No current affairs show on RTE TV all august

Cliff Walker

Isn't this a disgrace for an national public service broadcaster ?

political analyst

I e-mailed RTÉ back in 2014. RTÉ said the following about Prime Time:

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.

L1011

Traditionally there were basically no current affairs in August to cover. This year we almost haven't had a silly season, though, with the later Dail dissolution, Brexit fallout, SFNamaGate, Hickey, etc, etc, so the 11 month planning looks a bit silly.

satguy

With C4 about to drop DOND,, now is a good time to pick some low cost filler. Someone at RTE could hire their son/daughter to do the contract negotiations as is the norm with RTE... AND,, Some of the older DOND from 10 years back will not look out of place on RTE, they could even add an extra 30 seconds of ads on the player.

political analyst

L1011 wrote: »

Traditionally there were basically no current affairs in August to cover. This year we almost haven't had a silly season, though, with the later Dail dissolution, Brexit fallout, SFNamaGate, Hickey, etc, etc, so the 11 month planning looks a bit silly.

The Dáil and the House of Commons are still in recess this August, there's nothing new on Brexit at the moment and SFNamaGate and the Olympic ticket scandal are covered adequately on the news bulletins and Prime Time would simply be regurgitating the same details but in different words.

Some people may say that TV3's Tonight programme runs through August but they'd be comparing apples with oranges because, unlike Prime Time, it doesn't have reports and so is much cheaper to produced than Prime Time and TV3 doesn't have news bulletins at weekends (except for bulletins on the AM shows) or on bank holidays.

Delta2113

Cliff Walker wrote: »

Isn't this a disgrace for an national public service broadcaster ?

- No -we are a very small country. As it is how many times more do we have to have show's about the house crisis, health crisis, farming, rural robberies, water charges -going over the same stuff again and again like only us Irish can.

We need a break for God sake!

byte

satguy wrote: »

With C4 about to drop DOND,, now is a good time to pick some low cost filler. Someone at RTE could hire their son/daughter to do the contract negotiations as is the norm with RTE... AND,, Some of the older DOND from 10 years back will not look out of place on RTE, they could even add an extra 30 seconds of ads on the player.

God, I hope not! I'm surprised it took Channel 4 this long to can Deal or no Deal - should've been canned years ago IMO.

AwaitYourReply

Cliff Walker wrote: »

Isn't this a disgrace for an national public service broadcaster ?

Yes, I would agree that RTÉ Television should have some current affairs coverage albeit limited; during the month of August despite the traditional Summer recess from major public institutions like the Houses of the Oireachtas etc;

The fallout over the whole Rio 2016 Olympic Games ticketing scandal and subsequent arrests made including that of Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) president during the middle of the Olympics etc; is big news that warrants more questions and analysis unlike the style of reporting carried during regular RTÉ TV news bulletins.

Surely such a high profile figure who was unexpectedly arrested and then apparently denied bail because it is said that the judge considered him to be "a flight risk" is worthy of more serious in-depth coverage with so many journalists/camera crews already working out in Rio for RTÉ at the moment. This is also a story that has raised eyebrows far beyond Irish shores and the likely damage to Ireland's reputation must be a major concern. It deserves more in-depth coverage and analysis by the national broadcaster as it is very much in the public interest.

Meanwhile, TV3 is currently said to be head hunting for experienced individuals to work on a new current affairs programme so; this August was probably not the time for RTÉ to pack Prime Time off away on holidays completely as they will soon face more home produced competition from their main rival in Ireland. It will be interesting to see if Pat Kenny will end up on TV3 competing directly with Claire Byrne on RTÉ later this Autumn?

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/television/tv-news/tv3-set-to-go-headtohead-with-prime-time-and-claire-byrne-34962434.html

http://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-news/pat-kenny-rumoured-talks-new-11721055

political analyst

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

Yes, I would agree that RTÉ Television should have some current affairs coverage albeit limited; during the month of August despite the traditional Summer recess from major public institutions like the Houses of the Oireachtas etc;

The fallout over the whole Rio 2016 Olympic Games ticketing scandal and subsequent arrests made including that of Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) president during the middle of the Olympics etc; is big news that warrants more questions and analysis unlike the style of reporting carried during regular RTÉ TV news bulletins.

Surely such a high profile figure who was unexpectedly arrested and then apparently denied bail because it is said that the judge considered him to be "a flight risk" is worthy of more serious in-depth coverage with so many journalists/camera crews already working out in Rio for RTÉ at the moment. This is also a story that has raised eyebrows far beyond Irish shores and the likely damage to Ireland's reputation must be a major concern. It deserves more in-depth coverage and analysis by the national broadcaster as it is very much in the public interest.

The courts in Brazil are, like the courts in Ireland, are on holidays anyway so there isn't much to analyse about the Rio tickets case at this point in time.

The island of Ireland has a relatively small population and so doesn't need lengthy news and current affairs programmes as much as the UK does.

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

Meanwhile, TV3 is currently said to be head hunting for experienced individuals to work on a new current affairs programme so; this August was probably not the time for RTÉ to pack Prime Time off away on holidays completely as they will soon face more home produced competition from their main rival in Ireland. It will be interesting to see if Pat Kenny will end up on TV3 competing directly with Claire Byrne on RTÉ later this Autumn?

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/television/tv-news/tv3-set-to-go-headtohead-with-prime-time-and-claire-byrne-34962434.html

http://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-news/pat-kenny-rumoured-talks-new-11721055

There is zero chance of RTÉ beating TV3 in news and current affairs coverage. TV3 doesn't bother with news at weekends and on bank holidays.

AwaitYourReply

political analyst wrote: »

The courts in Brazil are, like the courts in Ireland, are on holidays anyway so there isn't much to analyse about the Rio tickets case at this point in time.

The island of Ireland has a relatively small population and so doesn't need lengthy news and current affairs programmes as much as the UK does.


There is zero chance of RTÉ beating TV3 in news and current affairs coverage. TV3 doesn't bother with news at weekends and on bank holidays.

As far as the courts in Brazil being "like the courts in Ireland" - I'm not entirely sure about this at all. The authorities in Brazil appear to have tipped off the media about many of the issues and their next moves so; there is no shortage of material to analyse due to the way they have handled matters thus far! I don't think this would happen in Ireland as our justice system adopts an "innocent until proven guilty" system whereas in Brazil the authorities had been saying we are carrying out investigations which would suggest they were not complete - one would have thought they had already come to a conclusion in the manner they have carried out their operations and I'm not sure if it was a complete coincidence that the media just happened to be "on hand" to film things as they arrested certain individuals in the very early hours of the morning!

In relation to the island of Ireland having "a relatively small population so doesn't need lengthy news and current affairs programmes as much as the UK does" sounds a bit like a dictator justifying less and less public scrutiny is what is required because we are only a small country anyway. Of course, we need a satisfactory level of current affairs programming and if major news breaks with an Irish dimension during August, you need a programme like Prime Time to go on air at short notice and ask the hard questions while events are ongoing as you would not get this style of reporting/interviews within the regular RTÉ News bulletins. If RTÉ News is satisfactory to cover such stories, then you would not have any need for a programme like Prime Time for the rest of the year as RTÉ News bulletins would have covered it. At the end of the day, this is all about holidays/cost-cutting anyway as despite massive wage cuts, RTÉ still pays many of it's so called stars: Tubridy, D'arcy, O'Callaghan, Finucane, O'Rourke, Duffy, Byrne and others extremely high salaries for their work which for the most part is only average some of the time. Put any of those broadcasters outside of RTÉ and their ratings would dramatically drop which Pat Kenny discovered after his switch to Newstalk and UTV Ireland.

As for TV3 and it's news & currents affairs programme commitments, the thread title had read as: "No current affairs show on RTE TV all august" so the OP's focus seems to be all about the lack of currents affairs programmes on RTÉ TV during August rather than all TV channels in general in Ireland. That said, if UTV Ireland receives full clearance for it's sale then it's intended new owners will effectively control TV3, 3e and UTV Ireland in terms of TV channels in the Republic of Ireland and I would expect major changes to their respective schedules and perhaps news programming may ultimately return to TV3 across weekends as part of the changes. Time will tell.

icdg

Just to say that discussion of the legal system in this or any other jurisidiction is off topic for this forum; never mind this thread.

political analyst

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

In relation to the island of Ireland having "a relatively small population so doesn't need lengthy news and current affairs programmes as much as the UK does" sounds a bit like a dictator justifying less and less public scrutiny is what is required because we are only a small country anyway.

No, it doesn't. Not much happens on an island of only 6 million people. Much more happens in a country that has a population of 50 million or 60 million people, which is why the UK has Newsnight and Channel 4 News.

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

Of course, we need a satisfactory level of current affairs programming and if major news breaks with an Irish dimension during August, you need a programme like Prime Time to go on air at short notice and ask the hard questions while events are ongoing as you would not get this style of reporting/interviews within the regular RTÉ News bulletins.

There are some stories that there aren't many questions to ask about. Prime Time just regurgitates the news for much of the time anyway.

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

If RTÉ News is satisfactory to cover such stories, then you would not have any need for a programme like Prime Time for the rest of the year as RTÉ News bulletins would have covered it.

Prime Time isn't necessary in August because the Dáil is in recess. As it said in the email that I quoted, several public organisations have very limited operations in that month.

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

As for TV3 and it's news & currents affairs programme commitments, the thread title had read as: "No current affairs show on RTE TV all august" so the OP's focus seems to be all about the lack of currents affairs programmes on RTÉ TV during August rather than all TV channels in general in Ireland. That said, if UTV Ireland receives full clearance for it's sale then it's intended new owners will effectively control TV3, 3e and UTV Ireland in terms of TV channels in the Republic of Ireland and I would expect major changes to their respective schedules and perhaps news programming may ultimately return to TV3 across weekends as part of the changes. Time will tell.

I believed that it was possible that someone would say "But the Tonight programme on TV3 is on through the summer" and so I decided to pre-empt that.

Elmo

There is no real reason for RTE not to air the news during August.

Lets face up to some facts: -

1. The 1pm news is usually 22mins long, why would 10min version during the summer save money.
2. Newsfeed is just 6 mins each night, is taking a brake for 3 months is really saving money?
3. No change to the 9pm bulletin, which you would think is more expensive than six-one due to its start time.

I would agree with dropping these shows during the month from the point of view of giving viewers a break from news and current affairs, only what are RTE replacing these shows with?

The usual Prime Time taking a break bar one night a week is daft, it would be better to merge Prime Time with six-one during August.

As for a small country I really don't think this is an excuse. World events still take place, and other news stories that don't get much attention could be given a focus.

Surely Today's and Nationwide's brake could be put down to the same reasons.

It's purely RTE not wanting to change their 35 week model.

political analyst

Elmo wrote: »

No change to the 9pm bulletin, which you would think is more expensive than six-one due to its start time.

How is the 9pm bulletin more expensive than an hour-long Six-One?

Elmo wrote: »

As for a small country I really don't think this is an excuse. World events still take place, and other news stories that don't get much attention could be given a focus.

World events are still covered adequately from an Irish perspective on the news bulletins in August. Unlike the UK, Ireland doesn't have a history of being a major power and thus doesn't need to have as extensive world news coverage.

If something extremely serious took place in August, e.g. another 9/11, there would be an hour-long Six-One and a Prime Time special.

Elmo

political analyst wrote: »

How is the 9pm bulletin more expensive than an hour-long Six-One?


World events are still covered adequately from an Irish perspective on the news bulletins in August. Unlike the UK, Ireland doesn't have a history of being a major power and thus doesn't need to have as extensive world news coverage.

If something extremely serious took place in August, e.g. another 9/11, there would be an hour-long Six-One and a Prime Time special.

I assume if you are saving money it would be cheaper to cut 9pm news and keep an hour long six one, the 9pm half hour being the more expesive half hour.

And does this happen in other smaller countries?

not that the Irish have been emigrating since 1845 and are right around the world in terms of offspring.

political analyst

Elmo wrote: »

I assume if you are saving money it would be cheaper to cut 9pm news and keep an hour long six one, the 9pm half hour being the more expesive half hour.

You didn't answer my question - How is a half-hour bulletin more expensive than an hour-long bulletin?

Elmo

political analyst wrote: »

You didn't answer my question - How is a half-hour bulletin more expensive than an hour-long bulletin?

The 9 news is more expensive as it airs later in the night, you pay staff more for the 9 news. This is my point about keeping the 6 news and dropping the 9 you would save more money.

and you my two questions

does this happen in other smaller countries?
international news reports should be just as part of RTE as BBC due to our vast diaspora.

political analyst

Elmo wrote: »

does this happen in other smaller countries?
international news reports should be just as part of RTE as BBC due to our vast diaspora.

I cannot answer that question.

As for international news, RTÉ's coverage is adequate. Ireland has a much smaller population and much less influence in the world than Britain.

The rest of the year, what goes on in the Oireachtas takes up much of the space on Six-One and Prime Time anyway. Hence the August cuts to coverage.

Elmo

political analyst wrote: »

I cannot answer that question.

As for international news, RTÉ's coverage is adequate. Ireland has a much smaller population and much less influence in the world than Britain.

The rest of the year, what goes on in the Oireachtas takes up much of the space on Six-One and Prime Time anyway. Hence the August cuts to coverage.

I don't think it is adequate. consider the number of families that live in Ireland with non-Irish parents, consider the number of families in Ireland that have children that live abroad. We may not have invaded or created wars abroad but we still have a huge international presence and that should be reflected by RTE.

News is not just about politics their are other aspects of society that should be address year round. Business, Media, Arts (how many festivals take place in August), Sport, Science, Education and so on. While politics is clearly an influence on this parts of society because the politicans go on holidays doesn't mean the news stops turning.

political analyst

Elmo wrote: »

I don't think it is adequate. consider the number of families that live in Ireland with non-Irish parents, consider the number of families in Ireland that have children that live abroad. We may not have invaded or created wars abroad but we still have a huge international presence and that should be reflected by RTE.

There isn't much of interest about the Irish diaspora outside of St. Patrick's Day, just the occasional death. Irish people are more parochial than the English.

Elmo wrote: »

News is not just about politics their are other aspects of society that should be address year round. Business, Media, Arts (how many festivals take place in August), Sport, Science, Education and so on. While politics is clearly an influence on this parts of society because the politicans go on holidays doesn't mean the news stops turning.

In Ireland, it's mostly about politics. Festivals are probably covered by the Nationwide programme (I'm not sure they qualify as news anyway). As for education and science, there are the school holidays, so not much happening in those areas. As for sport, there's plenty of coverage by RTÉ outside the news bulletins.

Elmo

political analyst wrote: »

There isn't much of interest about the Irish diaspora outside of St. Patrick's Day, just the occasional death. Irish people are more parochial than the English.

As a public service broadcaster RTE must and should Entertain, Educate and Inform. Suggesting that the Irish are more parochial than the English is a very wide statement with no basis in fact, it is purely your opinion. In terms of TV the Irish watch programming from both England and America.

And RTE have constantly pointed out that unlike their english counter part they still have large audiences in prime time for news programming.

political analyst wrote: »

In Ireland, it's mostly about politics. Festivals are probably covered by the Nationwide programme (I'm not sure they qualify as news anyway). As for education and science, there are the school holidays, so not much happening in those areas. As for sport, there's plenty of coverage by RTÉ outside the news bulletins.

In "Ireland" just because you and RTE might think that anything outside of Ireland is not of interest to Ireland doesn't make it a fact.

Ironically Nationwide is an RTE cork production for RTE news and current affairs. And is Irish parochial-ity not covered on that show?... ironically it takes a break just as news and current affairs so even the little Irelander is losing out.

SPDUB

Elmo wrote: »

While politics is clearly an influence on this parts of society because the politicans go on holidays doesn't mean the news stops turning.

Even the BBC have gone on holiday with their politics show.

Currently Question Time , Daily Politics , Sunday Politics , Panorama are all off air

Newsnight is the only one hanging on and even that has had it's running time reduced to 35 minutes every night

political analyst

SPDUB wrote: »

Even the BBC have gone on holiday with their politics show.

Currently Question Time , Daily Politics , Sunday Politics , Panorama are all off air

Newsnight is the only one hanging on and even that has had it's running time reduced to 35 minutes every night

Actually, Panorama was off-air only during the Olympics.

political analyst

Elmo wrote: »

Ironically Nationwide is an RTE cork production for RTE news and current affairs. And is Irish parochial-ity not covered on that show?... ironically it takes a break just as news and current affairs so even the little Irelander is losing out.

Nationwide cannot be news or current affairs programme because, not long ago, it was sponsored by the Gala shop chain.

Nationwide is a magazine programme. For instance, Drivetime is a magazine programme because it has sponsorship (Morning Ireland and the News at One are "extended news bulletins" and thus cannot be sponsored.

political analyst

Elmo wrote: »

In "Ireland" just because you and RTE might think that anything outside of Ireland is not of interest to Ireland doesn't make it a fact.

Of course it's of interest to Ireland. It's covered in the news bulletins. The coverage is proportionate to Ireland's population.

Look at the issue with regard to proportion. The United States has a population of 300 million, give or take, and it has 3 terrestrial broadcasters that have news operations and a plethora of cable news channels. The UK has a population of over 60 million and it has 3 national news producers - the BBC, ITN and Sky (the BBC and Sky have 24-hour news channels).

Now do you understand why RTÉ's news and current affairs coverage is small scale?

Elmo

Traditional almost all countries took the view that due to transmission technology it would be better to only allow 3 to 4 channels.

The big 3 (NBC, CBS and ABC) and 4th was PBS, the US general had too many channel pack into their singles the 4 above plus a 5th or 6th independent broadcaster.

In the UK it was the same BBC 1, ITV, BBC 2 and channel 4, AFAIK Channel 5 late addition was problematic and didn't cover all of the UK.

Others on here know this better than me and I refer to their better knowledge.

Nationwide cannot be news or current affairs programme because, not long ago, it was sponsored by the Gala shop chain.

I am not sure but AFAIK RTE put the RTE News & Current Affairs logo at the beginning of the show. Though its prob more of a feature programme from RTE news and current affairs. I don't think it has the RTE Features logo at the start, if it does it has only recently changed.

I understand why RTE's small scale and I understand why you want to look to the UK and the US as examples but until you provide me with example were a significant proportion of TV news and current affairs is drop during the month of august in other smaller teritories, I cannot agree that RTE should for cost savings drop almost all of its news.

Can you really defend RTE's dropping of Newsfeed in June, July and August? What they saved maybe 30 euros!

political analyst

Elmo wrote: »

Traditional almost all countries took the view that due to transmission technology it would be better to only allow 3 to 4 channels.

The big 3 (NBC, CBS and ABC) and 4th was PBS, the US general had too many channel pack into their singles the 4 above plus a 5th or 6th independent broadcaster.

In the UK it was the same BBC 1, ITV, BBC 2 and channel 4, AFAIK Channel 5 late addition was problematic and didn't cover all of the UK.

I forgot about PBS.

That means that, in the US, there are 6 national news producers:

ABC, CBS, NBC (including the MSNBC cable channel), PBS, CNN and Fox News.

With regard to the UK, I originally referred to news producers, not the main terrestrial channels, i.e. ITN produces the news on ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.

Elmo wrote: »

I understand why RTE's small scale and I understand why you want to look to the UK and the US as examples but until you provide me with example were a significant proportion of TV news and current affairs is drop during the month of august in other smaller teritories, I cannot agree that RTE should for cost savings drop almost all of its news.

RTÉ doesn't "drop almost all of its news". The one o'clock bulletin is still an "extended summary".

There's no evidence that countries that have smaller populations have as great or greater news coverage than Ireland does.

Presumably, RTÉ wants to concentrate resources on the 9 o'clock bulletin, which is the main evening news, in August.

Elmo wrote: »

Can you really defend RTE's dropping of Newsfeed in June, July and August? What they saved maybe 30 euros!

I think that Newsfeed is pointless.

political analyst

Elmo wrote: »

The 9 news is more expensive as it airs later in the night, you pay staff more for the 9 news. This is my point about keeping the 6 news and dropping the 9 you would save more money.

What evidence is there that it costs more to pay staff for the 9 o'clock news than for Six-One?

Elmo

in August rte TV goes from producing 16hr of main news to 9hrs (I exclude oirechtas report, leaders Qs, euro parl, an Nuacht and news bulletins).

Regardless of your view that newsfeed is pointless (I agree) do you honestly think RTÉ saves money dropping it from may to sept?

political analyst

Elmo wrote: »

in August rte TV goes from producing 16hr of main news to 9hrs (I exclude oirechtas report, leaders Qs, euro parl, an Nuacht and news bulletins).

Regardless of your view that newsfeed is pointless (I agree) do you honestly think RTÉ saves money dropping it from may to sept?

RTÉ probably doesn't save a huge amount of money but I guess that it wants to save as much money as possible in News & Current Affairs while still protecting the Main Evening News (which is term the continuity announcer uses to refer to the 9 pm bulletin even when Six-One is an hour long).

Elmo

Also if the majority of staff working on news and current affairs are permanent it means they most take holidays in August.