of every man, woman and child in Athlone paying €160 each to keep Joe & Co. in the style to which they had become accustomed, up to 2011 at any rate.

Meanwhile, in the same year 194 people were sent to prison for non-payment of TV licence fines, compared to 31 in 2006 at the height of the boom.

Perhaps Joe, champion of the woahking class and trouserer of €378,000, might care to dedicate a programme to whatever part of this story he thinks is a scandalous injustice.

For the last three, Mooney, Dobson and O'Rourke, I wonder does that include the amount paid for employers PRSI as well.

donvito99

Just wait til the Broadcast fee or whatever comes in. You won't need a TV to be charged an extortionate fee for shoddy television programming, not to mention endless ads and The Voice.

Hootanany

Who watches RTE

Iwannahurl

orestes wrote: »

Didn't the same news report on RTE salaries on the 6 o' clock news tonight say that they had all taken a pay cut of at least 30% each this year?

Or are you just giving out about something from two years ago that has already been changed just for the hell of it?

Eamon Dunphy is down over 60% iirc.

News is news.

Iwannahurl

squod wrote: »

I want topless TV presenters for that kind of money.

You want the shirt off their back as well?

tony007

It's a disgrace Joe.

orestes

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Eamon Dunphy is down over 60% iirc.

News is news.

You said in the opening post that RTE has released the wages of their top ten earners for 2011 and used a bunch of comparisons to call the rates of pay unfair. You didn't mention at all that the actual news announcement by RTE was that they were cutting their top ten earners' wages by 30% of their 2011 salary.

That's a misrepresentation of facts to support an agenda, which is not news, unless you're writing for the Daily Mail.

Red Kev

The fact that their wages are being cut by 30% is old news, it was released some weeks ago.

Their wages for 2011 is new news. RTE do not tell the taxpayer how much they pay the top dogs in RTE until a couple of years later. This has being going on for some time.

EuropeanSon

What would people propose they get paid instead?

DrumSteve

EuropeanSon wrote: »

What would people propose they get paid instead?

The market rate? They sure as ****e wouldnt be on that money over the water.

awec

DrumSteve wrote: »

The market rate? They sure as ****e wouldnt be on that money over the water.

Which is what?

The Scientician

EuropeanSon wrote: »

What would people propose they get paid instead?

Considering Tubofshíte will get paid 2.5 times what the Taoiseach gets even when his salary is slashed that seems a slight indicator that he's beening overpaid even still. I'd be happy with an RTÉ salary cap of €100k or thereabouts. It's plenty of money, none of the "top talent" would starve.

dzer2

The Scientician wrote: »

Considering Tubofshíte will get paid 2.5 times what the Taoiseach gets even when his salary is slashed that seems a slight indicator that he's beening overpaid even still. I'd be happy with an RTÉ salary cap of €100k or thereabouts. It's plenty of money, none of the "top talent" would starve.

Or leave:rolleyes:

EuropeanSon

The Scientician wrote: »

Considering Tubofshíte will get paid 2.5 times what the Taoiseach gets even when his salary is slashed that seems a slight indicator that he's beening overpaid even still. I'd be happy with an RTÉ salary cap of €100k or thereabouts. It's plenty of money, none of the "top talent" would starve.

Why would the Taoiseach's pay matter? They are in different industries. Tubridy presents a show that gets about a million viewers a week, plus a presumably popular radio show. I wouldn't imagine (admittedly without a great knowledge of the industry) what he gets is far off the market rate.

People seem to always react this way to the news that somebody in a big job gets paid a lot of money. It's just begrudgery, as far as I can see, and people looking for an excuse to moan about something.

*For the record, I don't watch or listen to any of his shows

The Scientician

dzer2 wrote: »

Or leave:rolleyes:

Sure if they left that'd be an added bonus. RTÉ needs new talent.

Chuck Stone

Hootanany wrote: »

Who watches RTE

Lots of people.

EuropeanSon wrote: »

What would people propose they get paid instead?

There should be some sort of cap on wages paid from the public purse. No more than 5/6 x times the average industrial wage or something like that.

EuropeanSon

Chuck Stone wrote: »

There should be some sort of cap on wages paid from the public purse. No more than 5/6 x times the average industrial wage or something like that.

Why?

fran17

talk to joe me arse.hypocrisy of the highest order

gurramok

EuropeanSon wrote: »

Why?

We pay their wages for majorly crap programming and some people who cannot afford their wages are sent to prison.

The Scientician

EuropeanSon wrote: »

Why would the Taoiseach's pay matter? They are in different industries. Tubridy presents a show that gets about a million viewers a week, plus a presumably popular radio show. I wouldn't imagine (admittedly without a great knowledge of the industry) what he gets is far off the market rate.

People seem to always react this way to the news that somebody in a big job gets paid a lot of money. It's just begrudgery, as far as I can see, and people looking for an excuse to moan about something.

*For the record, I don't watch or listen to any of his shows

If there were no licence fee his salary would be none of my business and I wouldn't complain but since he's got a contract with RTÉ that us suckers have to pay for and put up with advertising and a dire overall level of quality from I have every right to question his huge salary. Although different industries I would think most people might imagine running a country would be more difficult and perhaps garner a better salary than presenting a show once a week.

What's the market rate? You'd have to look at television somewhere similar to Ireland like maybe Scotland, see what its top tier broadcasters are paid. I haven't been able to find that information and I'm not sure that Scotland even has local broadcasters in quite the same way Ireland has. If any of them are on €500,000 a year I'd be supremely surprised. However even if some of them are on €500,000 or more a year that doesn't tell us a whole lot as Scotland is still a part of the UK and the BBC licence fee etc. may well distort the "market".

Perhaps some other small population countries might be a better match, maybe New Zealand.

Send Tubridy over to TV3 for a few months and see what his ratings are like there and then come back to me. I've a feeling The Late Late would get a certain decent chunk of the ratings even if they had a rhesus monkey presenting, considering its slot and its decades long reputation.

MadsL

Graham Norton gets 2 million a year for a show with 4.5million viewers. Tubs should be on about 500k sterling by that measure. He gets €373,000 now.

BBC do sell the GN show internationally though, and the Late Late brings in f all abroad.

In fact RTE are crap at international sales, they block the RTEplayer for UK and other IP addresses, but don't have a pay per view or subscription model. (Duh!)

Chuck Stone

EuropeanSon wrote: »

Why?

Why not?

Who the hell does RTE compete against to inflate the salaries of these guys?

velo.2010

I'm trying to get this straight in my head. Last time there was a report on salaries like this, Tubridy had a year or more as Late Late presenter and the recession had been ongoing for some time at that stage. The public had already started clammering for top RTE earners to have their salaries cut. My memory of that report was that Tubridy earned somewhere between e400,000-500.000.

If thats right and with no up to date earnings released (only 2 year old contracts were made public), RTE bumped Tubridy's salary to e750.000 then asked him to take a 'paycut'! Seems like RTE and Tubridy knew the public anger when his next salary increase would be made public and engineered this 30% decrease to save-face and let Tubridy keep his already inflated half million euro salary.

Sly Feckers!

Sierra 117

Chuck Stone wrote: »

Why not?

Who the hell does RTE compete against to inflate the salaries of these guys?

That's something I've always wondered. RTE could pay it's top presenters far less and it would still be more than TV3 or TG4 could offer them so why are they being paid such huge wages?

I mean, it's understandable in the UK where BBC, ITV and Channel 4 can match each other in the wages stake. But it makes no sense in Ireland.

MadsL

Sierra 117 wrote: »

That's something I've always wondered. RTE could pay it's top presenters far less and it would still be more than TV3 or TG4 could offer them so why are they being paid such huge wages?

I mean, it's understandable in the UK where BBC, ITV and Channel 4 can match each other in the wages stake. But it makes no sense in Ireland.

Post-Terry Wogan stress disorder?

AnonoBoy

squod wrote: »

I want topless TV presenters for that kind of money.

You want Pat Kenny and Joe Duffy topless?

GET OUT YOU F*CKING FREAK!!!! :mad:

Captain Chaos

Hootanany wrote: »

Who watches RTE

Who watches TV, I stopped about 10 years ago once I got a decent broadband connection.

Sierra 117

AnonoBoy wrote: »

You want Pat Kenny and Joe Duffy topless?

GET OUT YOU F*CKING FREAK!!!!

I bet Pat Kenny has abs of steel under those suits.

AnonoBoy

Sierra 117 wrote: »

I bet Pat Kenny has abs of steel under those suits.

He actually does.

Ssshhhh.... I promised I wouldn't tell!

coolemon

There should be an uprising about this. Mobs with torches marching down to burn the RTE studios down.

How dare they force every household to fork out 160 euro to pay for these obscene salaries through threat of imprisonment.

A disgusting mafia state. The same talentless spoofers who question the elite "on our behalf" while they wine and dine in the same establishments as them.

The Irish people are getting shafted.

Sierra 117

Does RTE pay Pat Kenny so much because they're afraid he'd claim squatters rights on the place if they didn't?

Clandestine

AnonoBoy wrote: »

You want Pat Kenny and Joe Duffy topless?

.... different strokes, different folks.....

awec

I'm all for a salary, expenses and perks cap for all workers paid by the taxpayer.

The tv license is effectively a tax.

As such, I don't care if a tv3 presenter is paid 100 million a year, but rte salaries along with all other public sector jobs must be held to a different set of standards.

Cienciano

I never watch RTE. I don't pay the licence fee either. I'd love to see how many would pay €170 a year if it was optional, but if you didn't pay, you didn't get the channels. Like an add on to sky.
I definitely wouldn't. The fact that the licence fee is compulsory if you have a tv is the worst part.
The picture in the OP's link of that smug talentless arséhole Tubrity makes me feel ill

Richard Hillman

I'm not one for criticising salaries but these people couldn't get one third of these salaries any where else. I'm annoyed at the people negotiating these salaries. I want to know how much they are on because they are clearly not doing their job very well.

suicide_circus

Lets do a simple comparison.

New Zealand has a population very close in size to ours, c. 4.5mil.

TVNZ, New Zealand's national broadcaster, pays its two top earners Simon Dallow and Wendy Petrie in the region of $300,000 which is about €200,000. RTE's top earner Ryan Tubrity is paid in excess of double this figure.

frankie_fisher

pat kenny is an excellent broadcaster and someone who,s talents would most likely be rewarded to the same degree were he in law or something

marian finucane and joe duffy are truly insufferable , their pay packets defy logic

MadsL

suicide_circus wrote: »

Lets do a simple comparison.

New Zealand has a population very close in size to ours, c. 4.5mil.

TVNZ, New Zealand's national broadcaster, pays its two top earners Simon Dallow and Wendy Petrie in the region of $300,000 which is about €200,000. RTE's top earner Ryan Tubrity is paid in excess of double this figure.

€373,000 is not double €200,000.

Cost of living is higher in NZ however.

velo.2010

Well, I wasn't too far out with what I remembered.
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/tubridy-s-earnings-cut-by-31-as-rt%C3%A9-slashes-presenters-pay-1.1340805

So Tubridy's earnings actually increased in 2011 - an increase of 12% on 2010 earnings, in spite of RTE's claim of continually reducing top earner's fees since 2008. RTE actively raised his earnings over a 2-3 year period (when others started recieving paycuts and some employees were laid-off) so any future paycut would look better and still leave Tubridy with a massive salary, commensurate with hosting the Late Late show.

FWIW, in 2004, he earned e216,000.

StewartGriffin

dzer2 wrote: »

Or leave:rolleyes:

To go where exactly? Pharaoh Island TV?

On a more serious note, I wonder how far a legal challenge against the licence fee would get? When you think that, for example, a cash-strapped working single mother of four young kids has to pay up the cost of 2 months heating bills to fund a fraction of the salary of these 10 bland professional, even though she may never benefit from their work.

Where is the legal justice in that?

Sunnyisland

Its to much money to be paying these broadcasters, Marian finucane does just a saturday & sunday mornings for gods sake ??

If rte want to pay them that sort of money that should be up to them, but unfortunately its coming out of the public purse, Between our politicians and our broadcasters we surely no how to pay them.

joolsveer

EuropeanSon wrote: »

Why would the Taoiseach's pay matter? They are in different industries. .............

They are not in any industry that I have ever heard of.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/industry

in·dus·try (nd-str)
n. pl. in·dus·tries
1. Commercial production and sale of goods.
2. A specific branch of manufacture and trade: the textile industry. See Synonyms at business.
3. The sector of an economy made up of manufacturing enterprises: government regulation of industry.

Sierra 117

Isn't RTE currently operating at a loss?

stop animal cruelty

What pisses me off is that you have people ringing into Tubridy or Liveline saying how they are struggling to feed the kids, can't afford to keep a car anymore....yet Tubridy & crew are their sitting on their hundreds of thousands salary....for what??? Why do these people derseve this kind of money??? what are they doing to help society?? Gardaí taking huge pay cuts, as are teachers etc...A&E's closing down across the country & this is were so much money is going?? It s just crazy...this country is such a fuk up

armchair fusilier

EuropeanSon wrote: »

Tubridy presents a show that gets about a million viewers a week, plus a presumably popular radio show.

Nope, he presents a spectacularly unsuccessful radio show. He inherited a show with over 300,000 listeners, of which he has lost over 140,000.