End of Tara tv

obrien0107

Just read this in the Business section of The Sunday Tribune...

"Tara tv the station which transmits RTE's programmes via cable in the UK, is to go into liquidation on Tuesday.It is understood Tara has failed to reach agreement with RTE on a restructuring formula which would have enabled it to continue operations.RTE Commercial Enterprises is a 20% shareholder in Tara and is owed €1.77m, almost all of which will be lost in the liquidation.
The remaining 80% is is owned by European cable giant UPC, which is owed approximately €18m.
Just two weeks ago an interim examiner was appointed to Tara in an attempt to give it time to hammer out a deal with RTE. Although owed signicicantly more than RTE, UPC had said it was willing to continue its investment in Tara if a solution could be arrived at that would permit the channel to continue its business.
Tara managing director Cathy Dewhurst previously said that under its proposal for examinership RTE would have recieved an immediate payment of €375,000 and that a further €1m would be paid this year. RTE will recieve €180,000 when TARA is liquidated. It invested €2.7m in Tara in 1996 and since then has paid €4.4m by the company.Tara employs 18 people and had recently signed a deal with NTL to transmit over the former Cable&Wireless networks in the UK.
RTE's debt relates to out-standing bills for programming."

Goodbye Tara

CHRISTYG

Tell me this, am I the only person who answers to the name of "British" who's actually GLAD to see the end of Tara TV? I know, there were some good live events-racing, the Late Late Show (although since Gaybo "retired" only to turn up 3 years later on "Who wants to be a Millionare" even that's gone downhill) 80% of the schedule was made up of RTE shows from 5, 10, or as much as 20 years ago!!! Now, the Irish RM was great in its time, but that time was in 1980, not 2002- and as for "Hands"-even when it was made, during the "One Channel Land" days, it looked old-fashioned! So goodbye, and mostly good riddance, Tara-hello to RTE!!!!!

PacMan

Down here in the Republic we all said goodbye to Tara last year.
Did we ever get an official "Reason" as to why it was blocked to Sky Digital viewers in the ROI?
I watched Tara for the Six-One news, and PrimeTime. In fact I still set my personal planner for certain programmes on tara, to remind me to change to RTE1 to watch a programme. I forget sometimes to switch back to Irish terrestrial as I have become so dependent on the personal planner option on Sky

Wel if I was running RTE commercially, the first thing I would do would be to facilitate the Closure of Tara.
That appears to be the commercial decision made here.
Why should they let an outside organisation make money,that they could be making themselves.
It's a bit unusual for RTE to be performing in a commercial manner-but times ar changing.
mm

rlogue

Fine. If RTÉ are to facilitate the closure of Tara for commercial reasons then why the **** won't they say what, if anything, is to replace it?

**** the Irish in Britiain up the arse without vaseline, why don't you...

...agus bhrea Lá Féile Phaidraig fresin.

Richie

PacMan

**** the Irish in Britiain up the arse without vaseline, why don't you...
Thats a little below the belt:D
I dont think that anyone will ever say that Tara TV was a true reflection on irish television. Yes I know that ex-pats in the UK watch the news/current affairs etc, but its not the best.
Apparently according to todays "Turbine", Tara will be off air in may. RTE services will be on Sky in April. I think that it was Charles Slane who said in a previous Tara thread that this is a bit suspicious.....
As MadMan said earlier, maybe RTE are finally making business sence and launching their own branded channel dedicated exclusively for ex-tara viewers in the UK. After all they did get free access to the Sky digital platform. Maybe that included RTE1, Network 2, Tg4, and an RTE Choice type channel for the UK.

KdjaCL

When we lost Tara cos i was in a whining mode with Sky(calling them a lot about Open and other thing we didnt get but paid the same for )
They told that tara was withdrawn from us cos RTE showed the same shows ,and they felt it was no loss to us .
It was at the time that .tv went too (god i miss that even with that idiot who reviewed stuff)
Kdja

Well in reply to richie above.
I think it would be typical of RTE not to be telling us what or when they will be providing a service to GB.
But considering what TG4 is costing them( a fifth of the license according to yesterdays Indo) they need to be operating in as many "commercial" areas as possible to maximise income.
Casualty being Tara-but if they don't come on quick with a money spinner replacement in Britain ie;some sort of venture with Setanta, then it's a waste.

It would not surprise me if the reasoning behind RTE's hastening of the demise of Tara was just to give them a free run in NI on Sky.
If thats the case and theres no service to Britain-then it's very insular and not that commercially minded at all.
mm

CHRISTYG

Just to clarify a point-and this DOES seem a bit "anoraky" even by my standards- does the fact that Tara goes into liquidation on Tuesday mean an immediate end to the station on Sky Digital/whatever cable systems still carry it? I ask for a strange reason, because the Irish Masters Snooker starts on Tuesday afternoon, and as a big snooker fan, I would like to be able to watch some of the games. So any information-not guesswork, but known information- would be appreciated.

Tarabuses

It will be up to the Liquidator to decide whether the station continues to broadcast after his appointment. It is unlikely that any announcement could be made before then.

carrolls

Hi ChristyG,
This may seem a little bit obvious, but why don't you turn your analogue uhf aerial in a SW direction (ie point to the Clermont Carn transmitter in Co. Louth) and tune in RTE1 and Network 2.
There is no reason why you should not get a perfect RTE picture from Newtownards.

CHRISTYG

carrolls, from the end of April, I won't need to worry about analogue RTE signals, because, from then, RTE-and possibly TV3 as well- will be coming to Sky Digital (in NI only)!

jimbob

Christy they will be in ROI aswell

CHRISTYG

Sorry, jimbob, an honest mistake. Last time I checked, it was just in NI. By the way, is it going to be at the end of April, or will it be any sooner?

It will be too late for the snooker:D
mm

carrolls

Well, CHRISTYG,
If I was a fan of the Snooker, thats what I would do.
If you wait for RTE to appear on the digibox, you will miss the snooker and probably everything else for that matter.
Anyway you could watch the snooker, and tape
anything on the Digibox at the same time if you could recieve the the analog broadcast. (or vice versa for that matter).

CHRISTYG

It's actually on Tara anyway- for once, the rubbish station does somethiing good, although it's rather like seeing your favourite Premiership team get relegated and then beating Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal- nice, but rather irrelevant!!

carrolls

In case you havn't being reading the posts of the last two weeks,
Tara is finished, dead, It is an ex channel. It is no more.
(At least it will be by the time the Irish Snooker comes on.)

CHRISTYG

Sorry to disagree, but at this moment in time-11.53 a.m. on March 19- Tara is still broadcasting, albeit that filler called "Tara Shop" and it has announced that it WILL be showing the snooker-at least this afternoon!!

icdg

Well, I've just checked the Courts Service page, and the Tara TV case was listed for 10:30am this morning in Court 13 before Mr. Justice Brian McCracken. Checking all the usual news sources reveals no details on how the case went.

Either its still going on or has been adjourned to a further date. No doubt there'll be further news by the end of the day.

The liquidator, if one is appointed, has the duty of making sure creditors and then shareholders get as much of their money back as possible, through the sale of the company's assets. He will only keep Tara TV going if he believes there is a resonable chance the station can be sold as a going concern. However without the RTE catelogue there really cannot be much hope of that and I believe a closure announcement will come sooner rather than later.

DMC

Still no news yet....

Just a reminder of the last big broadcasting collapse in the state, Century Radio, and how events unfolded. It was wound up at 4pm, and the station was off the air at 6pm.

rlogue

Liquidator appointed to Tara Television Tuesday, March 19 2002
Filed at: 03:37 PM

---

A liquidator has been appointed to Tara Television, whose main business is transmitting RTÉ programmes in Britain. Earlier this month, the High Court appointed an interim examiner to Tara, in which RTE has a 20% stake.

The company has 18 employees and operates from rented facilities at RTÉ headquarters in Donnybrook. Mr Justice Brian McCracken appointed the examiner after he was told that the company's liabilities had exceeded its assets by over €22 million.

rlogue

The official word from RTÉ is that they have no plans to provide a service to Britain to replace Tara.

:mad:

DMC

Administer the last rights, brother Logue....

DMC

More news from RTE News Online

http://www.rte.ie/news/2002/0319/taratv.html

Tara Television, whose main business is transmitting RTE programmes in Britain, has been wound up in the High Court. Mr Justice Brian McCracken ordered that accountant Billy O'Riordan of PricewaterhouseCoopers be appointed liquidator.

On 1 March, the High Court appointed an interim examiner to Tara, in which RTE has a 20% stake. The company has 18 employees and operates from rented facilities at RTE headquarters in Donnybrook.

Mr Justice Brian McCracken appointed the examiner after he was told that the company's liabilities exceeded its assets by over EUR 22.8m. Loans of EUR 18m had been advanced to Tara by United Pan-Europe, while EUR 2.7m was advanced by RTE

On 1 March, the court was told that Tara was insolvent and unable to pay its debts. This was mainly due to the amount of programming fees which RTE was insisting on being paid, as well as various other problems.

A draft budget for the current year indicated that Tara could survive if a number of arrangements were put in place, including a renegotiation of the level of programme fees payable to RTE in future.

John Breslin BL, for the three Tara directors who petitioned for the appointment of the interim examiner, said RTE had not changed its stance since 1 March.

Lyndon McCann BL, for RTE Commercial Enterprises, said Tara had incurred losses of EUR 17m and was doomed, irrespective of whether or not a new agreement was reached.

A spokesperson for RTE said that the company regretted the liquidation, but said it was not possible to continue supporting Tara when there was "clear evidence that the company was insolvent and there was no viable business plan for the future".

The spokesperson also said that programming fees due to RTE represented only a fraction of Tara's overall losses. RTE also said it not received any payment in respect of programming costs since Tara started trading in 1997.

RTE said it would take "every step possible" to ensure alternative access to Irish programming for UK viewers.

Charles Slane

Originally posted by DamoDMC
More news from RTE News Online

http://www.rte.ie/news/2002/0319/taratv.html


RTE said it would take "every step possible" to ensure alternative access to Irish programming for UK viewers.

And there's an interesting line. RTE International here we come !! Or maybe RTE World.

Or more , probably,RTE video and tape:rolleyes:
Available at all good record stores across the UK:rolleyes:
mm

TinMan

Wonder will RTE use thier dish for testing now??

DMC

The Tara issue would not have affected RTE testing, rest assured.

Different kettle of fish.

DMC

More news, from Mediaguardian.co.uk

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,670986,00.html

Main points are:

Tara TV, the channel that broadcasts Irish programming in Britain, is to close after accumulating debts of £14m.

The station, which is carried on cable and Sky Digital, is likely to cease operating next month with the loss of about 20 jobs at its London and Derry offices

You can pick holes in the story, like Tara showed very few GAA games, just a highlights package on Sunday nights was the norm... but now we have ballpark date of when it will go off air.

24 Hours later, RTÉ appear?? hmmmmmmmm!