RTÉ land sale and restructuring [Merged]

L1011

That show has to be profitable with all the product placement too

Elmo

To me this is total bs

https://www.adworld.ie/2018/07/26/rte-looks-to-the-future/

Elmo

To me RTÉ plan is to retain what THEY have as much as possible without any regard to get their viewers & listeners back to what they once had.

According to The Sunday Times RTÉ have looked to increase its advertising minutes on Radio.

The Cush

Site Update from the DG (8th July).

New site entrance

Works on our new site entrance are nearing completion and we expect the entrance to be operational by mid-late July. This is dependent on Dublin City Council (DCC) activating the traffic light system on the Stillorgan Road outside the site entrance. The operation of the traffic light system will be monitored and adjusted by DCC during the first few weeks of the new site entrance being open.

Similar to when we opened the new RTÉ crèche facility, as we near the opening date of the new entrance to the Donnybrook site, we will schedule a series of debriefs with our Property & Services team, who are managing all of the construction projects on site, and who will take you through how the new entrance will operate, explain the new site layout and answer your questions. We will be back to you once we have these scheduled.

New Communal Area, branding and signage

We are in the process of completing the open area in front of the main canteen and have included an artist impression of what this will look like above. What the artist impression doesn’t show is the range of branding and directional signage for this and other areas across the campus which we will be able to show you in the next week or so.
We remain on track to have the open area and branding signage, as well as landscaping, complete by mid-late July and will keep you posted as we get closer to completion.

The RTÉ Sports & Social Club

The new RTÉ Sports Club is also now open for business for existing and new members. The Club is located to the rear of the television studios, opposite the GAA Go offices. Inductions are currently being scheduled via clubmembership@rte.ie and feedback has been very positive so far.
The social facility, which is located opposite the RTÉ Sports Club, will open shortly.

Fair City

Fair City set construction is on track for completion towards the end of September and we’ll have more updates on that in due course.

Parking

We do not currently anticipate any further impact on parking on campus during the period of works outlined above. We will update further on parking once the new site entrance is operational.

political analyst

Elmo wrote: »

To me RTÉ plan is to retain what THEY have as much as possible without any regard to get their viewers & listeners back to what they once had.

According to The Sunday Times RTÉ have looked to increase its advertising minutes on Radio.

Imagine what the reaction from the privately-owned radio broadcasters would be if the government considered letting RTÉ do that.



I didn't come across that in last weekend's Sunday Times - either in the main section or in the Business supplement.


RTÉ's initial application for permission for RTÉ Three was shot down. Therefore, I don't believe it would be allowed to have increases in ads on its radio stations.

Elmo

political analyst wrote: »

Imagine what the reaction from the privately-owned radio broadcasters would be if the government considered letting RTÉ do that.



I didn't come across that in last weekend's Sunday Times - either in the main section or in the Business supplement.


RTÉ's initial application for permission for RTÉ Three was shot down. Therefore, I don't believe it would be allowed to have increases in ads on its radio stations.

It was in the magazine. They have a media column. Also the back page of the main & business often have a nice few tid-bits every now&then. However I find The Sunday Times to have a complete opposite opinion of the other papers re: RTÉ, the can be quite anti-PSB.

The Cush

Mid July site update

Donnybrook Site Update and New Patio In Front of Admin Building

Following the recent update on site works on our Donnybrook campus, we wanted to bring you up to speed on some of the latest developments and to give you some key dates.

As we near the opening of the new entrance, we will be introducing some changes to our Donnybrook campus which will be applicable both to pedestrians and vehicles. It is important that we allow staff and visitors to get used to the new layout before the Stillorgan Road entrance is fully operational.

New changes include the following:

• In the coming days the open area in front of the main Canteen and the Admin Building will be complete, with the exception of branding and fencing. These elements will be added in the next week.
• Please note that due to the hosepipe ban, we will not be in a position to complete landscaping or wash the facade of the Admin Building at this time. We will set a date for completion of both once the ban has been lifted.
• From Monday 23rd July we will have a new traffic flow system in operation on the campus when the new link road, between the Admin Building and the Radio Centre, will open. Access to the tiered car park and the parking to the rear of Radio will be through this new road and access to the front of Radio will be for drop off only.
• Once Dublin City Council have fully commissioned and tested the traffic light system we will arrange for the opening of the new entrance. We estimate this to be at the end of July but further updates will alert staff in advance. We will ensure we have ample signage and personnel in place to oversee these changes and to offer assistance to staff and guests.
• While the Nutley Road entrance will remain open over the coming weeks, please note that it will be no longer be available once the new site entrance officially opens.

Update this week, the new entrance was scheduled to open this week has been deferred

New Entrance Opening Deferred (Donnybrook campus)

Dublin City Council has deferred the operation of the new Stillorgan Road junction until further notice, pending completion of some final road works. This means that the new site entrance on Stillorgan Road will not open tomorrow as anticipated.

Whilst this decision is beyond our control, RTÉ is working with DCC toward a revised opening date as soon as possible.

Elmo

Surprised the Times report on the EBU report on RTÉ was mentioned here.

It out lined major failures at RTÉ and also RTÉ response which put it in context IMO.

Jon Williams put it that it had help develop their strategy, a strategy yet to be published when year 1 is nearly over!

Elmo

So The Times report really hasn't been pick up by other news providers. And it has got little mention here on boards, which I a pretty surprised at.

I take the view that The Times has an agenda against Public Service Broadcasting/Media/Content, while Irish publication (and I include online publications) tend not to have much of other than that they are Public Service is some shape or form, I'd say over the last 5 years they have become quite soft on RTÉ and VMT/TV3.

The last headline in The Times was "Release full text report of critical RTÉ report, TDs tell Forbes". It suggests that she will be invited to appear in front of the Dail Committee, to explain the report.

Already one executive on Twitter has called out The Times on it report. Saying its 18 months old, it help develop the Strategy 2018 to 2022 and that a lot has to be done. He goes on to say that Context is important, however I'd counter that The Times did make it clear that the report was produce in May 2017 and outline the positives of the executive summary along with the negatives.

But to put into context you'd have to see the full report, RTÉ Strategy and also details of the improvements that RTÉ have made. Going by both content and schedule 18 months on I don't think any audience member could point to improvements, perhaps these are internal improvements but they certainly aren't setting RTÉ content alight.

Looking at their 2017 Annual report I see little changes and I don't think I will see much in their 2018 annual report.

I thought the New RTÉ Player was suppose to launch this month?

The Cush

Elmo wrote: »

So The Times report really hasn't been pick up by other news providers.

Th reason being, the summary report of the EBU review was only released to the Times under an FOI. The review was carried out in May 2017 at the request of RTÉ in developing its 5 year strategy and restructuring of the organisation.

On the 5 year review, the BAI today announce it has completed its 5 year funding review of RTÉ and TG4 and submitted its report and recommendations to the Minister - http://www.bai.ie/en/broadcasting-authority-of-ireland-statement-on-five-year-review-of-public-funding/

Link to the tweet you mentioned from Jon Williams, Director RTÉ News & Current Affairs
https://twitter.com/WilliamsJon/status/1044492146185768960

political analyst

Elmo wrote: »

So The Times report really hasn't been pick up by other news providers. And it has got little mention here on boards, which I a pretty surprised at.

I take the view that The Times has an agenda against Public Service Broadcasting/Media/Content, while Irish publication (and I include online publications) tend not to have much of other than that they are Public Service is some shape or form, I'd say over the last 5 years they have become quite soft on RTÉ and VMT/TV3.

The last headline in The Times was "Release full text report of critical RTÉ report, TDs tell Forbes". It suggests that she will be invited to appear in front of the Dail Committee, to explain the report.

Already one executive on Twitter has called out The Times on it report. Saying its 18 months old, it help develop the Strategy 2018 to 2022 and that a lot has to be done. He goes on to say that Context is important, however I'd counter that The Times did make it clear that the report was produce in May 2017 and outline the positives of the executive summary along with the negatives.

But to put into context you'd have to see the full report, RTÉ Strategy and also details of the improvements that RTÉ have made. Going by both content and schedule 18 months on I don't think any audience member could point to improvements, perhaps these are internal improvements but they certainly aren't setting RTÉ content alight.

Looking at their 2017 Annual report I see little changes and I don't think I will see much in their 2018 annual report.

I thought the New RTÉ Player was suppose to launch this month?

I assumed it was the Indo, not The Times (Ireland) that was hostile towards RTÉ.

Elmo

political analyst wrote: »

I assumed it was the Indo, not The Times (Ireland) that was hostile towards RTÉ.

Columnist are generally, reporting wise they tend to be more balanced. But it will be interesting to see how they the BAI call for increases in funding.

The review was carried out in May 2017 at the request of RTÉ in developing its 5 year strategy and restructuring of the organisation.

Which the report said and I say, lets see the strategy oh wait, what about the EBU review not until the strategy, emm so where is the context exactly?

The Cush

The Cush wrote: »

the new entrance was scheduled to open this week has been deferred

New Entrance Opening Deferred (Donnybrook campus)

Dublin City Council has deferred the operation of the new Stillorgan Road junction until further notice, pending completion of some final road works. This means that the new site entrance on Stillorgan Road will not open tomorrow as anticipated.

Whilst this decision is beyond our control, RTÉ is working with DCC toward a revised opening date as soon as possible.

Originally due to open at the beginning of Aug, the new RTÉ Campus entrance from the Stillorgan Rd. opens today with the old Nutley Rd. entrance closing to motor traffic at the same time. Clears the way for the development of the land sold by RTÉ last year.

The new entrance to RTÉ will open at 11.00am this Wednesday 7th November.

Please note that, when the new entrance opens, the Nutley Lane entrance will close at the same time.

– Vehicles entering or exiting the site before 11.00am on the day of opening will use the Nutley Lane entrance.
– Vehicles entering or exiting the site after 11.00am on the day of opening will use Stillorgan Road entrance.

Traffic flow
The new link road, between the Admin Building and the Radio Centre, is open and allows access to the tiered car park and the parking to the rear and to the side of the Radio Centre.

From 11.00am on Wednesday, RTÉ will have a new traffic flow system; vehicles will no longer be able to drive past the front of the Radio Centre. Vehicles will only be allowed access to the front of Radio for drop off purposes.

Traffic light junction
Dublin City Council will continue to test and refine the timing of the traffic light system on Stillorgan Road during the first week to ensure traffic flows according to their plans.

Pedestrians
After the new entrance is opened, pedestrians can access the site via both Nutley Lane and Stillorgan Road. In the interests of health and safety, we would ask you to use designated walkways only.

The Cush

"Official" opening of the new RTÉ entrance yesterday

https://twitter.com/RTE2fm/status/1060164022673305601

Elmo

Licence Fee 155,247 166,164 170,131 182,835 195,699 200,852 200,217 195,968 167,257 180,894 182,370 178,562 178,909 179,081 186,068 2.86% -4.92% 19.85% Licence Fee
Commerical 157,425 176,718 199,757 222186 245,453 239,908 174,704 175,699 183,623 156,320 145,214 149,605 155,403 158,237 151,508 -3.08% -38.27% -3.76% Commerical
Total 312,672 342,882 369,888 405,021 441,152 440,760 374,921 371,667 350,880 337,214 327,584 328,167 334,312 337,318 337,576 0.11% -23.48% 7.96% Total
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 5 YEAR 10 YEAR 15 YEAR CHANGE
Arts 2,817 3,167 3,830 4,282 4,213 3,971 3,571 3,900 3,842 3,747 3,461 3,950 3,842 3,951 3,223 -13.98% -23.50% 14.41% Arts
Education 1,164 1,042 1,287 831 461 1,103 1,321 1,195 973 1,281 303 803 8 105 0 -100.00% -100.00% -100.00% Education
Religion 2,296 3,112 3,735 3,820 4,615 4,932 4,460 3,971 3,349 3,043 2,546 3,137 2,921 2,427 2,651 -12.88% -42.56% 15.46% Religion
Factual 17,797 25,507 46,082 41,463 45,789 47,979 41,046 33,236 35,655 27,987 21,268 23,236 28,367 29,120 30,634 9.46% -33.10% 72.13% Factual
Drama 35,167 35,781 44,410 40,630 40,314 43,427 33,392 29,191 25,481 22,659 23,011 20,206 21,910 22,257 24,736 9.17% -38.64% -29.66% Drama
Entertainment 23,958 24,178 29,506 36,972 42,762 41,292 33,675 38,166 34,738 34,907 32,177 36,069 36,466 34,673 34,120 -2.25% -20.21% 42.42% Entertainment
Music 24,169 25,591 23,364 23,982 24,250 26,141 22,054 18,778 18,080 16,988 16,338 15,368 16,667 16,562 17,100 0.66% -29.48% -29.25% Music
News 60,247 61,161 63,602 70,157 76,198 77,423 68,499 64,400 68,343 61,064 58,018 57,108 60,491 65,553 63,531 4.04% -16.62% 5.45% News
Sport 35,352 41,171 37,863 47,995 47,609 62,041 45,841 52,666 46,716 53,557 39,220 42,487 34,303 48,097 42,080 -21.43% -11.61% 19.03% Sport
Children's 9,950 10,056 12,685 14,471 17,009 16,592 15,386 12,265 11,995 8,649 9,708 8,237 9,414 7,117 3,927 -54.60% -76.91% -60.53% Children's
Music Groups 14,902 14,622 14,622 16,984 17,555 18,290 15,841 14,873 15,471 14,557 14,557 14,441 14,498 15,615 15,722 8.00% -10.44% 5.50% Music Groups
Irish Content 227,819 245,388 280,986 301,587 320,775 343,191 285,086 272,641 264,643 248,439 220,607 225,042 228,887 245,477 237,724 -4.31% -25.89% 4.35% Irish Content
Aquired 23,105 23,040 24,172 22,855 23,679 24,698 24,957 23,849 24,184 25,179 22,083 19,934 23,949 22,668 25,463 1.13% 7.53% 10.21% Aquired
All Content 250,924 268,428 305,158 324,442 344,454 367,889 310,043 296,490 288,827 273,618 242,690 244,976 252,836 268,145 263,187 -3.81% -23.59% 4.89% All Content
TG4 11,868 8,644 8,555 9,924 11,558 10,999 10,526 8,874 8,806 7,764 7,124 6,341 7,246 7,656 7,558 -2.65% -34.61% -36.32% TG4
Independent 45293 50,956 74,674 72,813 77,189 79,894 60,079 57,572 50,141 41,882 37,561 39,423 40,229 37,828 40,877 -2.40% -47.04% -9.75% Independent

You know I've looked at this organisation for a long time, but I see no appetite for Restructuring or reform.

Elmo

cannot see any change in this organisation. Willie O'Reilly's article in the SBP is a masterclass of pointing out what's wrong, doing nothing about the problem and seemingly thinking its hindsight and forget that you were part of the RTÉ executive and you were employed specifically to insure change happened.

Elmo

new fair city set

https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2018/1218/1017159-fair-city-finds-room-to-improve-on-new-carrigstown-set/

Good but I just think the builds are too small and some need roofs.

Elmo

I can understand the Fair City set as a capital cost but the new news set???

"The star of the news is the news - and I’m delighted that the audiences to RTÉ News will reap a dividend from last year’s land sale."

While its good to see a new set, its not capital expenditure.

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2019/0128/1026029-rte-news-studio/

The Cush

Elmo wrote: »

While its good to see a new set, its not capital expenditure.

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2019/0128/1026029-rte-news-studio/

If it's not capital expenditure what is it?

A lump sum of cash, €1.4m, for the purchase and installation of physical stuff purchased via a public tender in my opinion is capital expenditure. On going running and maintenance would fall under operating expenditure.

Elmo

The Cush wrote: »

If it's not capital expenditure what is it?

A lump sum of cash, €1.4m, for the purchase and installation of physical stuff purchased via a public tender in my opinion is capital expenditure. On going running and maintenance would fall under operating expenditure.

Yeah I was think the same, just think that such expenditure should be aimed at the player technology, do you know what there outlay is like? are they using their own servers are do they rent a data centre?

Most sets have a life span of 5 years.

The Cush

Elmo wrote: »

do you know what there outlay is like? are they using their own servers are do they rent a data centre?

No idea, if you look through their tenders for the last few years there may be something that might point you in the right direction.

Yeah I was think the same, just think that such expenditure should be aimed at the player technology, ...

Most sets have a life span of 5 years.

They have spent money at the Player and Connect and the results leave a lot to be desired.

They are also spending the cash on infrastructure upgrades around the campus such as studio and equipment upgrades as they said they would at the time leading up to the land sale. The latest tender I see is for the refurbishment of run-down buildings around the campus.

Elmo

The Cush wrote: »

They have spent money at the Player and Connect and the results leave a lot to be desired.

I'd worry they are going in the wrong direction with both.

I wonder how long connect will last, is it technology neutral?

As for the player, many of their show still seem missing, Taken for example is not available, why?

The Cush

Elmo wrote: »

new fair city set

https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2018/1218/1017159-fair-city-finds-room-to-improve-on-new-carrigstown-set/

RTÉ spend €2.38m on new Fair City set

Information released under an FOI.

The new Fair City lot comprises of 11 separate sets and the set provides for a new home for McCoy’s pub, the Hungry Pig, the Dolphin Pod, the Community Centre, the Helping Hand charity shop and the other locations where the hit soap is shot.

Now, in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request around the costs, the RTÉ FOI unit states that the €2.381 million total includes an element of non-recoverable VAT.

It stated: “This cost also included design, construction, set dressing and professional fees.”

The unit stated that “the decision to move the programme set was taken as a result of the sale of land at the Donnybrook campus.

"The money to pay for this capital project came entirely from funds generated by this land sale.”

Between Dec last and the end of March there were 4 FOI requests relating to the costs of building the new Fair City set, all 4 were refused on administrative grounds under Section 15(1)(a) of the act.

TheBlock

Breada OKeefe CFO gone....power struggle. The whole structure is designed so no one personcan a make a decision(crucial in TV) and blame is shared. Abandon Ship. Abandon Ship.

Elmo

TheBlock wrote: »

Breada OKeefe CFO gone....power struggle. The whole structure is designed so no one personcan a make a decision(crucial in TV) and blame is shared. Abandon Ship. Abandon Ship.

Frances Abeton left before Christmas.

Maysa07

TheBlock wrote: »

Breada OKeefe CFO gone....power struggle. The whole structure is designed so no one personcan a make a decision(crucial in TV) and blame is shared. Abandon Ship. Abandon Ship.

Link?

Elmo

Maysa07 wrote: »

Link?

https://www.rte.ie/about/en/how-rte-is-run/2012/0220/290059-rte-executive/

Breada O'Keefe is still on the board according to that, but so was France Abeton until at least April this year, but she left before Christmas. No idea when Rory Coveney got his new position, that was not announced, and the page just recently updated.

Maysa07

Elmo wrote: »

https://www.rte.ie/about/en/how-rte-is-run/2012/0220/290059-rte-executive/

Breada O'Keefe is still on the board according to that, but so was France Abeton until at least April this year, but she left before Christmas. No idea when Rory Coveney got his new position, that was not announced, and the page just recently updated.

Rory is there a good while. Frances left last year sometime. If true about Breada, Interesting times!

Elmo

Maysa07 wrote: »

Rory is there a good while. Frances left last year sometime. If true about Breada, Interesting times!

It's how long is a good while? Was there a news report or an announcement from RTÉ. For either Frances' exit or the appointment of Rory? Link

Elmo

Maysa07 wrote: »

Rory is there a good while. Frances left last year sometime. If true about Breada, Interesting times!

Job was advertised https://www.rte.ie/about/en/working-with-rte/2012/0425/318481-vacancies/