Dee Forbes banging the RTE TV licence drum again 60m uncollected fee *poll not working - pl ignore*

AndyBoBandy

The Toy Show Musical has losses of €2.2m

Two Million & Two Hundred Thousand Euro

AlmightyCushion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120808068#Comment_120808068

As bad as that is, it isn't even as bad as it gets.

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2023/0705/1392900-toy-show-the-musical/

The average ticket price was quoted at €46.50. This meant RTÉ needed to sell 70% across all shows at the 1,995-seater venue to break even.

Just 20,000 people went to see the show. Only 11,044 of them were paying customers, with 5,500 tickets supplied to guests on a complimentary basis and a further 3,500 awarded as prizes.

This is a far cry from the box office predictions made in the business case which sets out a sellout of the 54 shows delivering €4.1 million.

In reality there were just 27 live shows. The total venue capacity for the shows that went ahead was 53,865.

This highlights the stupidity and delusion of RTE. Their business case predicted they would sell out 54 shows which would have been 108,000 tickets. In the end they only sold 11,000 tickets and gave away nearly as many for free. They sold only about 10% of the tickets as they thought they would sell. Their whole business case for this must have been 'Loads of people love the toy show so if we make a musical for it we will sell fúckloads of tickets'

avfc1874

When you think how often the ads for the show, and still a massive flop, deluded, The toyshow is only popular because of tradition, nostalgia,

AlmightyCushion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120808283#Comment_120808283

They did spend more than double the advertising budget. Probably because they were selling so few tickets. I agree with you about it only being popular because or tradition and nostalgia. Even still, I just don't see how they thought a musical about it was such a good idea. It just seems like a rubbish idea for a musical/movie. What even was the plot of it. I really don't know how they thought it would sell so much. I could see a second run of it doing well if the first run had a lot of good feedback about it but they just expected it to be huge from the get go.

The accounts also detail a forecast of €156,020 for marketing and press but the eventual expenditure was €339,634 an overspend of €183,614.

AndyBoBandy

Nostalgia has a lot to answer for for when it comes to the Toy Show...

I really dislike Tubridy (I think he's an odious little creep, or thats how he comes across to me anyway), but said I'd put some of the Toy Show on for our son, as it was apparently the talk all week in school, so I didn't want him to miss out on the Monday morning chit-chat when it's all the other kids would be discussing.....

Anyway he lasted about 5 minutes before declaring "This is boring".... and that was the end of that.

My own memories of the Toy Show with Gay Byrne and Pat Kenny were seeing loads of toys being tested/broken/not understood by Pat & Gay.... Any small amounts of Tubridy's toy shows I've seen (and there are not many), but they always seemed to be focused around him, or a performance...... and any interactions he had with the cameras were him speaking as an adult, to the adults watching at home, in a sort of condescending towards the kids sort of way.... and the interactions he had with the kids was all an act, and put on in a very fake sort of way.... I don't know, it just never seemed 'right'... and certainly never felt 'genuine'.

and then his revelling in the self appointed 'Toy Man' persona that he anointed upon himself also really ground my gears.... like as if 'he' was the magic, and not the toy show itself, which is ultimately what kids want to see..... Toys.... and not that gobsh1te...

alzer100

Forbes an Tubridy, delusions of grandeur.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120808616#Comment_120808616

They all have it: -

Breda O'Keeffe had an oscar winning preformance. To an extend I can believer her.

She starts of with a nicely script set of events, and points out what was in place for such decisions and she makes herself out to be a diligent CFO. It helps her that her successor comes across as a buffoon.

She then goes through the large job that she and her successor have that they have in their jobs, so they wouldn't have full over sight of the small ticket items that RTÉ was spending money on.

Later she is asked about the 25K car allowance that the Executives get, she see no problem in saying that this was part of each of the Directors contract from before her time.

Then she gets to talk about how important RTÉ is to her and her 17 years at the company. Indeed she seems to get worked up on this.

But while she's on the Exe Board she's sitting on a massive wage, expenses and a nice car. She never thought we maybe the €250k that RTÉ are spending on executive cars might be better spend on content.

And I think she got away with this from former RTÉ people and current RTÉ people and the politicians.

AndyBoBandy

I'd say the incoming DG Kevin Backhurst is royally pi$$ed off with how the last 2 weeks have unfolded.....

He probably thought we was coming to join the gravy train and it was his turn to drive it.... and life would continue to be good....

And now...

And now he has to come in and try to somehow fix this unfixable sh1tshow...

In fairness though, it's probably the best drama RTÉ have produced since Love/Hate

ZookeeperDub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120803441#Comment_120803441

The desperation of some people to constantly try to drag in FF and whatever party they don't support into RTE etc.

FF have nothing to do with Ryan Tubridy, no more than any of the party leaders who would all run around him to get air time on LLS etc.

Lets not forget that based on the few interviews he done with Mary Lou they seemed better mates than any of the party leaders. But that's not relevant either in this situation.

Hotblack Desiato

Tubridy's family is practically FF royalty. Beaten only by the Lemass / O'Rourke / Haughey clan really.

Two of his uncles were FF TDs (one of whom held an executive position in RTE before politics)

His grandfather Todd Andrews was FF before FF was a thing (Civil War) and of course was chairman of the RTE Authority among other sinecures FF appointed him to.

That's all just on his mother's side!

His paternal grandfather was an FF TD as well.

Plus Tubridy himself is an ex-(as far as we know) FF member.

alzer100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120811820#Comment_120811820

Its not about brining in FF. I simply pointed out an article in a newspaper, it is what it is.

I Don't support SF.

RabbleRouser2k

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120812498#Comment_120812498

His brother ran for FF as well, but wasn't elected.

steddyeddy

So just to confirm, RTE doesn't need extra money. It just needs less entitlement.

RabbleRouser2k

Was checking last week's TV Guide (no the RTE guide, I don't buy that crud) and RTE had listed 'the best of the late late show with Ryan Tubridy' for Thursday nights at 11 pm or thereabouts.

Of course, they couldn't show that with all the crap going on rn, so they replaced it with another repeat.

This time it was Nicky Byrne's 'Face the Music'...

Face the Music.... someone in RTE has a sense of humour.

steddyeddy

I thought this was fantastic. Anthony Halpin, the judge who presides over cases involving non payment of the TV license has hit out against the culture of "elitism, god-like personalities", and "freeloaders" within RTE, all in a time when people are "crippled with the cost of living crisis". RTE reports on the responses to its own culture.

A Dublin judge presiding over the capital's TV licence prosecutions has slammed RTÉ for what he described as elitism, "god-like personalities", and "freeloaders" while defendants were "crippled with the cost of living".

Dublin District Court has a special weekly sitting for cases brought by An Post against TV owners who have not paid their €160 annual television licence fees.

Today's list featured 159 prosecutions, but before hearing the cases, Judge Anthony Halpin delivered a strongly-worded preamble about the ongoing controversy at the national public service broadcaster.

He said he was "disgusted and appalled" by the revelations.

"It is a criminal offence and on conviction, it carries a fine and a record of having committed a crime.

"The people before this court are accused of failing to pay the TV licence fee, and these people may feel a little hard done by when they see the way RTÉ has abused statutory funding which is annually provided to RTÉ."

Did anyone ever think they'd see the following passage reported by RTE:

"Shame on those who have brought that about. I will go no further than those remarks, but I must say those freeloaders in RTÉ who received a loan of cars, who received branded cars free gratis, spouses of RTÉ who were wined and dined and part-took of events at the expense of RTE, and others who were lavished with such generosity, ought to pay back to the organization the euro equivalent of the benefit they received, to help this financially strapped semi-State body.

Crucially, Halpin is factoring the revelations about RTE's culture into sentencing and won't be seeking to lay down the maximum sentence possible on those who can't or won't pay the license.

fran38

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120821691#Comment_120821691

I don't think Halpin has much scope in which he can alleviate any fine. The law is the law at the end of the day and that will ultimately be the defining factor in this. And no, I haven't paid for a TV licence since 2010.

RabbleRouser2k

Courtesy of the Phoenix.

Also, interesting article from 2017 discussing the mismanagement of money, and how she blamed people like Trump and Brexit for the troubles at rte.

https://www.thephoenix.ie/article/dee-forbes/

AndyBoBandy

And she was also looking for a €34m bailout in the upcoming budget…

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/rte-asked-government-for-345m-bailout-just-as-auditors-uncovered-secret-deal/a1497190186.html

RTÉ asked Government for €34.5m bailout just as auditors uncovered secret deal

larchielads

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120805779#Comment_120805779

There Norfolkin chance of that

iseegirls

Virgin Media One showing it live tomorrow, dedicating 5 and half hours to it.

https://twitter.com/VirginMediaNews/status/1678440733894746113?t=1eKrD7MK_r097Hdi4nloLw

RabbleRouser2k

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120832644#Comment_120832644

I have it set to be recorded on both channels. Personally, I want to see how VM1 analyse things. And many of those reporting on it aren't represented by NKM, so hopefully we'll see an unbiased reporting of the coverage.

I have a feeling Tubridy will do a John Delaney and dig a further hole for himself, or we'll see him consulting with his solicitor every 5 minutes. He's gonna act like he's JFK's cousin, or some thing.

WealthyB

Surprised this hasn't had a mention yet

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41179438.html

Asked his views on reform of the TV license, Mr Varadkar said the current system needs to be overhauled.

“It’s a really old-fashioned way of collecting revenue based on ownership of a TV, a device that many people just don’t have anymore and almost all the money goes to RTÉ even though there are many other bodies involved in broadcasting outside public service broadcasting.

“So I think reform of the TV licence is long overdue and I want that to happen during this Government.

Guess they'll be dusting off either Pat Rabbitte's or Dennis Naughten's previous bills to implement what will be a despised "broadcast tax". Electoral suicide at this time IMO...

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120833138#Comment_120833138

Well as its unlikely that Catherine Martin will be re-elected or if she is that she would remain as a minister following the next election she probably should start it, though Pat who? Dennis who?

So I read Mr Tub's statement before hearing him read it, what a complete and utter plank, the acting was ... oscar winning.

But great to see Breda O'Keeffee's comeuppance, she preformed well up to ... RTÉ was and is so important to me ... and why would I no about everything spending there some much going on... but I made sure I had a €25 car allowance!

AndyBoBandy

Remember when this thread was the go to place to be for the anti RTÉ chat and discussion.... you know, before the Thanos 'snap'

Any word from Dee anyway? I hope she's recovering well.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120842477#Comment_120842477

Yeah everyone has got on board with their own threads, we just rest assured that for the last 7 years we had the right all along :)

Dee is ill.

Moya can't make it darling.

Breda is OOO (Out Of Obnoxiousness)

Should the name of this thread not change?

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120842934#Comment_120842934

Yeah just append it with "...while paying everyone under the table, having champagne parties, flying the staffs families around the world and losing millions on vanity projects" - you could go on and on

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120843050#Comment_120843050

But do you think the poll would ever start working?

briany

Let's suppose for a second that RTE were to undergo a major restructuring and one big change was shifting to a licence-only model of funding and that the licence stayed the same - what would have to change at RTE to make this work, or is it actually just unfeasible all round?

You would say, for a start, to cap all presenters' wages. OK, fair enough. But there are also a large number of other staff working for the organisation in various capacities, and at least some of these are union members who aren't necessarily going to stand for being paid a cost-saving wage, nor necessarily should they. Collective bargaining to get the best terms is part of what being in a union is all about.

So, let's say RTE pares down both the staff numbers and the range of services it offers in order to accommodate this new model of funding - what goes, and what stays?

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120843122#Comment_120843122

Let's start a new one, might be a little different this time around...

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120843235#Comment_120843235

Licence Fee only on TV means all ad revenue going to UK opt-out channels with VMTV taking up a little bit more but when you consider that RTÉ and VMTV and opt out account for 70% of ad revenue and VMTV, opt-outs and non-opt-outs have the same level then VMTV is left where it is.

On the other hand Radio would just move towards National and local services, but you would have to put real regulations on spend on them, Local Radio would have to radically transform, even today it get away with an awful lot of bad programming dressed up as News and Current Affairs.

The Licence Fee does 2 things

1. It gives the audience a relationship with the broadcaster, you remove this everyone forgets they still pay for the service
2. It prevents cuts either politically or on economic grounds. TG4 is a good example for 2 reasons (1. Its late establishment in the 1990s it wasn't politically important and 2. cuts given to the service from 2011 to 2018 due to the down turn in the economy)

If you were to reform the commerical side of RTÉ you'd consider the following

1. Remove ads from Radio
2. Remove Sponsorship from TV programmes
3. Only allow ads during programming that is more than 45mins long, with an exemption for drama funding by RTÉ to the value of X.

But unfortunately RTÉ is flooded with staff, what do they do?

1. RTÉ is coming towards its annual summer break, how did they get it so good? or why do they all take their holidays in August
2. Over costing programming: e.g. The Today Show on RTÉ TV possible costs 3 times the cost of Ireland AM and produces less programmes
3. Can you reassign staff to programming making duties?