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

Boggles

Pa ElGrande wrote: »

The idea of an annual tax on television sets is past it's sell by date and the government ministers are proposing to extend that tax to other devices, however rather than continue with this method with inefficient expensive collection methods, simply switch to a subscription model that is graded on service - so if all you want is news, weather, party political broadcasts and public announcements you buy a basic subscription package and if you want more service then you buy an upgraded subscription or you can use a pay by use model? or even open up to the diaspora with a special package so you can extend the number of subscribers beyond the Republic. This way you are free to increase (or decrease) costs for consumers which become a proper reflection of the costs to run the service and do not depend on government intervention to raise the tax rate. This also means that people you don't consume your service are not burdened with unnecessary taxation.

Your trying to turn the Public Service TV model into Netflix.

They are 2 separate things, it wouldn't work for numerous reasons.

Anyway the time to do was on the digital switch over.

It's not going to happen.

vriesmays

RabbleRouser2k wrote: »

I saw a video of the forgotten sitcoms from the 70s and 80s... like, the crap that NEVER get's re-aired (I hadn't heard of any of em).And sadly, Mrs Browns Boys would actually be superior to many of them.

It's not superior to Curry and chips.

Pa ElGrande

Boggles wrote: »

Your trying to turn the Public Service TV model into Netflix.

They are 2 separate things, it wouldn't work for numerous reasons.

Anyway the time to do was on the digital switch over.

It's not going to happen.

With the current situation are RTE serving the public or are the public serving RTE? I don't see too many problems with a tiered service model once it is up and running, the current flat rate pricing model is not working and is subject to much political interference and always will be so that RTE will be kept on a leash ever dependent on pilfering the tax payer pockets and their consumers are stuck with sub-par programming without being able to do anything about it i.e. there is no option to vote with your Euros.

Boggles

Pa ElGrande wrote: »

I don't see too many problems with a tiered service model once it is up and running,

Access to the service would be one problem, how is our national broadband plan going? 9 years in the making.

So what's the alternative, encrypt the digital broadcast. No way I'm hanging another box off the telly.

Pa ElGrande wrote: »

the current flat rate pricing model is not working and is subject to much political interference and always will be so that RTE will be kept on a leash ever dependent on pilfering the tax payer pockets and their consumers are stuck with sub-par programming without being able to do anything about it i.e. there is no option to vote with your Euros.

Meh, most of the political journos on RTE are top notch IMO.

Also when was the last time there was in increase in the fee? 160 for me is about the right price point.

95% of what is on all media is shíté, the 5% is down to personal preference.

They need to over haul certain aspects, but not fundamentally tear it part. That would be silly move.

Lackadaisical

To be honest, I do see a very important role for proper public service broadcasting, especially in current affairs. It's a huge issue now, more than perhaps ever before, with the drying up of revenues in newspapers and a general collapse of journalism coupled with the rise of populist politics. At least the likes of Primetime can and so on can be really solid.

I think though RTE needs reform. It's really not good enough to just keep sloshing money into things that are clearly not public services.

I just think we need to be careful to distinguish between loss-making commercial activities and public service broadcasting. They aren't the same thing.

Brendan Bendar

Biggest problem for her is the outlandish salaries paid to RTEs top earners and the ‘bench’

Can’t be justified ....end of.

No matter what way you look at it.

Always Tired

How can it possibly be legal to make up a new tax for items that have already been purchased before this fee came in?

I got rid of my TV ages ago to avoid this fee. I traveled to Dublin twice to march against the water fee and also marched in my hometown. After the water charge was defeated it seemed the gov put this broadcast charge idea away, now it comes back out of the blue.

I absolutely will not pay it. They can send me to jail if they want, the cells in Castlerea have TVs in them and I won't have to pay for any license or for food, either!

I fcucking hate this corrupt slimeball government, all they do is try to come up with ways to fleece people. Go hell for leather to collect money for Tubridy the tool's exorbitant wages but when it comes the HSE, the housing crisis they just shrug and go, 'Ah well, what can we do?'

Pa ElGrande

Boggles wrote: »

Access to the service would be one problem, how is our national broadband plan going? 9 years in the making.

So what's the alternative, encrypt the digital broadcast. No way I'm hanging another box off the telly.

Use a dual pricing system and maintain the legacy system you currently use but charge a higher cost (collection fees and administration) and phase it out as the technology changes in favour of the tiered pricing so you can pass on any cost savings to consumers and open the market to consumers outside the republic.

For Forks Sake

Always Tired wrote: »

Go hell for leather to collect money for Tubridy the tool's exorbitant wages but when it comes the HSE, the housing crisis they just shrug and go, 'Ah well, what can we do?'

HSE gets over €16bn a year, spend the lot of it and come back with the paw out for more. Every year. If you want to have a go about public money being wasted, then there would be a very good place to start.

Ubbquittious

The government seems hell bent on this notion that before you earn a penny or spend a penny you already owe them the bones of a grand every year for simply existing.

Property tax (soon to go up), PSO levy, mandatory bin charges and now this thing. Water charges still on the back burner as well. The property tax really opens the flood gates for them to add more and more taxes without consideration for whether or not people can pay them. If they decide they need another few million for bog rolls inside in the dail they can just lob it onto the property tax as a separate charge

Brendan Bendar

Always Tired wrote: »

How can it possibly be legal to make up a new tax for items that have already been purchased before this fee came in?

I got rid of my TV ages ago to avoid this fee. I traveled to Dublin twice to march against the water fee and also marched in my hometown. After the water charge was defeated it seemed the gov put this broadcast charge idea away, now it comes back out of the blue.

I absolutely will not pay it. They can send me to jail if they want, the cells in Castlerea have TVs in them and I won't have to pay for any license or for food, either!

I fcucking hate this corrupt slimeball government, all they do is try to come up with ways to fleece people. Go hell for leather to collect money for Tubridy the tool's exorbitant wages but when it comes the HSE, the housing crisis they just shrug and go, 'Ah well, what can we do?'

You tell us, if you are not too tired, what can they do?

And don’t say ‘Tax the rich’.

fritzelly

Over my dead body will I pay a "broacasting" charge to prop up RTE
They are a 50% commercial enterprise, no way in hell should any one be forced to pay towards what is basically a commercial enterprise propped up by government support. I do not buy into this supporting journalism crap cos we all know it will go straight to RTE and apart from that why should anyone be forced to support private enterprise in any form. If a private business is not sustainable then it should close

For example the VHI is supported by a health tax (so many things wrong with that) but its between the insurance companies

Ohh I'm a bit drunk after work but there is so many things about this that annoy me and stuff I want to say.

tayto lover

Brendan Bendar wrote: »

You tell us, if you are not too tired, what can they do?

And don’t say ‘Tax the rich’.

They could refuse to fund RTÉ and let them raise their funds through advertising, cutting wages and being self-sufficient.
Why should people who don’t watch their crap pay for it?

Reati

Lackadaisical wrote: »

To be honest, I do see a very important role for proper public service broadcasting, especially in current affairs. It's a huge issue now, more than perhaps ever before, with the drying up of revenues in newspapers and a general collapse of journalism coupled with the rise of populist politics. At least the likes of Primetime can and so on can be really solid.

I keep seeing this but are RTÉ also heavily biased? We shouldn't be funding the money pit of RTÉ just for primetime alone.

Brendan Bendar

tayto lover wrote: »

They could refuse to fund RTÉ and let them raise their funds through advertising, cutting wages and being self-sufficient.
Why should people who don’t watch their crap pay for it?

That wasn’t the question.

But I would support your general point re RTE.

fritzelly

Reati wrote: »

I keep seeing this but are RTÉ also heavily biased? We shouldn't be funding the money pit of RTÉ just for primetime alone.

Primetime hasn't been relevant for years, they jump on the coat tails of other reporting and proclaim it as a revelation

Shefwedfan

I see the RTÉ app is going full push on the tv licenses

Lots of articles on it

Best but they want another 30 milllion after the following

According to an RTÉ report, in 2018 the broadcaster received €189.1m of the total €221m collected which amounted to 86% of the overall amount.

Of that revenue, 54.2% was spent on TV (RTÉ One and RTÉ2). 

fritzelly

The app/video player is still ****e - how much did that cost to overhaul and was it a friend of friend who did it for them?

Pa ElGrande

Government official says RTÉ may need 'radical re-thinking' - not more public funding
Mar 5th 2019

A few days later she also met with Department of Communications director general Mark Griffin, while on 1 October Forbes met with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

Just over a week later, RTÉ got a boost in Budget 2019 when it was allocated extra funding worth €8.6 million per year.

That included €5 million from increasing the amount RTÉ was paid by the government for free TV licences issued as part of welfare packages and another €3.6 million from licence fee collections that had previously gone to TG4, which had its direct exchequer funding increased.

The State broadcaster recorded a funding deficit of €6.4 million last year, although that was down on the €19.4 million loss it delivered in 2016.

Its total revenue increased slightly thanks to an increase in licence fee income, offsetting a €6.7 million drop in its commercial revenues.

source

Why did their commercial revenue fall? Is this symptomatic of a problem where advertisers are not getting value for money?

fritzelly

Pa ElGrande wrote: »

Why did their commercial revenue fall? Is this symptomatic of a problem where advertisers are not getting value for money?

Commercial revenues doesn't mean just advertising, it includes reselling of programmes, DVD sales etc (in RTE's case)
So basically they are saying we are not producing anything that anyone else wants to buy which is probably symptomatic of a problem within RTE as most TV stations have lots of resellable content which offsets your external purchases

Shefwedfan

fritzelly wrote: »

Commercial revenues doesn't mean just advertising, it includes reselling of programmes, DVD sales etc (in RTE's case)
So basically they are saying we are not producing anything that anyone else wants to buy which is probably symptomatic of a problem within RTE as most TV stations have lots of resellable content which offsets your external purchases

True but most of the money is made from advertising

To be honest the big audiences now are sports which RTÉ have a poor selection after the GAA. Sky sports are also a lot better to RTÉ

The rest has all gone, including the 6 nations which is probably a huge chuck of revenue....

They really are running the ship into the ground when they prefer to invest in sh*t presenters and not into sports which would actually make money

Last week they had running on which was good to see but they brought up the runners to interview straight away, so they sat trying to talk to someone out of breath....amateur hour

fritzelly

Big thread here about it
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058002484

If RTE actually bothered their arse about producing home grown content then they would get plenty of advertisers and stuff they could resell either overseas or thru for example DVD sales.
Produce quality content and people will consume it, roll out Fair City drivel nah
Even the good stuff on RTE is from independent producers selling their wares to whoever will buy it

Calhoun

Looks like the messaging isn't going down well on this one. Twitter ratios for Brutons tweet are not good.

The household charge label is sticking.

fritzelly

Calhoun wrote: »

Looks like the messaging isn't going down well on this one. Twitter ratios for Brutons tweet are not good.

The household charge label is sticking.

Maybe this is the straw that broke the camels back - frigging ridiculous that the government make it law that everyone pays a tax to subsidize what is basically a private unaccountable entity that is a mouth piece for the government of the day
Actually maybe there is legislation in place to prevent this?

The whole RTE setup is a weird thing indeed - 50 years behind the times but still acting like it's 1970

Atlantic Dawn

The cost of evasion is almost identical to the cost of the 2 orchestras, why do they pay for 2 orchestras?

Calhoun

Why do they pay Marian Finucane so much for 4 hours a week.

It's good at the top I'm sure but no big loss if the cleaned the decks.

fritzelly

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

The cost of evasion is almost identical to the cost of the 2 orchestras, why do they pay for 2 orchestras?

Was trying to think of reason and came up with nothing - nimbyism at its finest. I would hazard a guess that over 95% of the population have never been to one of their shows. I mean seriously it's nothing more than collusion between them and RTE for advertising in Dublin to sell tickets to their shows

Atlantic Dawn

fritzelly wrote: »

Was trying to think of reason and came up with nothing - nimbyism at its finest. I would hazard a guess that over 95% of the population have never been to one of their shows. I mean seriously it's nothing more than collusion between them and RTE for advertising in Dublin to sell tickets to their shows

Members of the RTE orchestras also get the most generous tax reliefs of any other employee in the state at €2476 per year.

https://www.revenue.ie/en/personal-tax-credits-reliefs-and-exemptions/documents/flat-rate-expenses.pdf

fritzelly

Calhoun wrote: »

Why do they pay Marian Finucane so much for 4 hours a week.

It's good at the top I'm sure but no big loss if the cleaned the decks.

Because she brings in so much advertising revenue - gotta toe the party line!

Cannot think of one presenter on RTE radio that could not be replaced by a monkey, D'arcy could be replaced by a virus and you would not notice the difference

fritzelly

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Members of the RTE orchestras also get the most generous tax reliefs of any other employee in the state at €2476 per year.

https://www.revenue.ie/en/personal-tax-credits-reliefs-and-exemptions/documents/flat-rate-expenses.pdf

No issue for tax relief on things like this as it's usually a thankless and underpaid job most of the time for most people
It allows for culture to grow without being burdened with tax liabilities else there would be no culture in the world