RTE Two's decline

dr Golden

RTE 2s ratings have been in rapid decline in recent years. The young people watch home and away in advance online these days and that is reflected in the ratings. Apart from sport RTE two doesn't seem to have alot going for it, One failed home produced comedy after an other and endless repeats.

Elmo

dr Golden wrote: »

RTE 2s ratings have been in rapid decline in recent years. The young people watch home and away in advance online these days and that is reflected in the ratings. Apart from sport RTE two doesn't seem to have alot going for it, One failed home produced comedy after an other and endless repeats.

My main issue with this idea that their decline in rating is because young people and people in general have moved online. Ratings don't count people not watching live TV, their audience has declined. Home and Away has being declining also because it is a repeat from RTÉ One, and available on the RTÉ Player and most soap operas have declined in recent years.

They have a dreadful schedule and as you point out endless repeats and bad home produced comedy. Look back at the early 2000s when RTÉ had first run serials and new home produced scripted comedies and drama.

They saw their audience increase at Christmas because they actually produced a quality schedule, while TV3 saw a massive drop at Christmas because they did very little.

iseegirls

I think the main area which RTE 2 need to do is try to offload the kids shows to RTE Jr (when they are allowed, hopefully that will be soon)

Are they not able to get at least a day behind Home And Away's first transmission in Australia? This would surely help that figure.

There is such a weird mix in that 7-9pm slot weekdays. There is Big Bang Theory, Blackadder, Top Gear, Gok Wan, Only Fools And Horses amongst repeats of The Voice. Only Fools should be nowhere near the 'youth' channel of RTE. And this shows in RTE2's Top 20 ratings, where no programme between 7pm and 9pm appear (apart from 6 Nations rugby)

EdmondShiels3

Channel 5 have the first showing of home and away in Europe and are a day of two ahead on channel 5 and another day on 5*. I would agree they should stick to one age group or the other apart from sport.

Andy454

Has it ever been any good??

Look at the programs these logos are introducing - YAWN!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ax3b_ESmGM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5CIWMIlmGw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcDzVe06g9g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIbNVm927FU

Elmo

Andy454 wrote: »

Has it ever been any good??

Look at the programs these logos are introducing - YAWN!!

Well lets jazz things up so ?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TyUEhtz-U0

Scary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd8MzmVv1So

Hip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLccednNOZI

Watery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUw1U30R9mQ

Sporty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu-maenW7sc

Giving up!

icdg

Enough random RTÉ idents lads, they don't add anything to the thread

Turn the radio on

I think RTE should move some programs from RTE 1 to RTE 2 to boast ratings, Programs like Eastenders, The voice of Ireland and the Saturday evening family Films.

Lofty123

I rarely watch RTE2 these days. Haven't done since they dropped coverage of the Premier League. I agree with the above comments re: repeats etc, have either seen all this stuff before or can see it sooner on the UK channels on Freesat. I suspect the majority of Irish households have the UK channels as well, either as part of a Sky/Cable package or on Freesat.

iseegirls

Turn the radio on wrote: »

Saturday evening family Films.

I don't understand why they haven't moved the family film over yet. The film at the moment is split in half, wrapped around the News for 35 minutes. It's a horrible way to watch a film, and alienates the audience which switch on at 6:30 after the news.

Rick_

That last ident you posted Elmo is kinda similar to what RTÉ ONE's on screen look is now with the blue circle pieces spinning around the logo, they just use it for everything else bar the ident.

dublinman1990

iseegirls wrote: »

I don't understand why they haven't moved the family film over yet. The film at the moment is split in half, wrapped around the News for 35 minutes. It's a horrible way to watch a film, and alienates the audience which switch on at 6:30 after the news.

My idea for the family film is to have the scheduling switched from the evening time on RTE 1 to the morning on RTE 2 as it will allow itself to show live sports coverage like GAA and International Rugby during some afternoons.

That would leave a big gap of scheduling for RTE 1 in the evening time. But the problem is that when RTE 1 fill a gap when a political conference comes on, it is usually show a Reeling in the Years or a Killinascully repeat. You couldn't have that go on for every single week as people would need variety to watch their weekend TV.

Elmo

dublinman1990 wrote: »

My idea for the family film is to have the scheduling switched from the evening time on RTE 1 to the morning on RTE 2 as it will allow itself to show live sports coverage like GAA and International Rugby during some afternoons.

That would leave a big gap of scheduling for RTE 1 in the evening time. But the problem is that when RTE 1 fill a gap when a political conference comes on, it is usually show a Reeling in the Years or a Killinascully repeat. You couldn't have that go on for every single week as people would need variety to watch their weekend TV.

RTÉ One need to sort out their Saturday Night family programmes. Ireland's Fittest Families proved that their is an audience for family entertainment programming.

EdmondShiels3

I would agree a lot of people watch the BBC/ITV entertainment programming on Saturday night. I do myself.

lertsnim

How well do TV3 do ratings wise with their ITV simulcast on a Saturday evening?

EdmondShiels3

Not sure but I would say not too bad. This is because ITV is not on the sky epg and is in other channels and most people only watch whats on the epg.

iseegirls

lertsnim wrote: »

How well do TV3 do ratings wise with their ITV simulcast on a Saturday evening?

Last week, Ant & Dec had 178,000 and The Cube had 133,000 for TV3 according to MediaLive. UTV's figures hard to get.

An example of how The X Factor is shared up between the two of them for the final results last year:
TV3 325,600
UTV 109,200

So you could presume that UTV get a 3rd of what TV3 get when their shows are simulcast.

lertsnim

They should be doing something to get a piece of that audience.

Mondo 088

independent.ie/business/irish/rte-two-viewer-numbers-slump-to-record-lows-30425218.html

Elmo

Mondo 088 wrote: »

independent.ie/business/irish/rte-two-viewer-numbers-slump-to-record-lows-30425218.html

Similar situation will happen with TV3 in January. Neither are clear on their audience. A "revamp" of RTÉ TWO won't help unless programmes are produced for the channel.

Onthe3rdDay

To be fair figures in 2013 were always going to be lower than 2012 which was an Olympic year. The viewership figures for the station would be frightening if it didn't have the sports which prop up the figures year in and year out.

They'll probably get away with doing little or nothing fresh with the station for the next two years. The viewing figures will probably stand still or go up this year because of the world cup.

Then in 2015 even if their market share continues to slide they'll be able to point to the collapse of TV3's Market share and how more people are watching RTE 2.

Elmo

Onthe3rdDay wrote: »

To be fair figures in 2013 were always going to be lower than 2012 which was an Olympic year. The viewership figures for the station would be frightening if it didn't have the sports which prop up the figures year in and year out.

They'll probably get away with doing little or nothing fresh with the station for the next two years. The viewing figures will probably stand still or go up this year because of the world cup.

Then in 2015 even if their market share continues to slide they'll be able to point to the collapse of TV3's Market share and how more people are watching RTE 2.

Not good for Irish TV

RTÉ TWO - Heavily reliant on Sport to which they have little or no control over
TV3 - Heavily reliant on ITV programming and some sports which they have little or no control over
UTV - Heavily reliant on ITV programming, which in ROI they have little or no control over

RTÉ TWO are lucky they have 6 Nations, Champions League until sept, GAA Championships in 2015, as are TV3 with XFactor and Rugby World Cup. If TV3 don't get Champions League they are on a up hill battle come 2016, where they have no sports so far secured.

Onthe3rdDay

Elmo wrote: »

Not good for Irish TV

RTÉ TWO - Heavily reliant on Sport to which they have little or no control over
TV3 - Heavily reliant on ITV programming and some sports which they have little or no control over
UTV - Heavily reliant on ITV programming, which in ROI they have little or no control over

RTÉ TWO are lucky they have 6 Nations, Champions League until sept, GAA Championships in 2015, as are TV3 with XFactor and Rugby World Cup. If TV3 don't get Champions League they are on a up hill battle come 2016, where they have no sports so far secured.

What Station has total control of anything really? If something unforeseen happens with an economy unexpectedly commercial stations can have a battle on their hands within weeks. All any broadcaster can do is to do the best with what they've got. RTE2 doesn't do this right now. It did at certain points in it's past.

Better scheduling Between 6 pm and Midnight would solve a lot of it's problems. There are a lot of decent US shows that show up way after midnight while repeats are going out between 7 and 9.

The Big Bang theory is on constantly on E4, what's to be gained by showing an episode every evening at 7 on RTE 2? Tomorrow night they Have 3 sitcom repeats on from 7 to 8.15, meanwhile at 1.00am they have 2 new episodes of Happy Endings.

They seem to be running the station at times like an add on station not one of the main two RTE stations.

Elmo

Onthe3rdDay wrote: »

Better scheduling Between 6 pm and Midnight would solve a lot of it's problems. There are a lot of decent US shows that show up way after midnight while repeats are going out between 7 and 9..

Something RTE and TV3 don't understand.
US, UK programming mixed with some decent Irish programmes.

To broadcast from 7 to 9 each night without a suitable Irish programming is madness IMO.

smellmepower

Another vehicle for Jennifer Maguire/Maia Dunphy/Kathryn Thomas/Des Bishop will be the RTE brain trust's answer to these falling ratings!

Onthe3rdDay

Elmo wrote: »

Something RTE and TV3 don't understand.
US, UK programming mixed with some decent Irish programmes.

To broadcast from 7 to 9 each night without a suitable Irish programming is madness IMO.

I can understand the lack of Irish Programmes with budget cutbacks. I think the real madness is to broadcast US programmes between 7 and 9 that have mostly been shown before many times. If you have fresh unaired shows broadcast at that time with a decent marketing strategy you'll do well. I don't understand this fascination RTE2 and TV3 have with repeating shows over and over again. RTE2 have less of an excuse as they put out a lot of first run material after 11.30 at night. In fact RTE 2 would never have to repeat anything between 6.30pm and midnight if they didn't want to.

Sunny Dayz

I actually don't know what was the last program I watched on RTE2, I couldn't tell you what programs they even show. No wait, they show Simpsons cos the young fella watches that. But other than that nothing on that channel ever catches my eye when browsing the tv guide.

Harry Palmr

The last thing that was NOT sport that I watched on RTE2 was Mad Man I think (and that was only as BBC lost it to SKY), hard to figure its real identity at this stage other than an outlet for The Big Bang Theory and various generic US dramas.

Tonight alone

Devious Maids/Grey's Anatomy/The Americans/Hell on Wheels back to back.

Elmo

Onthe3rdDay wrote: »

I can understand the lack of Irish Programmes with budget cutbacks.

I could also understand but RTÉ TWO outside Children's and Sports had and still has very little to offer. Budget cuts or no budget cuts.

Onthe3rdDay

Elmo wrote: »

I could also understand but RTÉ TWO outside Children's and Sports had and still has very little to offer. Budget cuts or no budget cuts.

I agree with that, other than sport I never watch it at all. Most US shows aren't my particular taste and while I do like some US sitcoms, seeing the same one's over and over again is a total waste of everyone's time. The reason that policy works on E4 is because they don't expect you to be watching the station like it's one of the main stations.

The biggest problem is not the programmes (and lack of Irish programmes) it's the way they're scheduled and Marketed. News is a prime example here. They cut back the News on 2 to a 10 minute summary. It has no fixed time or place and often disappears if something else is on, for example the world cup.

It's the same with other shows that seem to disappear mid run or are on well after midnight.