UK television channels drain Irish broadcasters of cash for content

Occono

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/uk-television-channels-drain-irish-broadcasters-of-cash-for-content-1.2749293

DubTony

For Sky, it’s all gravy. The bulk of its revenues come from subscriptions, so it can afford to compete aggressively on ad prices. Some campaigns that make their debuts in RTÉ’s premium, peak-time slots, for maximum impact early in their life later move on to cheap, high-frequency bookings on Sky.

Sky's subscription hasn't a patch on RTE's government enforced annual subscription fee from every home and pub in the country.

icdg

What do they want the Government to do though?

While the UK remains part of the EU, then UK TV services are perfectly entitled to target the ROI market, under the EU audiovisual directive, and any tax on television advertising sold would have to be equally applied to Irish advertisers.

When the UK leaves the EU, there might be some scope for changes in this respect. A tax or duty on advertising sold in Ireland by UK broadcasters leaving the country might be an option then, but I would submit there would be problems applying it in such a way that would not leave RTE and TG4 vulnerable in respect of any advertising they took from Northern Ireland based companies in respect of their transmissions there.

There are also more radical measures that could be contemplated, such as those that Canada takes in respect of US based broadcasters (strict licencing arrangements for services and simultaneous substitution). I would suggest that any attempts to introduce such policies would lead to retaliation in respect of RTE and TG4 broadcasts in Northern Ireland.

Harry Palmr

I suppose the government could put a tax on foreign channels.....:rolleyes:

If people here want to watch the channels in question then they'd be foolish not to aim adverts at them.

ScumLord

Advertising on RTE is ridiculously expensive. The majority of Irish businesses have been priced out of the market, it's a place only big international companies can realistically consider advertising with on a regular basis. It's far cheaper to go with sky.

I'd be in favour of a complete ban of UK advertising on Irish airwaves. I find UK advertising contemptible, the promotion of a idealistic and unattainable lifestyles, I hate the celebrity culture in the UK and it's insidious use in UK advertising. But the amount of ads for gamblings is frightening. I don't have sky at home so only see it in other people's houses and the amount of gambling ads is downright disgusting. They should be banned.

Overall I have no interest in viewing ads, RTE would get no support from me for getting a controlling monopoly over Irish advertising. They'd abuse it. RTE need to start looking for revenue somewhere else, they'll end up chasing advertising revenue into oblivion.

Harry Palmr

ScumLord wrote: »

.

I find UK advertising contemptible, the promotion of a idealistic and unattainable lifestyles, I hate the celebrity culture in the UK and it's insidious use in UK advertising.

I think you'll find all advertising is about the promotion of the unattainable not just in the UK

ScumLord wrote: »

.But the amount of ads for gamblings is frightening. I don't have sky at home so only see it in other people's houses and the amount of gambling ads is downright disgusting. They should be banned

Agree with this its beome utterly pernicious, I'd certainly ban all 'in game' live odds ads, the sort you see during half time.

ScumLord

Harry Palmr wrote: »

I think you'll find all advertising is about the promotion of the unattainable not just in the UK

You're right, but the Brits are particularly good at it and I just don't like the standard of advertising in the UK. I'd have no issue with having UK centric ads banned in Ireland.

icdg

Advertising on RTE is not ridiculously expensive because of all the UK broadcasters. If anything they should make advertising on RTE cheaper, as it (in theory) struggles to compete with their lower rates.

But that's not the case. The reason broadcasting on RTE is expensive is twofold:

(1) they get the most viewers, well over 25% of all viewing
(2) they have a cap on advertising minutage which is well below that of any other broadcaster, meaning that they can charge more for their limited space

Not that I am advocating a cap on RTE's advertising revenue as was disasterously applied in the early 1990s.

I don't watch a lot of UK tv live it's mostly through BBC with no ads or catch up or downloads and what have you so rarely see the ads but would agree with some of the above they are shocking. Gambling even during day time for bingo etc is massive on ITV channels don't know about others, and the ones for quick loans are terrifying given who they are aiming them at and the interest % in the small print, they are nothing short of legal loan sharks :eek:

SO complain as I will about ads on TV here , we have nothing on the UK ones.