Summer 2015 was dreadful on RTE

John Joe Jones

It it just me or was this RTE Televisions worst summer in years ? Endless repeats and not one current affairs program on in weeks. At least last year they had callans kicks on Friday night's at 9.30 what happened to that ?

satguy

We are forced by law to pay them, they just need to keep it ticking over.

political analyst

John Joe Jones wrote: »

It it just me or was this RTE Televisions worst summer in years ? Endless repeats and not one current affairs program on in weeks. At least last year they had callans kicks on Friday night's at 9.30 what happened to that ?

In fairness, there are no significant current affairs in Ireland in August. By the way, the Stormont crisis will still be on next week, which is when Prime Time returns. Furthermore, the Middle East refugee crisis does not directly affect us at this point in time and that crisis will also still be on next week.

There's much less happening on this island than there is in Great Britain.

twinklerunner

John Joe Jones wrote: »

It it just me or was this RTE Televisions worst summer in years ? Endless repeats and not one current affairs program on in weeks. At least last year they had callans kicks on Friday night's at 9.30 what happened to that ?

Even though we pay for RTE, I'm glad that we have access to the UK channels and don't have to rely on RTE's output.

kn

Irish TV has gone to pot of late. I've been watching UK channels almost exclusively for weeks now. At least it looks as if there will be a couple of series worth tuning into from next week like the 'Recruits' one on army recruits.

CorkMartin

Absolutely dreadful output. I only tuned in for the hurling and football matches.
The majority of my viewing has been the UK terrestrials.

Enjoyed the French series 'Winesses' on Ch4 immensely. 'Escape from Isis' was also excellent.

The Beeb is consistently good. BBC4 throw up some gems in terms of documentaries and music programmes.
Tonight Rick Stein's excellent from Venice to Istanbul and Gardeners World on BBC2 are easy Friday night viewing.
Listen to BBC Radio 2 a lot.

I feel the €160 I pay for RTE is poor value. Their radio shows are tired as well, and 2fm is abysmal.

qweerty

political analyst wrote: »

In fairness, there are no significant current affairs in Ireland in August. By the way, the Stormont crisis will still be on next week, which is when Prime Time returns. Furthermore, the Middle East refugee crisis does not directly affect us at this point in time and that crisis will also still be on next week.

There's much less happening on this island than there is in Great Britain.

Perhaps you are equating parliamentary affairs with current affairs. Political and social questions like education reform, legislation around sex work, etc, remain relevant, and that's before you consider more abstract questions about the nature of Irish politics. The summer slowdown would perhaps enable an inventive state broadcaster to cover such questions in greater depth and at a slower pace, versus a fifteen-slot on Primetime or Sean O'Rourke.

icdg

I actually don't remember current affairs being completely pulled before. Usually there would still be a Thursday edition of Prime Time throughout August. Odd. Anyway everything should be back to normal next week

brick man

icdg wrote:

I actually don't remember current affairs being completely pulled before. Usually there would still be a Thursday edition of Prime Time throughout August. Odd. Anyway everything should be back to normal next week

It was pulled last year as well during August due to financial pressure. Since Kevin bakhurst took over RTE News & Current Affairs TV news output has fallen . for example News Now had morning news live at 9 10, 11, & midday now no 9am bulletin, and news on 2 used to be on for half hour now it's on News Now at 11pm for ten minutes. So unless they have a plan for News Now which is badly needed

political analyst

icdg wrote: »

I actually don't remember current affairs being completely pulled before. Usually there would still be a Thursday edition of Prime Time throughout August. Odd. Anyway everything should be back to normal next week

Here's a quote from a reply to an e-mail that I sent to the address feedback@rte.ie

'Prime Time' was traditionally broadcast once a week throughout the Summer. However it was not broadcast last August, or August 2013, in an attempt to use our resources as efficiently and effectively as possible.

'Prime Time' has an annual budget and if we maintain even a skeleton staff and studio operations throughout the Summer, that is necessarily an additional limitation on the amount of resources that we have to devote to covering stories during the peak season.
Bearing in mind the number of institutions/organisations that now have only very limited operations during August, it tends to be a very quiet month domestically, both politically and economically.

For that reason we felt that it would be a more efficient use of resources to go off air in August, thereby having those staff hours/budget to use during the peak season.
However, we did maintain an ability to go on air at short notice if it was felt that was necessary.

political analyst

qweerty wrote: »

Perhaps you are equating parliamentary affairs with current affairs. Political and social questions like education reform, legislation around sex work, etc, remain relevant, and that's before you consider more abstract questions about the nature of Irish politics. The summer slowdown would perhaps enable an inventive state broadcaster to cover such questions in greater depth and at a slower pace, versus a fifteen-slot on Primetime or Sean O'Rourke.

I'm not saying that they don't remain relevant in the summer but the school holidays and the Oireachtas recess mean that news bulletins are enough for coverage of educational and legislative matters.

The population of a country is a factor in deciding how much coverage the national broadcaster provides for current affairs. The fact that Ireland's population is relatively small - four-and-a-half million (in the Republic - plus only under 2 million in Northern Ireland, i.e. the Stormont crisis) means that much less happens on this island than in Britain, which has a population of over 60 million.

twinklerunner

BBC NI manages to fill a half an hour daily on Newsline with news from NI throughout the summer. RTE just about managed a daily half hour of world news.

political analyst

twinklerunner wrote: »

BBC NI manages to fill a half an hour daily on Newsline with news from NI throughout the summer. RTE just about managed a daily half hour of world news.

That's the half-hour allocated on BBC 1 for the "news where you are" in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the English regions.

There are no international events that have a direct affect on us at this point in time. If a 9/11-style atrocity takes place or a former Taoiseach or President of Ireland dies in August e.g. Albert Reynolds, Six-One will temporarily revert back to half an hour.

twinklerunner

There are no international events that have a direct affect on us at this point in time. If a 9/11-style atrocity takes place or a former Taoiseach or President of Ireland dies in August e.g. Albert Reynolds, Six-One will temporarily revert back to half an hour.[/quote]

There's so much going on in the world. Thankfully we have Channel 4 News and BBC's Newsnight to keep us up to speed.

Sam Russell

political analyst wrote: »

That's the half-hour allocated on BBC 1 for the "news where you are" in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the English regions.

There are no international events that have a direct affect on us at this point in time. If a 9/11-style atrocity takes place or a former Taoiseach or President of Ireland dies in August e.g. Albert Reynolds, Six-One will temporarily revert back to half an hour.

Do you not think the refugee problem merits attention? There are 100,000 refugees on the move with thousands dying in the Med. I would think that deserves quite a bit of attention. Only 3,500 people died in 9/11.

political analyst

Sam Russell wrote: »

Do you not think the refugee problem merits attention? There are 100,000 refugees on the move with thousands dying in the Med. I would think that deserves quite a bit of attention. Only 3,500 people died in 9/11.

The deaths of large number of people in the Third World never get as much coverage in American and European media as the deaths of large numbers of people in shootings or terrorist attacks in America and Europe.

political analyst

twinklerunner wrote: »

There are no international events that have a direct affect on us at this point in time. If a 9/11-style atrocity takes place or a former Taoiseach or President of Ireland dies in August e.g. Albert Reynolds, Six-One will temporarily revert back to half an hour.

There's so much going on in the world. Thankfully we have Channel 4 News and BBC's Newsnight to keep us up to speed.[/QUOTE]
The migrant crisis doesn't affect us because most of the migrants are trying to get to Britain, not Ireland, and Ireland is not a member of NATO.

Sam Russell

political analyst wrote: »

The deaths of large number of people in the Third World never get as much coverage in American and European media as the deaths of large numbers of people in shootings or terrorist attacks in America and Europe.

But their deaths are not in the third world, they are in Europe, and the dead bodies from the Med are being landed in Europe. This is the situation that gave rise to the EU in the first place - the mass movement of refugees following the second world war - never again. We (the EU) soon forgot that when economics took over from humanitarian concern.

As well as that, the Greek bailout should have given rise to analysis.

Caovyn Lineah

Genuinely, I cannot remember the last time I watched an irish channel. It's pathetic as a whole,i will check out the Shannon documentary this week however.

twinklerunner

political analyst wrote: »

There's so much going on in the world. Thankfully we have Channel 4 News and BBC's Newsnight to keep us up to speed.

The migrant crisis doesn't affect us because most of the migrants are trying to get to Britain, not Ireland, and Ireland is not a member of NATO.[/quote]

Ah well sure that's fine so, as long as we're not affected. What a depressing outlook. As I said previously, thankfully we're not relying on RTE's News.

qweerty

political analyst wrote: »

I'm not saying that they don't remain relevant in the summer but the school holidays and the Oireachtas recess mean that news bulletins are enough for coverage of educational and legislative matters.

The population of a country is a factor in deciding how much coverage the national broadcaster provides for current affairs. The fact that Ireland's population is relatively small - four-and-a-half million (in the Republic - plus only under 2 million in Northern Ireland, i.e. the Stormont crisis) means that much less happens on this island than in Britain, which has a population of over 60 million.

I recognise the point you're making. But I still think it is premised on a belief that programmes such as Primetime should be about analysing the weekly goings-on at a superficial level rather than about being a forum for meaningful discussion about more abstract topics. I have no problem with the news being scaled-back over the summer. (In fact, it would be unrealistic not to.) But I think it ludicrous that there would be a chunk of the year without a serious news-based discussion programme on RTE TV. Marian Finucane (or, more likely, her stand-in) manages to fill at least an hour each weekend (and her programme is hardly the standard we should be holding one of our most cerebral programmes to); no reason Prime Time shouldn't be able to do so too.

political analyst

Sam Russell wrote: »

But their deaths are not in the third world, they are in Europe, and the dead bodies from the Med are being landed in Europe. This is the situation that gave rise to the EU in the first place - the mass movement of refugees following the second world war - never again. We (the EU) soon forgot that when economics took over from humanitarian concern.

As well as that, the Greek bailout should have given rise to analysis.

But they are citizens of Third World countries. For example, the deaths of 58 Chinese illegal immigrants in a lorry in Dover in 2000 didn't get wall-to-wall coverage in the British media.

Sam Russell

political analyst wrote: »

But they are citizens of Third World countries. For example, the deaths of 58 Chinese illegal immigrants in a lorry in Dover in 2000 didn't get wall-to-wall coverage in the British media.

We are citizens of a third world country. [That is if you take the definition of third world being non-aligned with Nato or Warsaw Pact].

political analyst

Sam Russell wrote: »

We are citizens of a third world country. [That is if you take the definition of third world being non-aligned with Nato or Warsaw Pact].

We're in the EU and we're not in the type of crisis that Greece is in.

newacc2015

The papers dont go on holidays for the Summer like RTE. The Irish Times still manages to get at least on significant topic or pressing issue to cover per week in its paper. Eg sex workers or undocumented migrants here. RTE tends to rehash the same thing every few months. I say it will only be a few years until we can expect wall to wall debates on Abortion like SSM

Good journalism is about covering stories, that are going to happen. Not just wanting for a major event like 9/11 to happen. I think RTE is so concerned with being unbiased, that its coverage suffers. Look at last week tonight on HBO. He doesnt give 2 sides to an agreement, as why should people have an opinion on absolutely everything eg LGBT rights, women rights. Sometimes things are morally right and an opponent isnt necessary eg a lot of the people during the SSM debates, were clearly mentally unwell. But were still put on air

political analyst

newacc2015 wrote: »

The papers dont go on holidays for the Summer like RTE. The Irish Times still manages to get at least on significant topic or pressing issue to cover per week in its paper. Eg sex workers or undocumented migrants here. RTE tends to rehash the same thing every few months. I say it will only be a few years until we can expect wall to wall debates on Abortion like SSM

Good journalism is about covering stories, that are going to happen. Not just wanting for a major event like 9/11 to happen. I think RTE is so concerned with being unbiased, that its coverage suffers. Look at last week tonight on HBO. He doesnt give 2 sides to an agreement, as why should people have an opinion on absolutely everything eg LGBT rights, women rights. Sometimes things are morally right and an opponent isnt necessary eg a lot of the people during the SSM debates, were clearly mentally unwell. But were still put on air

Printing a newspaper is less expensive than broadcasting a TV current affairs programme.

icdg

Just to say that while I appreciate why the topic has arisen, I'd rather we confined ourselves to the broadcasting angles here. There is a whole set of Politics forums for discussion of the substantive issues

satguy

Our only hope is that SF get enough seats in the next GE, and decide to make RTE stand on it's own two feet and do away with the TV Licence.

We get nothing for our money, even the vacancies that arise at RTE, mostly go to Sons and Daughters of RTE staff, it's just one big D4 social club, and we are paying for it...

qweerty

satguy wrote: »

Our only hope is that SF get enough seats in the next GE, and decide to make RTE stand on it's own two feet and do away with the TV Licence.

We get nothing for our money, even the vacancies that arise at RTE, mostly go to Sons and Daughters of RTE staff, it's just one big D4 social club, and we are paying for it...

Goodness me, I'd allow my license to triple if it meant avoiding that possibility. Sinn Fein would probably just reallocate the license income to TG4 anyway.

satguy

qweerty wrote: »

Goodness me, I'd allow my license to triple if it meant avoiding that possibility. Sinn Fein would probably just reallocate the license income to TG4 anyway.

I would not mind paying a small amount per year to keep TG4, but the rest is a waste of money, I have not tuned in an RTE radio station in 20 years. I may watch the RTE news at 9 once a month, other then that this house is an RTE desert.

Even my RTE player wont play, it says I need to stop using Adblock first.

qweerty

Apols, icdg, this will be my last off-topic post!

satguy wrote: »

I would not mind paying a small amount per year to keep TG4, but the rest is a waste of money, I have not tuned in an RTE radio station in 20 years. I may watch the RTE news at 9 once a month, other then that this house is an RTE desert.

Even my RTE player wont play, it says I need to stop using Adblock first.

There's this myth that TG4 is super cheap.

Yet, in 2012, it received a state subvention of ~€22m and a License Fee contribution of €9.2m. There exists a legacy arrangement from when TG4 was set up: RTE provides one hour of Irish-language content per day. This cost RTE €7.75m in 2012. It also receives effective subsidies in the form of BAI funding: around €10m in 2012.

All that despite a ~2% audience share.

Figures are 2012 because that's when I looked through the accounts. I presume nothing has changed substantially.