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

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121097171#Comment_121097171

To be honest, I assumed that State control was the cause of failure in national public service broadcasters, e.g. East Germany and other communist-ruled European countries during the Cold War and present-day Russia.

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121096055#Comment_121096055

When I emailed RTÉ a decade ago to ask about news coverage in August, I was told in the reply that August is a quiet month in terms of news because of the Oireachtas and the courts being in recess. There was a special hour-long Six-One on the day the death of Albert Reynolds was announced.

As for your reference to the main competitor's news service, let's not forget that, during the economic crisis, VM TV (when it was TV3) dropped its weekend and bank-holiday news bulletins. At least RTÉ has been consistent by having at least one detailed TV news bulletin (just over 5 minutes on Christmas Day) in the evening (especially at some time between 6 and 7) every day in the past 6 decades.

As for 'Normal People' being good drama .... 😄

NIMAN

How can they say August is a slow news month? Noone knows what stories are going to break over August.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121097619#Comment_121097619

During those years TV3 continued to have a full news service for 5:30 news and VB Tonight during August. RTÉ have dropped RTÉ News on 2 since that time. (and look I am not defending TV3, lets faces they decided to have a full news one St.Stephen's day and told everyone that this was normal for St. Stephen's day, TV3/VMTV didn't have a full news on St. Stephen's day before and haven't since! Breaking news that could have waited).

August is silly season if you make it silly season. Trump and the Hawaii Fire not covered by their Washington Correspondent. Are they saving money with this bus man's holiday. Do you take RTÉ at their word? Because at this point I wouldn't.

As for normal people, I agree, but sure who am I to be a critic?

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121097654#Comment_121097654

The point is that TV3 didn't have news at weekends at all during those years - that's far more serious than halving Six-One on weekdays in August. We still got to hear about Trump and the Hawaii Fire on RTÉ News, which is not the only news organisation to have reports on foreign affairs done by journalists who are in the newsroom at HQ.

As for the dropping of News on 2, the big difference is that, unlike TV3, RTÉ2 is not a stand-alone broadcaster and thus the news on RTÉ1 meets RTÉ's news requirement.

Having said that, I acknowledge the dropping of the main late evening news on the night of the Eurovision Song Contest grand final - it's a bit like ITV dropping its early-evening regional and national bulletins when rugby and soccer matches are taking place in the evening.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121097811#Comment_121097811

The difference is that the TV3 had to go to the regulator / authority the BAI (AKA CnaM) to change their news service, RTÉ did not, RTÉ just did away with their main news on 2, a news service that was there since their inception. Same goes for 2FM evening news bulletins.

RTÉ have dropped all news bulletins across their daily output (save for their Today show bulletin) and no longer have late night news bulletins on either RTÉ ONE or 2. You'd think they didn't have a news channel to fill with content.

Can you imagine if the BBC dropped Newsnight on 2, said it would stay on the News channel, then dropped it from there saying it would stay online only to drop it again. (BTW this is the kind of thing happening).

There is no reason for any of these changes and those changes didn't come with anything extra on their online service. This is a company employing 1,800 people.

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121097870#Comment_121097870

That's like when the BBC was accountable only to the BBC Trust and the UK commercial broadcasters were accountably to the IBA, then the ITC and now Ofcom, to which the BBC is now accountable.

Obviously, there's the issue of restrictive working practices that are upheld by the unions.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121098118#Comment_121098118

This was the very reason that the RTÉ Authority was abolished under the 2009 act and replaced by the Board of RTÉ and the BAI (now CnaM). IMO the authority has been very soft on RTÉ up to this point and have been very quite, in relation RTÉ over the years.

Also I have noticed that British viewers are far more outspoken, for example BBC ONE and 2 tried to adopt a DOG/BUG but there was uproar, meanwhile only in the last 5 years itv and C4 have introduced them. We get the biggest fing DOG/BUG for RTÉ ONE and RTÉ2! In other words BBC won't be axing Newsnight.

MickOB74

Some good points there, but in fairness to RTE, tv drama production is very expensive to make in general and that's why they have to collaborate with international partners in order to make drama series. €1.2million for 1 hour of drama might not seem like that much but with RTE taking in €300/350 million a year compared to BBC/ITVs €5bn/€2bn revenue, it is a lot of money to commit to drama production. Even thought the BBC/ITV have made some great drama series over the years, they a finding it hard to compete with the likes of amazon, netflix, disney plus with their big budgets.

Beta Ray Bill

Looks like they're in serious trouble now:

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/rte-boss-announces-immediate-recruitment-freeze-and-spending-cutbacks-1526014.html

Hiring freeze implemented and a freeze on "discretionary spending" what ever that is.

Mr Bakhurst has cited continuing non-payment of the license fee and a major contributing factor.

I think we're a stones throw away RTE parting with the high earning presenters that are not actually employed by RTE.

Hotblack Desiato

Hopefully Bakhurst will not flip-flop on this issue.

ShamNNspace

The way we were on there tonight, this episode is about how we ate.... Why o why did they have to have a procession of "celebrities" giving their tuppence worth absolutely ruining what could have been an excellent series given the reams of great archival material the makers had access to, but no Rte couldn't resist turning it into a procession of smirking "talent"

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121106957#Comment_121106957

ya Dubs that got home form school for dinner in the middle of the day. Not only that they had 3 course dinners, soup, dinner and a desert. Francis Brennan's mother used to keep the Sunday roast chicken carcasse to make soup. There would be nothing left on the carcasse in our house except the bones and they would be licked clean.

kneemos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121106957#Comment_121106957

More TV for old folk.

maninasia

It's even really difficult for Irish people overseas to access RTE content, even when you would pay for it!

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121104702#Comment_121104702

I'm not sure. Looks more to me like signalling to the public that they're "taking all this really seriously." They know the bailout is coming and none of these measures will seriously impact their output...

ShamNNspace

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121107305#Comment_121107305

Well maybe, but it could have been a much better programme without that shower, Kathleen Lynch ffs, Brennan, Ciara Kelly, short,Courtney and another few I've never heard of, Doorley with the big foodie all-knowing head on him, he'd eat himself if he got the chance by the sound of him , were they all gettin the cheque for their shytetalk I wonder

kneemos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121107358#Comment_121107358

Agree yeah, think I had a glimpse of it.

RabbleRouser2k

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121106957#Comment_121106957

It's what Dee Forbes loved to 'provide' as entertainment- what's become known as 'weaponised nostalgia'. Cheap as chips programming, clips we've seen a hundred times over taken from the 'archives'.

And a lot of those people probably don't get paid that much to give an opinion- we heard from comedians who were offered €200 to write, film and shoot a comedy sketch for 'No Worries if not', and that would take about 3 weeks to make per sketch. (Many rejected the offer, no matter how much 'exposure' it would get-youtube, tiktok and twitter provide the same exposure, without signing stuff away to RTE).

Pat Short's 'Entertainment from D'Telly' and 'Music from D'Telly' were two similar shows that raided the vaults, Reeling in the Years 2010s was hyped up as the Irish Game of Thrones the way they were promo'ing it. I didn't watch it, and I've watched em all up to that point.

And we have 'Marty's picture show', where Marty Morrissey goes through the archives of old photos... more 'nostalgia'. Nationwide are doing the same too, while they were on Summer break, they raided the archives again.

It's all same old, same old. Lazy, lazy, cheap programming- because the money was being pee'd away on the 'talent'.

AndyBoBandy

Flicked over to RTE1 yesterday before the SixOne news and they are showing “The Great British Sewing Bee” first aired in 2020…..

They fcuking deserve to go to the wall.

kneemos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121107497#Comment_121107497

Any old crap to fill the hole. RTE2 often has two or three wildlife or cookery programmes in a row.

Don't think they even care about their programming schedule. Just keep the lights on and the ads running.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121102071#Comment_121102071

Welcome to Boards.ie.

Yes, you are right TV drama is expensive to produced.

RTÉ at one point, in fairness to them, did produced and commission smaller budget dramas. I am not, and I don't think anyone one else, is expecting RTÉ to produce just 1 hour of TV drama for €1.2m, that would just be madness. Maybe a small 4 to 6 part comedy/drama for around 200k-250k per episode. Or maybe just supporting a small feature film.

Or even just a proper budget for TV drama, in 2022 according to their IPU/Independent Commissions annual report RTÉ spend just €2.489m on "Great Local Drama"... That included Kin and 3 half hour episodes of Storyland (a project supported by Screen Ireland).

But you are right to say that a programme like Normal People cost about €1.2m to produce, it was produced by Hulu (Disney) and BBC Studios. Below the cost of an episode of Normal People actually rose to €3m.

Dee Frobes (The Former DG of RTÉ): Just to give the Deputy an idea on the cost of something like "Normal People", it cost €3 million per episode to make. It is a huge investment. We could never have afforded that. Therefore, the deal that we did was a different deal, where we got to be the Irish broadcaster. We put some money in but we could never afford that. Hence, the approach we have taken with drama now is to try to increase the amount of drama we are getting, but we are a minority funder. We are bringing in third-party funding all the time. For example, "Hidden Assets", which was recently on, was a co-production between a number of parties, from Belgium, France and here. "Smother", which is on air at the moment, has got money from the BBC, Screen Ireland and the western region audiovisual producers, WRAP, fund.

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/committee_of_public_accounts/2022-01-20/speech/219/

https://about.rte.ie/commissioning/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/06/RTE-Independent-Productions-Annual-Report-2022-2.pdf

RoTelly

They are unwilling to release Dee Forbes contract, but I would have thought that she was largely appointed by the board who are in turn appointed by the Minister/Department. You'd think that the Department would have an over view of that contract.

The also won't provided details of Breda O'Keeffe's exit package, I assume this will be know once work is completed on the investigation into those exit packages/redundancies is completely.

Someone on twitter was saying how he'd email Dee Forbes about Right wing extremists in Sweden and their rise, and how he didn't get a reply... I was going to reply with "You honestly still believe she was running RTÉ in some shape or form following the scandals about her time as DG."

TedBundysDriver

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121107497#Comment_121107497

We live in hope.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121107497#Comment_121107497

@TedBundysDriver All is saved because on Monday after a 4 month holiday Today with Daithi and Maura is back on our screens!

kneemos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121142316#Comment_121142316

With all of their 1800 employees they still can't maintain output during the holidays.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121142555#Comment_121142555

Yeah they've never really been able to, I wonder why.

I called Today offices, I thought I wonder what they are up to, the week before it begins. They are working from home, so no rehearsals needed for the big day on Monday.

JP Liz V1

Dee should be forced to face PAC and RTE release details of their contracts and exit deals

AndyBoBandy

Tuesday evening 7pm RTÉ2 - Hotel Chocolat: Unwrapped. Originally broadcast in October 2020…

So almost 3 years ago, and I’ve randomly seen these shows on about 4-5 times being shown on RTÉ…….

The alternative on RTÉ 1 at the same time? Nationwide & Eastenders.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121156112#Comment_121156112

They largely gave up on RTÉ2 in 2014. It never really returned to what it had being doing.

At least you might have had

7 - 9 History | Nature Docs

9 - 11 New imports | Irish Programming

11 News

Largely RTÉ gave up on this schedule, and suggested this is because people have moved on line, but in reality new Drama on RTÉ2 had moved to RTÉOne back in 2008, and RTÉ vastly reduced their support for Drama on both channels (more recently opting for Co-pros). While the other type of programming that has been moved online comes nowhere close to what RTÉ2/Network 2 had being doing. (An awful lot of short form series, 6 ads on the player for a badly produced 6minute programme, who's watching?)

RTÉ2's audience has gone from 10% without sport to 4% without sport. Then the have the audacity to talk about special events like Olympics, RWC and World cup in their annual reports, the things holding RTÉ2 together... and lets not forget their Strategy 2024 had sport move over to RTÉ ONE!