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

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    #1382
    kneemos
    Registered Users Posts: 20,412 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    The annual report for 2018.
    https://www.rte.ie/annualreport/


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    #1383
    Kivaro
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,105 ✭✭✭Kivaro


    ButtersSuki wrote: »
    Deluded.

    Start with dramatically reducing fees to untalented and overpaid presenters who work less hours in a week than most of us do in a day.

    Linked to above, make all of these presenters salaries employees, rather than pseudo contractors (which enables them to save a fortune in Tax, effectively significantly increasing their earnings).

    End the cronyism and nepotism that is rampant in RTÉ.

    Start with those simple steps and then we can return to the licence fee issue.

    Dee Forbes was on the Six One news tonight blaming Government inaction for RTE's financial difficulties.
    They are so detached from reality.
    Dee's arrogance and superiority complex was on HD display this evening.
    €20 is all they are worth per year ........... on a subscription basis.


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    #1384
    RabbleRouser2k
    Registered Users Posts: 8,285 ✭✭✭RabbleRouser2k


    Well I'm sure they'll make their money back from repeating Podge and Rodge, and Taken Down...

    Cos they worked out SO well the last time.

    If you want to experience absolute HELL, try watching the Big DIY Challenge.

    It's terrible...absolutely terrible. Looks like they spent most of the money on PJ Gallagher's horrific tattoos.

    And this is what RTE will be serving up-Baz what's his face will be doing the Irish version of DIY SOS too...
    DIY shows, cooking shows... RTE have nothing original.


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    #1385
    InTheShadows
    Closed Accounts Posts: 727 ✭✭✭InTheShadows


    Don't pay the fee so not that arsed but people who do pay it do you feel it's value for money?


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    #1386
    The Late Late Show
    Closed Accounts Posts: 840 ✭✭✭The Late Late Show


    RabbleRouser2k wrote: »
    Well I'm sure they'll make their money back from repeating Podge and Rodge, and Taken Down...

    Cos they worked out SO well the last time.

    If you want to experience absolute HELL, try watching the Big DIY Challenge.

    It's terrible...absolutely terrible. Looks like they spent most of the money on PJ Gallagher's horrific tattoos.

    And this is what RTE will be serving up-Baz what's his face will be doing the Irish version of DIY SOS too...
    DIY shows, cooking shows... RTE have nothing original.

    Will avoid Big DIY Challenge. This sort of out and out drivel is everywhere and if it ain't stuff like that, it is bloody Mrs Brown's Boys repeats. PJ Gallagher, Alison Spittle and until he was shamed Al Porter are their idea of 'comedy' along with Mrs Brown it seems? God help us. Of course, this is all cheap to make: most of the money is for the salaries of the presenters!


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    #1387
    kneemos
    Registered Users Posts: 20,412 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    The license fee allocations. These folk fritter millions like loose change.


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    #1388
    will56
    Registered Users Posts: 1,041 ✭✭✭will56


    Is there anywhere to see the salaries / payments made to contractors for the presenters ?


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    #1389
    upandcumming
    Registered Users Posts: 2,715 ✭✭✭upandcumming


    kneemos wrote: »
    The license fee allocations. These folk fritter millions like loose change.

    €9 mil for the two orchestras.
    Fuck me.


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    #1390
    kneemos
    Registered Users Posts: 20,412 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    upandcumming wrote: »
    €9 mil for the two orchestras.
    Fuck me.


    Eight and a half million on Raidio na Gaeltachta. Unless they've built a complete new studio and brand new equipment I've no idea how on earth it could cost this much.

    Five blokes in Aran Sweaters and two sheep dogs probably makes up half their listenership.


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    #1391
    AndyBoBandy
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 15,040 Mod ✭✭✭✭AndyBoBandy


    upandcumming wrote: »
    €9 mil for the two orchestras.
    Fuck me.

    €176,153 per week on the 2 orchestras

    €176,153 per week

    Also, anyone any idea what "Non-RTÉ Activities" are, as its costing €29,590,000 per year, or €569,038 per week.


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    #1392
    AndyBoBandy
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 15,040 Mod ✭✭✭✭AndyBoBandy


    They also say that special events (The World Cup given as 1) caused an increase in spending. If that's the case, why was RTÉ 2's spend down €4.64m from 2017 to 2018 (2018 being the year the expensive world cup was broadcast)?

    They really are brazen to levels barely seen before!! Why? Because they're getting away with it.


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    #1393
    loyatemu
    Registered Users Posts: 14,808 ✭✭✭✭loyatemu


    whatever about the Orchestras and RnaG (which I can accept have social and cultural value) why is RTE2 and 2FM getting any money from the license. Neither station is doing anything that the commercial sector doesn't already do; I thought 2FM was supposed to be self-financing. Sell them both off.

    re: the orchestras, there was a recent proposal to split one of them off to be an independent organisation, but it probably would still be heavily subsidised by the taxpayer so it's much of a muchness.


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    #1394
    firemansam4
    Registered Users Posts: 1,700 ✭✭✭firemansam4


    But what is ever going to be done about this TV licence fee? When has there been any protests about it? When was it ever an election issue?

    The water charges brought mass protest and was eventually defeated because of that, yet people seem to be happy to pay out money for the TV licence every year lining the pockets of the likes of Darcy and there is never any real issue made of it.


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    #1395
    Lackadaisical
    Closed Accounts Posts: 518 ✭✭✭Lackadaisical


    RTE News and Current Affairs does a decent job, particularly Prime Time but they really need to cut themselves down to size on a lot of things.

    The salaries for high profile presenters need to be calculated properly. These huge sums wouldn't be available in the commercial sector - Virgin Media, TodayFM and Newstalk don't have the budgets and if presenters go, let them go. There's a huge wealth of new talent that RTE should be nurturing anyway as part of their role as a public service broadcaster.

    This thing of employment of presenters as contractors also should require that the programmes are out out to tender every 3 to 5 years as per normal public service contract practice. Otherwise, presenters should be staff and frankly should be happy to be.

    I'd like to see evidence that the use of production companies has actually reduced costs.

    They also need to drive down operating costs and focus more on actually producing programmes rather than just burning it away in overheads and projects that are nothing to do with broadcasting.

    Also I would like to see RTE end sponsorship of events and organisations entirely. They're a loss making public body, not a commercial entity and they've no business throwing public money at events. If the state wants to use public money to fund arts, sports etc, there's are various bodies that are accountable to the public who can do that. Diverting the TV licence into anything other than production of broadcasting content isn't really acceptable. I don't understand why RTE is behaving like a commercial entity on this kind of thing. It has absolutely no need to promote its brand as it has the ability to do that through its broadcasting activities, yet it seems to behave like it's a commercial company doing CSR.

    While RTE is running a deficit they absolutely need to stop splashing cash that they don't have. It's really ridiculous.


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    #1396
    kneemos
    Registered Users Posts: 20,412 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    loyatemu wrote: »
    whatever about the Orchestras and RnaG (which I can accept have social and cultural value) why is RTE2 and 2FM getting any money from the license. Neither station is doing anything that the commercial sector doesn't already do; I thought 2FM was supposed to be self-financing. Sell them both off.

    re: the orchestras, there was a recent proposal to split one of them off to be an independent organisation, but it probably would still be heavily subsidised by the taxpayer so it's much of a muchness.


    Plenty of independent radio stations survive and make a living without a four million subsidy.


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    #1397
    Expunge
    Registered Users Posts: 1,974 ✭✭✭Expunge


    upandcumming wrote: »
    €9 mil for the two orchestras.
    Fuck me.
    Eight and a half million on Raidio na Gaeltachta. Unless they've built a complete new studio and brand new equipment I've no idea how on earth it could cost this much.

    Just to note that's not quite right. The Orchestras received 9 Euro 16 Cent (or 6 per cent) of each licence fee

    R na G received 8.57 of every licence fee (Up from 8.49 in 2017)

    The TOTAL amount spent on the Orchestras was 12,751,000 Euros in 2018
    The TOTAL amount of licence fee spent on R na G was 11,911,000 in 2018.

    Just to also point out that the RTE Orchestras managed to bring in just over 2.9 million Euros in "commercial activities" (I believe that to be miming to tracked music in a field with Jenny Green). Without that revenue, the cost of the orchestras would have been over 15.5 million euros.


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    #1398
    AndyBoBandy
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 15,040 Mod ✭✭✭✭AndyBoBandy


    Expunge wrote: »
    Just to note that's not quite right. The Orchestras received 9 Euro 16 Cent (or 6 per cent) of each licence fee

    R na G received 8.57 of every licence fee (Up from 8.49 in 2017)

    The TOTAL amount spent on the Orchestras was 12,751,000 Euros in 2018
    The TOTAL amount of licence fee spent on R na G was 11,911,000 in 2018.


    Thats a nice way of them then to display the figures, to make it appear less than it actually is!! so the orchestra's actually cost €241,750 per week, or just over €1m per month.


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    #1399
    kneemos
    Registered Users Posts: 20,412 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    Expunge wrote: »
    Just to note that's not quite right. The Orchestras received 9 Euro 16 Cent (or 6 per cent) of each licence fee

    R na G received 8.57 of every licence fee (Up from 8.49 in 2017)

    The TOTAL amount spent on the Orchestras was 12,751,000 Euros in 2018
    The TOTAL amount of licence fee spent on R na G was 11,911,000 in 2018.


    Every county has a small independent radio station. Baffled how TnaG costs twelve million extra to run


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    #1400
    Expunge
    Registered Users Posts: 1,974 ✭✭✭Expunge


    AndyBoBandy wrote: »
    Thats a nice way of them then to display the figures, to make it appear less than it actually is!! so the orchestra's actually cost €241,750 per week, or just over €1m per month.

    'Fraid so. One has to rummage around the report a bit to get to those figures but they are there.
    Just to flesh it out a little more in terms of total licence fee spend (what they call "attribution of public funding"):
    RTE 1 (TV): 67,727,000 Euros
    RTE 2 (TV): 34,916,000 Euros
    RTE Radio 1: 16,210,000
    RTE 2FM: 4,679,000
    RTE lyric FM: 5,991,000
    RTE Rna G: 11,911,000
    Orchestras: 12,751,000
    TG4 "Support": 7,029,000
    Corporate HQ (my favourite!): 4,303,000
    Online Services: 10,812,000
    "Other Channels" (not much detail on this one): 7,998,000


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    #1401
    Fan of Netflix
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,167 ✭✭✭Fan of Netflix


    How the fck do they spend 5 million on 2fm? Who even listens to it anymore


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    #1402
    iseegirls
    Registered Users Posts: 2,998 ✭✭✭iseegirls


    Sharing the rights of the World Cup with Virgin Media would have made more sense. There would be no way the BBC would have been allowed to purchase the whole World Cup rights, and sharing with ITV makes financial sense to them, so the same should be applied to RTE and Virgin Media. It was successful in 2016 I thought.


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    #1403
    Edgware
    Registered Users Posts: 5,875 ✭✭✭Edgware


    iseegirls wrote: »
    Sharing the rights of the World Cup with Virgin Media would have made more sense. There would be no way the BBC would have been allowed to purchase the whole World Cup rights, and sharing with ITV makes financial sense to them, so the same should be applied to RTE and Virgin Media. It was successful in 2016 I thought.

    Why buy them at all? I don't think we will miss the incisive analysis of Duffer and co


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    #1404
    Elmo
    Registered Users Posts: 23,641 ✭✭✭✭Elmo


    You know they spent 24.7million on imports, how did they find all that money?


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    #1405
    suicide_circus
    Registered Users Posts: 19,802 ✭✭✭✭suicide_circus


    Elmo wrote: »
    You know they spent 24.7million on imports, how did they find all that money?
    down the back of your couch


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    #1406
    retalivity
    Registered Users Posts: 14,070 ✭✭✭✭retalivity


    Fan of Netflix wrote: »
    How the fck do they spend 5 million on 2fm? Who even listens to it anymore

    Got to keep lottie ryan on 6 figures, lest her dad come back and haunt donnybrook, or something.


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    #1407
    Thelonious Monk
    Registered Users Posts: 13,925 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    RTE is just one of those things that we have to endure whether we like it or not, because the powers that be say so.
    The vast majority of people would agree with downscaling RTE bigtime. The vast majority of people don't want Minimum Unit Pricing on Alcohol yet it's coming to a store near you any day now.
    It's warped really when you think about it, a few clowns who get voted to be in office for a few years force things upon us we don't want and we just take it.


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    #1408
    Elmo
    Registered Users Posts: 23,641 ✭✭✭✭Elmo


    Thelonious Monk wrote: »
    RTE is just one of those things that we have to endure whether we like it or not, because the powers that be say so.
    The vast majority of people would agree with downscaling RTE bigtime. The vast majority of people don't want Minimum Unit Pricing on Alcohol yet it's coming to a store near you any day now.
    It's warped really when you think about it, a few clowns who get voted to be in office for a few years force things upon us we don't want and we just take it.

    It not just politicians look at the reports on this across the media. None mention that RTÉ spent 24.7million on imported programmes.

    For some reason RTÉ's line that they made a loss due to the number of special events in 2018 does stand up when they lost 13million and only spent 7.2million on those events. If anything those events were budget for and were value for money.

    On the other hand they seem to through 24.7 million on imports, that down from 2017 25.5 million, when according to RTÉ they may have to take further cuts, I don't imagine it coming from their Imports budget do you, no lets cut Children's TV and Drama but pretend that they are a key part of our strategy.


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    #1409
    Atlantic Dawn
    Registered Users Posts: 81,537 ✭✭✭✭Atlantic Dawn
    M


    Orchestras: 12,751,000, wtf is the state broadcaster funding this elite music club?


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    #1410
    Elmo
    Registered Users Posts: 23,641 ✭✭✭✭Elmo


    Atlantic Dawn wrote: »
    Orchestras: 12,751,000, wtf is the state broadcaster funding this elite music club?

    This is part of RTÉ and always has been. At least it employees people in the entertainment industry, unlike 24.7 million of programming that is available everywhere else and that does not even feature in programming in Prime Time RTÉ, they may as well rent out the NCH, and have the sound track of all their imported programmes played by both orchestras.


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    #1411
    Thelonious Monk
    Registered Users Posts: 13,925 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    They probably spend those millions on imports on the likes of the Big Bang Theory and British shows which EVERYONE can watch on British channels nowadays because it's not the 1980s and most people have British channels too. Anyone could go in there and save millions upon millions a year with some no brainer decisions. Why nepotism is allowed in the public sector is outrageous too, I'm looking at you Lottie. At least the normal public/civil service have a somewhat transparent application process for employment.


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