RTE and the €2 per entry competitions

irishproduce

It seems there is a competition for every show on RTE now.
Watching the GAA on rte now and we've a chance to stay at a hotel and for just €2 you can enter this competition.

The biggest one I think is the Late Late show one on Friday nights. Usually 20k in a suitcase and again, €2 to get a ticket in the raffle.

You'd have to imagine the returns are such that the 20k is worth putting up as the pot. At €2 a pop, would they get maybe 20,000 entries on a Friday night? More?

The competitions are hardly just meeting the cost of the prize and the fee for RTE is actually the sponsorship charge from the sponsor?

Do they ever publish how much of their income comes from these competitions? They have one on loads of their shows now from soccer to late late to gaa to the home design shows.

Must be spinning serious revenue for what is essentially a handy earner.

Gregor Samsa

Don’t forget the phone companies and the telecoms provider running the phone competition service are getting their cut too, so the full €2 isn’t going to RTE, but no doubt they (or any TV station that runs these) aim to make on them.

But to answer your question about reporting revenue from them, in 2017 at least, the answer was no:

https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/television/tv-news/rte-wont-reveal-how-much-it-earns-from-phone-ins-and-texts-36439227.html

Atlantic Dawn

It's like the church collection.

colm_mcm

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

It's like the church collection.

Only nobody’s watching to see if you donate!

Muahahaha

And they always have a piss easy question too like whats the capital of England, Letterkenny, Longford or London. Thats because when they first started there was no question, you just texted to enter. That fell fowl of the National Lotteries Act as it was considered to be gambling. So they had to introduce the question and now it is defined not as gambling but 'a game of skill'.

Id say RTE make a pretty penny off them, especially programs like the Late Late with viewship over 500k. You might have 10% of the viewers entering, thats 50k people at 2 euro a pop grossing them 100,000, not too shabby at all.

Thing that annoys me is how hard they push it on the Late Late, Ive never counted but it must be four or five times per show that the man child mentions it. It is basically like an ad inside a tv program.

Tom Mann Centuria

I entered the late late one once, didn't bother watching and went to bed. Got a phone call at 1120pm which I knew was roughly when they ring. Nearly sh*t the bed thinking I'd won ten grand. It was my p*ssed up brother saying he loved me, so nearly as good as lots of money.

irishproduce

Muahahaha wrote: »

And they always have a piss easy question too like whats the capital of England, Letterkenny, Longford or London. Thats because when they first started there was no question, you just texted to enter. That fell fowl of the National Lotteries Act as it was considered to be gambling. So they had to introduce the question and now it is defined not as gambling but 'a game of skill'.

Id say RTE make a pretty penny off them, especially programs like the Late Late with viewship over 500k. You might have 10% of the viewers entering, thats 50k people at 2 euro a pop grossing them 100,000, not too shabby at all.

Thing that annoys me is how hard they push it on the Late Late, Ive never counted but it must be four or five times per show that the man child mentions it. It is basically like an ad inside a tv program.

That's hilarious. A game of skill.

Sunday game show on now this eve and they're pushing the same competition from today. Just spotted that winner doesn't get announced till next week so they'll be pushing it next week as well.
Surely they'll get 25k people entering at 2e a shot over the 2 weeks and associated broadcast mentions.
For a hotel stay and 1k spending money, they're surely cleaning up on these lottery type competitions.

One More Toy

You should check out my thread in bargain alerts on where to spend excess credit

Eleven Benevolent Elephants

I'm not renewing my licence next year. I can't justify paying for drivel.

Mrs. Brown: You're a bollox.

Audience: Canned laughter.

KilOit

€2 phone credit doesn't translate to €2 cash on their end i'd imagine. Still a racket though

irishproduce

KilOit wrote: »

€2 phone credit doesn't translate to €2 cash on their end i'd imagine. Still a racket though

It does.

The entry using phone credit is no different to entering on your bill phone.
There is a monthly remittance from the network operator to rte in real cash.
I.e X amount of entries made via mobile SMS. Translates to a bill that is paid over by the networks to rte every month or whatever.

One More Toy

irishproduce wrote: »

It does.

The entry using phone credit is no different to entering on your bill phone.
There is a monthly remittance from the network operator to rte in real cash.
I.e X amount of entries made via mobile SMS. Translates to a bill that is paid over by the networks to rte every month or whatever.

It goes through a service provider first...

L1011

irishproduce wrote: »

It does.

The entry using phone credit is no different to entering on your bill phone.
There is a monthly remittance from the network operator to rte in real cash.
I.e X amount of entries made via mobile SMS. Translates to a bill that is paid over by the networks to rte every month or whatever.

They will be lucky to get 80c from the €2, though - the mobile network, service operator, and Revenue (VAT) are all taking their share.

flazio

Eleven Benevolent Elephants wrote: »

I'm not renewing my licence next year. I can't justify paying for drivel.

Mrs. Brown: You're a bollox.

Audience: Canned laughter.

You know that the BBC made that right?

We have to keep Tubridy in the luxury to which he is accustomed..

LOL at all those saying they won't pay the TV licence next year.

Unless you get rid of your TV you'll be paying whether on time or via a court order.

Eleven Benevolent Elephants

flazio wrote: »

You know that the BBC made that right?

I do.

RTÉ still air it though.

mikhail

Deleted User wrote: »

LOL at all those saying they won't pay the TV licence next year.

Unless you get rid of your TV you'll be paying whether on time or via a court order.

I have thought about doing just that. There's not much I care about that I couldn't do with a laptop and a decent projector.

irishproduce

Deleted User wrote: »

We have to keep Tubridy in the luxury to which he is accustomed..

Yeah. The whole thing smacks of the same scheme in the hospitals where the tuck shops were being used to generate top ups to the CEO salaries.
Except here the competitions are being run to top up the "stars" wages

highgiant1985

irishproduce wrote: »

Yeah. The whole thing smacks of the same scheme in the hospitals where the tuck shops were being used to generate top ups to the CEO salaries.
Except here the competitions are being run to top up the "stars" wages

I don't see the problem here. It's optional and no ones forced to enter.

Insect Overlord

The RTÉ Guide has 'em as well. Wonder what the numbers are like for buying that every week.

Potential-Monke

Isn't it mad a state owned company can hide figures like that. Surely there should be more transparency on them, or can be obtained via a Freedom of Information request?

Edit: Did a Google and saw this article about ITV using phone in competitions to cover the slump and loss in ad revenue. Now, it's from 2006, so was probably more expensive then, but one of the first things mentioned is this:

"ITV1 pulls in £9m a year from such services on its flagship daytime show, This Morning."

That's 1 show, on for 3/4's of a year... Granted, UK, more people, but you could work out a good guess at how much the Late Late brings in. I worked out by population (if the same % of people per population played in Ireland) it would be about €700000.

Your Face

Muahahaha wrote: »

And they always have a piss easy question too like whats the capital of England, Letterkenny, Longford or London.
T.

So, its London yeah?

colm_mcm

Insect Overlord wrote: »

The RTÉ Guide has 'em as well. Wonder what the numbers are like for buying that every week.

I think they sold the name off years ago, so prob don’t get anything out of it. Beyond the Xmas special, I d be surprised if it t sells in any numbers these days.

looksee

There is a very easy solution, ignore all the competitions. €2 is less than the price of a cup of coffee, if someone wants to throw it at RTE, so what? Its like the lottery, though only a third of the cost, people are buying into a dream. How is it any different to buying a beer for a few minutes satisfaction? No-one is forcing anyone to do either.

mimimcmc

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

Don’t forget the phone companies and the telecoms provider running the phone competition service are getting their cut too, so the full €2 isn’t going to RTE, but no doubt they (or any TV station that runs these) aim to make on them.

But to answer your question about reporting revenue from them, in 2017 at least, the answer was no:

https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/television/tv-news/rte-wont-reveal-how-much-it-earns-from-phone-ins-and-texts-36439227.html

The Den is running one as well but it notes that Eir charge €2.03 and all other networks are €2 - Eir robbing bastards :pac:

irishproduce

Jaysus even the kids shows are running them?
I genuinely would love if RTE stated how much of revenue comes.in via these things. They're supposed to be a broadcaster and sure, no harm running a little competition on the flagship Friday night entertainment show. But it seems they're popping up on all sorts of shows, like I said from bannons homes to kids TV show the den as well.
These competitions are not exactly a bit of fun in a Friday night, they're essentially an important source of revenue at a national broadcaster. Lottery style text in competitions. To keep the lights on. Think about that.

2lazytogetup

you can use excess credit from three mobile to enter the late late competition. credit is useless for anything else once you have your GB internet allowance.

So you could enter ten times (20euro) a month and it isnt really costing you. there is a thread on bargain alerts about using excess credit.

Sac O Spuds

Do they call out the winner on the following show? One thing I notice if they do the address is vague. Mrs mary Smith Maynooth co kildare. Fair enough there is a privacy/security issue but my own belief is the prizes are never won. The credit unions were caught out on something similar not to long ago.

Hyperbollix

There is something deeply off about a publicly funded national broadcaster's "flagship" show, pedaling a weekly raffle to the extent it does, every Friday night.

Considering how bad the Late Late Show now is and the procession of RTE lovies and assorted nobodies it wheels out, anyone would get the impression that the programme's real raison d'etre is purely to try to hawk a competition in which it makes a nice a wedge of income. Tubridy literally reminds viewers about it before every ad break, so that must be 4-5 times per show. It's disgusting.

skooterblue2

colm_mcm wrote: »

Only nobody’s watching to see if you donate!

Someone somewhere is always watching !!!

skooterblue2

irishproduce wrote: »

Surely they'll get 25k people entering at 2e a shot over the 2 weeks and associated broadcast mentions.
For a hotel stay and 1k spending money, they're surely cleaning up on these lottery type competitions.

Its like the national lottery, its a tax on stupidity. The good news is it is proportional. I used to play the lottery until I saw the "real" numbers, then I saw the light.

Muahahaha

Hyperbollix wrote: »

There is something deeply off about a publicly funded national broadcaster's "flagship" show, pedaling a weekly raffle to the extent it does, every Friday night.

Considering how bad the Late Late Show now is and the procession of RTE lovies and assorted nobodies it wheels out, anyone would get the impression that the programme's real raison d'etre is purely to try to hawk a competition in which it makes a nice a wedge of income. Tubridy literally reminds viewers about it before every ad break, so that must be 4-5 times per show. It's disgusting.

yeah its a bit over the top at this stage and they really seem to be over relying on these competitions for revenue. Anytime they show football, GAA, rugby, etc they'll have a competition too and you'll see an ad for it five or six times across the couple of hours coverage, the presenters are being told to really hammer it.

I read before that Dancing with the Stars is also a good generator for revenue from people texting in to vote too, in that instance they make even more money because there is no prize to pay for, its just your vote for who gets to stay on the show.