Pay the Broadcast Charge or shut down RTE?

Sleepy

Since they're bringing in the broadcast charge to pay for RTE whether we like it or not I'm curious as to whether that's what the average boardsie's opinion on the charge: would you rather pay for RTE via the broadcast charge or save your cash and go without?

Smcgie

Sleepy wrote: »

Since they're bringing in the broadcast charge to pay for RTE whether we like it or not I'm curious as to whether that's what the average boardsie's opinion on the charge: would you rather pay for RTE via the broadcast charge or save your cash and go without?

You really don't need to ask that question. Its utterly obvious what your answer will be.

Links234

Neither? Frankly, they should be able to sustain themselves from advertising revenue and not have to be propped up by such charges.

Frosty McSnowballs

I'd pay double to get Tubbers and his feckin ears off the tv!

Sleepy

There is always option C, let people who want it pay for it via subscriptions and tell them they have to operate based on subscription and advertising revenues.

usernamegoes

There should be an option "Sell it to private owners sustained by private means"

bop1977

Senor Fancy Pants wrote: »

I'd pay double to get Tubbers and his feckin ears off the tv!

And don't forget about getting his smug voice off the radio while your at it.

mikeym

Everyone who owns a Tv is going to have to pay up or go to court.

Simple As.

mfceiling

Why do we never get the choice?

Pay up or face the consequences....why? What if i don't want RTE?

Frosty McSnowballs

bop1977 wrote: »

And don't forget about getting his smug voice off the radio while your at it.

Ah jaysis, he's a bollix! :pac:

His face looks like a stretched out ballbag

OneArt

Shut down RTE, execute anyone 50+ and send the rest of them to work underground turning the big wheels.

shruikan2553

The problem with letting them survive on their own is that they know they can't so we might as well shut them down. Our options is to keep it on life support at our expense, put it to sleep, or shoot it a few times and watch it slowly die.

Sleepy

mikeym wrote: »

Everyone who owns a Tv is going to have to pay up or go to court.

Simple As.

And my question is: do people agree with that policy or not?

Tin Foil Hat

mikeym wrote: »

Everyone who owns a Tv is going to have to pay up or go to court.

Simple As.

And pay up, or go to court, even if you don't. Handy business plan if you've got buddies in government, isn't it?

RikkFlair

I'll pay money to shut down TV3.

uch

Ah sure they're a great bunch of lads, give them all a raise

Teyla Emmagan

I wouldn't miss RTE if it was gone in the morning, in fact it would be weeks before I even noticed. It is completely irrelevant to my life.

Sleepy

shruikan2553 wrote: »

The problem with letting them survive on their own is that they know they can't so we might as well shut them down. Our options is to keep it on life support at our expense, put it to sleep, or shoot it a few times and watch it slowly die.

They couldn't in their current form. TV3 manages to stay afloat as a commercially viable operation, I'm sure RTE could too if they were managed as a commercial entity.

usernamegoes has actually suggested my preferred option: scrap the charge and privatise the company (if no buyer can be found, make them operate as a commercial public owned company a la ESB).

hotbabe1992

I would say lets have it on subscription those who pay watch,those who dont pay dont watch...Simple as that

seanie_c

mikeym wrote: »

Everyone who owns a Tv is going to have to pay up or go to court.

Simple As.

I don't have a TV, don't want one.

darkpagandeath

if you shut down RTE were would the government spout the propaganda ? a none state sponsored body would not put up with there tomfoolery... and they wont go to a sub modal as they would close down the next day as no one would pay for there service. sure there webby and streaming is cutting edge init lads. You can watch the same RTE new’s 24 hours a day shame there are only 3 news broadcast there version of sky new has me in stitches.

kneemos

They lost fifty million last year with both advertising and license money so it's both or nothing or another TV3 type effort.
Personally I think for the money they provide good value eventhough I seldom watch it.

Tin Foil Hat

kneemos wrote: »

They lost fifty million last year with both advertising and license money so it's both or nothing or another TV3 type effort.
Personally I think for the money they provide good value eventhough I seldom watch it.

Being forced to part with money, under threat of legal action, for a product/service I don't want is piss poor value by any definition.

kneemos

Tin Foil Hat wrote: »

Being force to part with money, under threat of legal action, for a product/service I don't want is piss poor value by any definition.

I think it's good to have a national broadcaster that provides Irish oriented programming,debate and sports coverage.
If you don't want it no doubt people close to you do,so think of it as a community service.

Sleepy

So do you also think people without cars shoulld pay road tax kneemos?

kneemos

Sleepy wrote: »

So do you also think people without cars shoulld pay road tax kneemos?

People without cars do pay for roads.

BNMC

kneemos wrote: »

People without cars do pay for roads.

That's not what was asked.

kneemos

BNMC wrote: »

That's not what was asked.

The two are completely unrelated unless you say that if everybody doesn't pay road tax we won't have roads,in which case I would say yes.

BNMC

Just because people don't drive doesn't mean they shouldn't pay for roads. They have to get around some way.

People take serious umbrage with this broadcasting charge to keep Tubridy, Miriam O'Callaghan, et al on massively over inflated wage packets and rightly so.

Phoebas

Sleepy wrote: »

So do you also think people without cars shoulld pay road tax kneemos?

Should people who don't go to libraries pay for the Library service?
Should people who don't go to museums pay for the Museum service?
...
Should people who don't go to hospitals pay for the Health service?
Should people who don't claim the dole pay for the Social Welfare service?

lertsnim

Sleepy wrote: »

So do you also think people without cars shoulld pay road tax kneemos?

It's Motor Tax. Not Road Tax.

Lando Griffin

There are alot of older folk who would be lost without Radio 1.
BTW is Larry Grogan still alive and spinning the discs?

constance tench

Apparently we already pay a broadcast charge through Tax...If you have a Salary of 35,000e you pay 28.96!

Only found out recently with this handy 'Where Does your Tax Go' tool [Community ,Culture and Environment]
You can use the slider to adjust the salary.Neat.

http://www.publicpolicy.ie/where-does-your-tax-go/#middle-link

wandatowell

RTE dont have the rights to show premiership highlights anymore so I dont use the telly anymore.

'cept to play my playstation

kneemos

Lando Griffin wrote: »

There are alot of older folk who would be lost without Radio 1.
BTW is Larry Grogan still alive and spinning the discs?

Think he has a helper.

Sleepy

Phoebas wrote: »

Library service

Contributes to education of the nation: good for economy and society in general.

Should people who don't go to museums pay for the Museum service?

see above

Should people who don't go to hospitals pay for the Health service?

Contributes to the health of the nation, therefore good in general (funding could certainly be spent better however)

Should people who don't claim the dole pay for the Social Welfare service?

Again in the interest of society. If we don't provide a social safety net we drive people to crime.

RTE provides nothing that society requires.

shruikan2553

kneemos wrote: »

I think it's good to have a national broadcaster that provides Irish oriented programming,debate and sports coverage.
If you don't want it no doubt people close to you do,so think of it as a community service.

Grand so, once everyone helps to subsidise my netflix sub I'll consider subsidising peoples sports coverage.

Phoebas

Sleepy wrote: »

RTE provides nothing that society requires.

In your opinion.

On the other hand they are the biggest producer of news and current events content in the country, not to mention sports broadcasting, children' s programming, support for the Arts and so on.
RTE are the most popular broadcaster both on Radio and TV by a very long way. They also provide one of the most popular websites in the country.

But apart from that ... they provide nothing that we require.

kneemos

Sleepy wrote: »

Contributes to education of the nation: good for economy and society in general.


see above


Contributes to the health of the nation, therefore good in general (funding could certainly be spent better however)


Again in the interest of society. If we don't provide a social safety net we drive people to crime.

RTE provides nothing that society requires.

News,sports,music,current affairs,home produced programs...?

KyussBishop

I was originally of mind that they should just make it subscription or advertisement based, but as much as I don't care for RTE, think about what will happen when they become just another private TV station:
You will have more garbage like from TV3, which is a fair sight worse than even RTE (takes some doing), and you will have the TV channels (including news reporting) eventually under control of a small private oligopoly (not dissimilar to much of the newspapers), where reporting is heavily skewed in one direction.

So, as bad as RTE are, as much as they may be subservient to government interests, at least our news and media are not yet completely dominated by corporate interests - and that (coupled with the chance that, given enough reform, they can be made to serve the public interest better) is a good reason for keeping RTE. We don't want all our media controlled by private interests.

cros13

constance tench wrote: »

Apparently we already pay a broadcast charge through Tax...If you have a Salary of 35,000e you pay 28.96!

Only found out recently with this handy 'Where Does your Tax Go' tool [Community ,Culture and Environment]
You can use the slider to adjust the salary.Neat.

http://www.publicpolicy.ie/where-does-your-tax-go/#middle-link

Really like that calculator. It's like the tax receipt the US government launched a while back.

According to the calculator broadcasting apparently takes €234.36 from me already.

I don't have a TV, I don't visit RTE.ie, I don't have a radio either and what I remember of RTE is that they generally fiddled with the balance sheet and spent all the advertising revenue buying old foreign TV.

I have no problem with funding TG4 or local production but do that through income tax and the budget. Down with stealth taxes!

JohnBoy26

kneemos wrote: »

The two are completely unrelated unless you say that if everybody doesn't pay road tax we won't have roads,in which case I would say yes.

There is no such thing as road tax. There is a tax called motor tax but little if any of it goes towards roads.

jimmynokia

Phoebas wrote: »

In your opinion.

On the other hand they are the biggest producer of news and current events content in the country, not to mention sports broadcasting, children' s programming, support for the Arts and so on.
RTE are the most popular broadcaster both on Radio and TV by a very long way. They also provide one of the most popular websites in the country.

But apart from that ... they provide nothing that we require.

Tv3 manage to survive well with no funding,so why cant RTE?

JohnBoy26

kneemos wrote: »

News,sports,music,current affairs,home produced programs...?

Home produced programs? Like what fair city? a poor excuse of a show with cr#p acting and storylines. Lots of other silly cheap home produced programs on air by rte as well over the last few years. Shows such as the all Ireland talent show and that sports quiz thing hosted by grainne seoige were dire and not worthy of the high licence fee.

kneemos

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

Home produced programs? Like what fair city? a poor excuse of a show with cr#p acting and storylines. Lots of other silly cheap home produced programs on air by rte as well over the last few years. Shows such as the all Ireland talent show and that sports quiz thing hosted by grainne seoige were dire and not worthy of the high licence fee.

Still extremely popular.So lots of people do like them which is a good reason to support the license fee.

JohnBoy26

kneemos wrote: »

Still extremely popular.So lots of people do like them which is a good reason to support the license fee.

Popular or not IMO all the programs I mentioned are an insult to the license payer. Rte are producing programs which nowhere near justifies the high license fee due to their distinct lack of quality.

The Narrator

They should cut the yearly fee to €30.

With that they show the news (as they do currently), some sport and other main events like the eurovision (even though most watch it as on BBC anyway).

The rest of the time they show nothing. Most people have no interest in watching the crap that RTE are making, it's a travesty what we are paying for it.

Banjo String

Phoebas wrote: »

In your opinion.

On the other hand they are the biggest producer of news and current events content in the country, not to mention sports broadcasting, children' s programming, support for the Arts and so on.
RTE are the most popular broadcaster both on Radio and TV by a very long way. They also provide one of the most popular websites in the country.

But apart from that ... they provide nothing that we require.

Ah Phoebe.

So late on a Friday night? Don't your FG overlords give you time off?

RTE is broadcast digitally now, and if the Govt think people want to watch it, scramble the broadcasts, and only subscribers will receive the deciphered programming. Like what setanta do for example.

The state wishing to criminalise it's citizens who don't wish to receive state controlled media is a load of bollox tbh, and I hope they get their app responses from the people coming into the local elections.

RTE, FG, Lab, and Pat Feckin Rabbit can go take a Crap in a hat. Tossers.

suicide_circus

€160 is wildly disproportionate to the return we get in terms of content quality. They could do the same job on half that. What they couldn't do is pay the bloated public service wage and pension bills they have. That is where the majority of your €160 goes. The quality of some programming such as prime time and some of the radio one stuff is good but nowhere near "€160 with the threat of imprisonment for non payment" good.

Phoebas

Banjo String wrote: »

Ah Phoebe.

So late on a Friday night? Don't your FG overlords give you time off?

Do you ever get tired of playing that same old tune?

Phoebas

jimmynokia wrote: »

Tv3 manage to survive well with no funding,so why cant RTE?

RTE would be just another TV3 without public funding for public service broadcasting, and personally I'd hate to see that happen.

I'd like to see a situation where the funding for public service broadcasting was spread out a bit more and maybe give TV3 some help to up their game on that front.