RTÉ report €13m defecit. Time to properly fund Public Service Broadcasting.

JustAThought

Nobodys talking about the scandal of the BAI licence fee payments to low or non paid radio workers who accept grants from the licence fee and work at less than minimum wage to make programmes that if they are lucky are shown on rte -usually fulfilling their culture/history/childrens slots. The very areas they claim to exvell in and which they say underpins their existance & right to the tv licence fees existance. On the flip side of this misery are the Joe's and Miriams who despite their eye watering saleries also have 'independent' production companies and also apply for huge 'independent' TV production grants -again from the 'independent' producers tv licence fee allocation. Talk about gred and one hand washing the other. Of course who are the judges for these grants -'industry experts' usuallt rte or ex rtes and what do they ask for in your application - every storyboard,contact, expert private details, entire compleye programme ideas and scripts you have - and what is a clause in the judging notes - they can decide to give it to someone who they know is 'experienced' . You couldnt make it up. Talk about gaurds policing gaurds.

As for the obsenity of 300k+ salaries and the likes of dying in his seat Marty who is simply allowed refuse to be fired/discontinued and continues with his mysognistic alzheimers style drivel - and the cult of giving programmes to family members (dreary lottie)and multi generations working in the same department... it should be just closed and rethought. Its a dinosaur in party clothes desperately clinging to its rock as the floods engulf it - out of date, almost useless, and immediately replacable.

We taxed water overnight and cut grants from childrens cancer charities -why is this obscene waste allowed waddle along.

Its not as though its independent or impartial either. Just pandering to its government paymasters and itinerants/criminals/lawbreakers in all their corporate forms and cowering before commerce.

Get rid of it.

ILoveYourVibes

I also think they haven't a clue about what attracts advertising and viewing figures.

There is very little talent in front of the camera and very little sense behind.

Plus several people there who are quite high up are actually making money RUNNING private film companies that would be in DIRECT competition with RTE. I don't have to spell out a conflict of interests issue.

ILoveYourVibes

JustAThought wrote: »

Nobodys talking about the scandal of the BAI licence fee payments to low or non paid radio workers who accept grants from the licence fee and work at less than minimum wage to make programmes that if they are lucky are shown on rte -usually fulfilling their culture/history/childrens slots. The very areas they claim to exvell in and which they say underpins their existance & right to the tv licence fees existance. On the flip side of this misery are the Joe's and Miriams who despite their eye watering saleries also have 'independent' production companies and also apply for huge 'independent' TV production grants -again from the 'independent' producers tv licence fee allocation. Talk about gred and one hand washing the other. Of course who are the judges for these grants -'industry experts' usuallt rte or ex rtes and what do they ask for in your application - every storyboard,contact, expert private details, entire compleye programme ideas and scripts you have - and what is a clause in the judging notes - they can decide to give it to someone who they know is 'experienced' . You couldnt make it up. Talj about gaurds policing gaurds.

I agree with you except for one thing.

Miriam Callaghan is one of the few who is worth her salary in there.

But yes as I said above people even on the consecutive board etc have independent production companies ..it's a direct conflict of interest but there you go.

Plus RTE is run chaotically and is just slow structurally.

They are way more concerned with bad headlines than what is actually going on inside.

They will avoid telling departments actual policy until it's too late to implement it on time because they are afraid of it being leaked to the press.

ILoveYourVibes

Why Marian Finucane is the highest paid woman in RTE i don't know. No one under 30 has heard of her.

Or rather I DO know ...she has been there the longest.

And that is the way RTE works. They don't have turnover.

Boxing.Fan

TV licence will never be deducted at source and rightly so. I've never paid for one and never will, RTE is absolute garbage..

Tokyo

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Some of the 92IQ responses so far are powerful markers as to why we need a properly funded State broadcaster.

Mod:

JohnnyFlash- quit it with the childish digs.

Reati

Great there is 8 pages of reasons why we need to get RTÉ fixed. How do we do this?

Start contacting politicians? One of those change.org petitions?

I think we should go whole hog and abolish the TV license. Only then will RTÉ have to produce the content people want to watch.

ILoveYourVibes

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Some of the 92IQ responses so far are powerful markers as to why we need a properly funded State broadcaster.

It is actually a properly funded state broadcaster that also takes advertising revenue. They also have a lot of other commercial activities some of which might surprise you.


They have also gotten into trouble with the public accounts committee for the way they have spent public money.

RTE has also refused to sign a contract saying they will be transparent with how they spend it. They say they have no legal requirement to sign up to such a contract.

The public accounts committee say there is an issue with public money being given for work that is out sourced to the private companies of individuals working in RTE who make the decisions where the money goes etc and its a matter of public interest.

50% of the entire Irish dept of communications budget goes on JUST RTE.

Yet RTE refuses to sign a contract saying they will be transparent with the dept and the public acc committee about what happens to this money.

There is a lot of bogus self employment arrangements etc in RTE and people being paid for work they did not do ...execs and presenters handing out contracts to their own companies ..or worse ...money to their companies that was never actually done.

There are no sanctions in place for RTE.

ILoveYourVibes

Reati wrote: »

Great there is 8 pages of reasons why we need to get RTÉ fixed. How do we do this?

Start contacting politicians? One of those change.org petitions?

I think we should go whole hog and abolish the TV license. Only then will RTÉ have to produce the content people want to watch.

It was doing better for a number of years. They got people into shake it up a bit and change practices ..but certain people didn't like that ...

ILoveYourVibes

https://www.independent.ie/business/media/adrian-weckler-rte-has-lost-plot-on-tv-funding-35712047.html


They are greedy dishonest and on the gravy train.

Reati

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

It was doing better for a number of years. They got people into shake it up a bit and change practices ..but certain people didn't like that ...

Sure but one thing I find in this site is plenty of opinion and no action.

So if a majority of people are feeling RTÉ (don't forget the fada folks..) aren't value for that large amount of change they demand from everyone we should do something.

ILoveYourVibes

Reati wrote: »

Sure but one thing I find in this site is plenty of opinion and no action.

So if a majority of people are feeling RTÉ (don't forget the fada folks..) aren't value for that large amount of change they demand from everyone we should do something.

Public protest that got enough support amongst the young and media headlines.
That would be their worst nightmare. And i mean they would SHAKE.

You would not believe the lengths they go to keep bad press away from RTE.

Also contacting politicians i would not be in favour of.

Politicians would love to get rid of RTE and as much as it has issues it's really our only national level news broadcaster that is not owned by Denis O'Brien. But in saying that to think people in RTE are just sooo much better than Denis O'Brien would be very naive.

amcalester

Bass Reeves wrote: »

I gave up on RTE after the Brendan O'Connor/Rat Darcey debacle. They headhunted Darcey for the afternoon show to get him they sidelined O'Connor Saturday night show and gave it to Darcey. Darcey is s brutal TV talk show host. If you watch he always is fiddling with his hint cards. He cannot extend an interesting guest or reduce s disintresting guest. If you ever watch him he never listens he is waiting to ask the next question. If Ray has 8 questions to ask all 8 have to be asked instead of listening to the guest.

I've said the exact same about Tubridy, the questions on the cue cards get asked no matter what, and at times you can see the guest start talking about something that interests them more than what they are there to promote and Tubridy asks a totally unrelated question. Usually about how much the guest loves Ireland.

Blueshoe

Keep paying it guys. If they are handed enough money they might change their ways.

Never have never will

Mehapoy

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

RTÉ today reported a deficit of €13 million for 2018. We now live in an era of fake news, advertising masquerading as news, and clickbait designed to outrage consumers. I believe it's ever more important to have a publicly funded state broadcaster.


It's the done thing to criticise and berate RTÉ, especially in the cesspools of Facebook, Twitter, and The Journal. However I believe they do a very good job in difficult circumstances. Their current affairs, sports coverage, and documentaries are top class. They manage to balance the wants of the populace by providing stuff like The Voice and Ireland's Fittest Families, with more niche content like the wonderful Doc On One, live classical music from the NCH, Irish language content, Nationwide etc.

People complain about there being dross on RTÉ, but then don't want to pay the licence fee to fund additional content that meets their extremely high-brow tastes. This is having a serious impact on the independent sector who are being forced to produce ever cheaper and more salacious content instead of high-quality work. Yet you head onto the Sky channels and are met with hours of repeats, Dr Pimple Popper, and ads for online casinos.

I think a strong public service broadcaster is a sign of a strong democracy, and am in favour of deducting tax at source to fund it. What say the intellectuals of Boards?

Hi ryan

McMurphy

We pay the license fee in this house, not a decision of mine mind you, but it's paid annually.

Honestly, gets watched a few times a year, toy show, GAA matches and herself watches D Bannon, but that's about it really.

Netflix/YouTube and other sub based entertainment sources have made Montrose basically redundant, and my guess is not just in this house.

Squeeonline

I'd like to see a different model of TV licence - i.e. none. Scrap it entirely, take the budget from a small increase in income tax at the highest levels.

I'm living abroad and use the RTE website for getting the gist of the news back home and that's about all these days.

odyssey06

Squeeonline wrote: »

I'd like to see a different model of TV licence - i.e. none. Scrap it entirely, take the budget from a small increase in income tax at the highest levels.
I'm living abroad and use the RTE website for getting the gist of the news back home and that's about all these days.

The TV licence model is inefficient. The problem with funding it from income tax is that it's not ring-fenced. Give RTE a budget increase and they will gobble up more and more and more. They'll be insatiable. And we'll still get pretty crap TV because they'll have even less incentive to be efficient or produce quality output when they can just give the government a hard luck story.

weldoninhio

super_furry wrote: »

Any increased funding, which I believe should be made available through National Lottery funding, should also come with a salary cap across the board.

I don't think the Canadian Teachers Pensions would be happy to give their profits to RTE.

Plumbthedepths

Simple solution, put RTE behind a pay wall/ subscription only. Those that want it have the opportunity to pay those that don't....self explanatory.

ILoveYourVibes

Plumbthedepths wrote: »

Simple solution, put RTE behind a pay wall/ subscription only. Those that want it have the opportunity to pay those that don't....self explanatory.

No one would want it. And it would mean someone like Denis O'Brien would be controlling our news broadcasts.

RTE are ****e but we do need a state broadcaster at least for news and current affairs.

Boxing.Fan

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

If you own a television then you are breaking the law.

No **** paddy, do you think anyone that doesn't pay is bothered about that?

James Brown

RTE has absolutely no business competing with other channels. If a big event is on both BBC and RTE, it's a win for no adverts BBC. If another channel is showing some US sitcom and RTE is too, it's a toss up where the viewer might go.
RTE should play to it's only strengths, Irish news, Irish sport and Irish home produced drama/entertainment. That's a channel full and add one in Irish. Cut the budget. I'm sick of these Montrose family sprogs waltzing into the family business RTE that the tax payer funds.

Pintman Paddy Losty

Boxing.Fan wrote: »

No **** paddy, do you think anyone that doesn't pay is bothered about that?

Yes. It's illegal and immoral.

James Brown

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

Yes. It's illegal and immoral.

FG once went 9 years without paying any tax. I think you could miss paying the licence and still hold your head high at Sunday mass.

Boxing.Fan

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

Yes. It's illegal and immoral.

It's immoral to not pay a TV licence? You're having a laugh surely.

tayto lover

Boxing.Fan wrote: »

It's immoral to not pay a TV licence? You're having a laugh surely.

I pay it but I dont know why. It’s rubbish. Stopped watching it years ago except for the Gaelic football which is rare now because someone decided to show hurling most of the time.
They should close it down as it’s useless.

c.p.w.g.w

Maybe if stopped paying stupid money to talentless hosts. It might be easier to balance the books

tayto lover

Thread needs a poll =

(A) Close RTÉ or

(B) Raise the license fee or

(C) Make them run it on current money.

oLoonatic

I was about to give an actual response and then realised who the OP was. Well played sir.