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

elperello · 10-12-2019 06:31PM

Buys them time.
I hope they spend it well.
It's better than running the show into the ground.

I believe in Public Service Broadcasting and I think it is too important to be left wither on the vine.

Shefwedfan · 10-12-2019 06:45PM

_Brian wrote: »

Cut the whole damn thing to one tv station, one radio station and no orchestra or any of that crap.

Ban them from buying in any content.

Increase advertising fees.

Make the player a subscription only affair, after they manage to make it somewhat functional of course.

You need more than one station

So RTE 1 - cover all topics
RTE Junior for kids
RTE news serves a purpose
RTE + 1, well who cares

If you ban them from buying content then a lot of people will suffer as they will be forced to go paid tv. Reduce the amount of content purchased. Strike up deals with ITV/BBC to share content. Thats what Virgin etc do.

Dump 2FM would be a huge saving on its own. A radio station which in reality serves little to no purpose

From what I am reading they have two orchestra's? or fund two? seems a bit over the top. I would like to see one kept if two. If not then keep one.

Location, do we really need RTE in one of the most expensive parts of Dublin? Why not sell it up and move to outskirts. Its not like they are flying in guests that want to stay in Dublin city centre, most guests arrive up from the canteen

Just some idea's....I am sure if you dig deep enough the benefits packages etc are far better than anyone else in a similar industry job.

Boggles · 10-12-2019 06:53PM

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Location, do we really need RTE in one of the most expensive parts of Dublin?

Does it really matter considering they own it?

James Brown · 10-12-2019 07:14PM

elperello wrote: »

Buys them time.
I hope they spend it well.
It's better than running the show into the ground.

I believe in Public Service Broadcasting and I think it is too important to be left wither on the vine.

On that note they have a duty to run it well and provide a certain level of quality. Currently and traditionally they phone it in and employ their own.
Simply hiding behind the genuine arguments for public broadcasting isn't enough in and of itself.

elperello · 10-12-2019 07:14PM

Boggles wrote: »

Does it really matter considering they own it?

I think it should stay put.
The costs involved in any move would probably outweigh any profits from a sale.

It's in the right place for a dynamic national pbs.
We just need to use this breathing space to provide that.
It's a site looking for a station, no point turning the narrative into a station looking for a site.

Shefwedfan · 10-12-2019 08:01PM

Boggles wrote: »

Does it really matter considering they own it?

No but they are hugely in debt

If they could sell it off and move down the road plus make a few million why not?

TV3 was out in Ballymount, didn’t seem to hurt their progression

It’s an idea, that’s all

end of the road · 10-12-2019 09:02PM

Shefwedfan wrote: »

No but they are hugely in debt

If they could sell it off and move down the road plus make a few million why not?

TV3 was out in Ballymount, didn’t seem to hurt their progression

It’s an idea, that’s all

it's an idea, but i'm not so sure it would actually go anyway to putting a dent in their debt.
remember they would have to re-equip the new building to an extent as they would need to keep the existing setup on air while they move, or maybe even build a new building as well that would be suitable. that would probably make a serious dent.
there really is no comparison between tv3 and rte tbh. rte is a big multi channel operation. tv3, now virgin media is a multichannel operator but buys in nearly all, if not all of it's programming, so a small campus is fine for it.

Boggles · 11-12-2019 08:31AM

Shefwedfan wrote: »

No but they are hugely in debt

If they could sell it off and move down the road plus make a few million why not?

Because it would probably cost 5 times it should do. Or whatever the multiplier is when public money is paying for stuff.

Stay put and sell off the lands they don't need is the cheapest option in reality.

steddyeddy · 11-12-2019 08:47AM

Matt Barrett wrote: »

Japers.
Netflix is optional. You can watch what you want whenever you want. They create award winning original content. If you don't want it you don't get a summons.

RTE, home made filler and bought in yank tripe you can watch elsewhere anyway.

And worse than that they use the Irish public as a personal piggy bank to fund a an organisation used to give their talent-less relatives jobs.

kenmc · 11-12-2019 11:57AM

Bunny Colvin wrote: »

Dee reckons that the licence fee is good value compared to what other competitors like Netflix are offering.

What planet is she on? RTcontinues to serve up subpar content at an extortionate cost to the taxpayer.

Guess she's never seen Netflix so, if she thinks that rte is even in the same century as Netflix never mind decade.

House of cards Vs fair sh1tty. Riiiighhhht.

bdogg · 11-12-2019 12:04PM

"Cash-strapped RTÉ is set to splash out up to €200,000 on five new top-of-the-range 4x4 vehicles...."

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/troubled-broadcaster-rt-to-spend-up-to-200000-on-five-new-4x4s-38773706.html

Good to see them spending money again wisely.

X111111111111 · 11-12-2019 12:08PM

bdogg wrote: »

"Cash-strapped RTÉ is set to splash out up to €200,000 on five new top-of-the-range 4x4 vehicles...."

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/troubled-broadcaster-rt-to-spend-up-to-200000-on-five-new-4x4s-38773706.html

Good to see them spending money again wisely.

They are completely out of touch with reality tbh. You could go out and buy 5 second hand SUV's in really good nick for 50k if you did your homework. How can they get away with this kind of stuff it's complete insanity they are still funded by the hard pressed tax payers of this country. :mad:

X111111111111 · 11-12-2019 12:11PM

elperello wrote: »

Buys them time.
I hope they spend it well.
It's better than running the show into the ground.

I believe in Public Service Broadcasting and I think it is too important to be left wither on the vine.

Paying jokers like Darcy 450k a year is doing the public a disservice.

elperello · 11-12-2019 12:16PM

X111111111111 wrote: »

Paying jokers like Darcy 450k a year is doing the public a disservice.

I think we need a good plan to make a PBS to be proud of.
Slash and burn will not deliver that.

elperello · 11-12-2019 12:27PM

bdogg wrote: »

"Cash-strapped RTÉ is set to splash out up to €200,000 on five new top-of-the-range 4x4 vehicles...."

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/troubled-broadcaster-rt-to-spend-up-to-200000-on-five-new-4x4s-38773706.html

Good to see them spending money again wisely.

Does it say what use these vehicles are being bought for?

elperello · 11-12-2019 12:33PM

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

Unless it's to drive Duffy, Tubridy, D'Arcy and Finucane to the dole office, it's a waste of money.

Just by the way would you like to nominate replacements?
It might move the debate on.

marvin80 · 11-12-2019 12:36PM

elperello wrote: »

Does it say what use these vehicles are being bought for?

A spokesman for RTÉ confirmed the vehicles referenced in the tenders are for 2rn staff, a subsidiary company of RTÉ which maintains, manages, and develops all of Ireland's broadcast transmission network.

The spokesman said: "The vehicles referred to allow 2rn's staff to gain rigging and engineering access to the main sites which are distributed throughout the countryside.

"Many of the sites are very remote and require a 4x4 vehicle to access them.

"RTÉ and other broadcasters broadcast from these sites 24 hours a day, seven days a week in all weather conditions.

"Rigging and engineering staff often need to access these sites in the most extreme weather conditions, and for this reason, the appropriate vehicles are required," he added.

Nijmegen · 11-12-2019 12:44PM

The primary difficulty I'd have with RTE is that it's throwing good money after bad. There's clearly a desire for public service broadcasting in Ireland, particularly around news, current affairs and cultural items that wouldn't get the funding from a purely commercial player. Fine, there's value add there.

The problem is that RTE is a bloated, inefficient, and probably un-reformable public sector quango with well documented problems internally at top and middle ranks of management in terms of getting anything done, having a vision or just generally not being jobsworths at times.

We should be looking at ways to fund the outcomes we want - public funded broadcasting - without needing to prop up the ailing and, frankly, out of touch RTE.

Brendan Bendar · 11-12-2019 12:53PM

As soon as the heat comes off Dee starts trying to justify the wages to the ‘stars’.

That tells me that she no intention of doing anything meaningful to reduce costs .

Look at the shambles up to now.......art sale..... disaster
RTE guide sale.......disaster.
Attempt to close Lyric....stopped.
Cut the wages of the ‘stars’...nothing significant happening.

Is she trying to tell us that Darcy Tubridy Wilson are such household names with unique talent which would guarantee better pay and conditions elsewhere?

She is out of touch if she thinks that.

Does she realise RTE as a PS broadcaster practically closes up shop late DEC to early JAN?

The rest of the entertainment and sport world and public transport don’t shut down over Xmas with state subsidies.

I have absolutely no faith in ms Forbes to achieve anything to reduce the impact of issues in RTE.

Even one of the Unions came up with the most practical plan of the lot of them.

Stovepipe · 11-12-2019 12:57PM

It isn't all about management failures; the RTE unions have a role in this too. No shortage of jobsworths there. Why do you think so many RTE programmes are made by third-party companies? Cheaper, non-union soeasier to work with and, cynically, easier to blame if something goes wrong. In my very, very limited association with film and TV work, the independent companies hate working with RTE permanent staff because of the unions, especially some of the technical staff. Getting a contract to make a show for RTE is regarded as good money but, as one friend in the business said to me, do as much of it as you can yourself without involving RTE staff, as the union rules will kill you. Look what's happened now; the journalists and broadcasters are at each others throats, despite being all in the same NUJ chapter, working in the same offices, eating in the same canteen,etc, all because of the huge payscales given to the top twelve. Dee Forbes has been given a poisoned chalice and she knows it and the politicals are trying to get the boot in, given half the chance.

Brendan Bendar · 11-12-2019 01:15PM

Stovepipe wrote: »

It isn't all about management failures; the RTE unions have a role in this too. No shortage of jobsworths there. Why do you think so many RTE programmes are made by third-party companies? Cheaper, non-union soeasier to work with and, cynically, easier to blame if something goes wrong. In my very, very limited association with film and TV work, the independent companies hate working with RTE permanent staff because of the unions, especially some of the technical staff. Getting a contract to make a show for RTE is regarded as good money but, as one friend in the business said to me, do as much of it as you can yourself without involving RTE staff, as the union rules will kill you. Look what's happened now; the journalists and broadcasters are at each others throats, despite being all in the same NUJ chapter, working in the same offices, eating in the same canteen,etc, all because of the huge payscales given to the top twelve. Dee Forbes has been given a poisoned chalice and she knows it and the politicals are trying to get the boot in, given half the chance.

Good summation there, very similar to other semi-State companies which were Union dominated and hamstrung until the ‘penny finally dropped ‘ and it became compete or go out of business.

Outsourcing became more or less normal and jobs which took several months now took a few weeks.

I would disagree to an extent that MsForbes has been given a ‘poison chalice’ she applied for the job and should have known the issues or certainly learned about them in her tenure there.

Those well known canines ‘ the dogs in the street’ could tell that the ‘stars’ were way overpaid plus the general costs were not sustainable.

Her first action should have been to tackle this, but little appears to have been done.

This would at least dampen down public opinion and give her a fighting chance of getting public support.

She is being well paid, she now needs to earn it.

elperello · 11-12-2019 01:19PM

marvin80 wrote: »

A spokesman for RTÉ confirmed the vehicles referenced in the tenders are for 2rn staff, a subsidiary company of RTÉ which maintains, manages, and develops all of Ireland's broadcast transmission network.

The spokesman said: "The vehicles referred to allow 2rn's staff to gain rigging and engineering access to the main sites which are distributed throughout the countryside.

"Many of the sites are very remote and require a 4x4 vehicle to access them.

"RTÉ and other broadcasters broadcast from these sites 24 hours a day, seven days a week in all weather conditions.

"Rigging and engineering staff often need to access these sites in the most extreme weather conditions, and for this reason, the appropriate vehicles are required," he added.

Thanks for that.

So it seems that good reliable vehicles are needed.
Imagine the complaints if the service went down and they couldn't get up the hill to fix it.

elperello · 11-12-2019 01:23PM

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

The debate can move on when RTE want to stop portraying themselves as a public service broadcaster in desperate need of more money while simultaneously paying outrageous salaries to the above people.

They want the best of both worlds - being a public service broadcaster (which I actually think they're good at and should be supported) and being a commerical one (which they are not in any way good at and should not be supported by public money).

OK, it's just that you seemed to want to get rid of the four named presenters overnight.
I think better to go a bit slower rather than fire people without an idea where we are going.

I agree the PSB vs. commercial should definitely be a part of any review.

Nijmegen · 11-12-2019 01:24PM

Stovepipe wrote: »

It isn't all about management failures; the RTE unions have a role in this too. No shortage of jobsworths there.

Yeah the union thing is a problem, I guess the general culture of slowing things down and resisting reform.

As I say, can you get the outcome you want without having RTE? The amount of work they outsource tends to point towards an affirmative. You could literally outsource everything, including the management function, to companies that are on 5 or 10 year performance based contracts.

Stovepipe · 11-12-2019 01:54PM

The top earners are essentially contractors and could be dropped at a moment's notice. They've done it before. Of all the earners, in the publicly well known faces, people like Mary Wilson earn well below that paid to the senior management and even well below that of the rest of the high earners. I'd justify keeping her any day. Another thing cropped up with the retirement of Mary Kennedy; it turns out she was a contractor and the station basically forced her to become staff 15 years ago, along with a few other well-known TV and radio names. She didnt want to, as being a freelancer suited her, but some accountant won the battle and she became staff. The option given, allegedly, was "become staff or be cast aside". No choice there then, but a widely disliked move because it left them with a very small RTE pension and no choice but to pay into it. Bit of a thoughtless move by some grey suit.

end of the road · 11-12-2019 02:08PM

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

If RTE is as much value for money as Dee claims, why the need to try new ways to force people to pay? Surely people would have no issue paying for this fantastic value service?

whether they would or wouldn't doesn't matter to be fair as it's not voluntary but mandatory to pay it if you own a tv.
the reason they want more ways included for a requirement to pay is so that people who have the ability to use their services via other means pay the same as anyone else receiving it via terrestrial means.
i don't like paying a tv license myself but they do have a fair point on this one.

X111111111111 wrote: »

They are completely out of touch with reality tbh. You could go out and buy 5 second hand SUV's in really good nick for 50k if you did your homework. How can they get away with this kind of stuff it's complete insanity they are still funded by the hard pressed tax payers of this country.

you could, but how many years would they get out of them compared to buying brand new?

tayto lover · 11-12-2019 02:09PM

Dee Forbes intimating that RTE’s top broadcasters are being sought elsewhere.
I’d love to put that to the test. Hopefully they are and some other station takes them, but I doubt they are.
She’s bluffing imo.

end of the road · 11-12-2019 02:21PM

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

The debate can move on when RTE want to stop portraying themselves as a public service broadcaster in desperate need of more money while simultaneously paying outrageous salaries to the above people.

They want the best of both worlds - being a public service broadcaster (which I actually think they're good at and should be supported) and being a commerical one (which they are not in any way good at and should not be supported by public money).

it's more that government expect them to be that rather then rte choosing it.
it's the same with many other state organisations.
much of the public also expect and want this to be so, or at least they did.

bigroad · 11-12-2019 02:43PM

You would think some sort of lease deal would be better than paying out 200k .

Elmo · 11-12-2019 03:54PM

tayto lover wrote: »

Dee Forbes intimating that RTE’s top broadcasters are being sought elsewhere.
I’d love to put that to the test. Hopefully they are and some other station takes them, but I doubt they are.
She’s bluffing imo.

The only really point that was properly convayed was the fact that they are public figures and alot of pressure comes from that. However it's not to the amount that they are getting paid.

The committee for the most part were good on their points particularly in relation to the lack of detail in their strategy and how RTÉ have already made a number of U turns, RTÉ often hid behind commercial interests not to answer those questions.

M McD was good on the pay issue, he point out the fact that if you drop 2 of the top earners the savings made were large due to them leaving RTÉ (he didn't mention either Pat Kenny or Jerry Ryan but those are the two) and only a small amount was taken from the rest.

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

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