RTE contributed €384mn to the Irish economy in 2011.

Tombo2001

http://www.rte.ie/news/business/2013/0410/380737-rte-pwc-report/

Anybody else find this ad campaign that RTE has been running just a little disingenuos.

My own view would be RTE did not 'contribute' €384mn to the economy by any stretch.

I am assuming what they mean is that total RTE expenditure was €384mn....but that was funded by the tax payer.....so how is that RTE's contribution.....

Obviously, not all of this was funded by the tax payer, some of it was funded by advertising revenues......but:
(i) It obviously wouldnt be in a position to generate advertising revenues like it does if it didnt have the licence fee propping it up as the dominant media outlet in Ireland
(ii) How much of its ad revenue is sourced in the domestic market......when Liberty Insurance sets up shop in Ireland, it uses the Late Late show as its flagship media campaign.....if RTE wasnt there, does that mean that Liberty would have had no campaign....no it doesnt.....they would have sponsored the GAA or the Irish rugby team or advertised more heavily on TV3 or the Irish Times......there is no net contribution to the economy there.

RTE's contribution consists of the revenues it generates in overseas markets....that doesnt displace other local media outlets.....if Love/Hate generates sales around the world, thats a net contribution to the Irish economy.

Interestingly, where Irish shows have been succesful overseas in the past, they have usually been independent operations that were launched through RTE......e.g. Riverdance or The Lyrics Board......but RTE (ie the tax payer) hasnt participated in their success.

My own view is that RTE needs to get its house in order and quit with the charm offensive.....it is noted that this independent report by PWC that praises RTE was also commissioned by RTE.

coylemj

It's called propaganda. What you really need to do is ignore it.

mike65

Its total nonsense, if the beeb ran a campaign suggesting they were adding 3.6 billion to the GDP they'd get slated, even though they sell programmes far and wide and so do at least generate some export earnings.

RTE total income was €351m which is £300m for a population of 4.5 million (I'm not counting Nordies any more than I'd count anyone outside UK for BBC figures) which suggests RTE is still wildly inefficient. The scaled up figure for the UK population of 62 million would be 4.1 billion. Okay its a crude calculation as things like infrastructure and programmes cost a lot regardless of how many you happen to be broadcasting too and those infamous star wages are a very small % of total costs.

coylemj

They're now plugging it on radio ads.. It's stomach churning, self-serving twaddle.

Tombo2001

coylemj wrote: »

It's called propaganda. What you really need to do is ignore it.

Well I could do that, but as a tax payer....I own RTE, along with the rest of ye, and I have better things to do wth me money.....

(obviously I am saying this toungue in cheek, but on a more serious level, what i mean is that stunts like this just show the extent to which RTE has lost the run of itself).