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

masculinist wrote: »

Clearly RTE do not manufacture Televisions. The annual TV charge where you have to effectively rent your TV from the state , a TV you already paid taxes and VAT on is anti competitive cartel racketeering designed to shut out competition from anyone who doesn't want to or can't pay it. "Tax" is not the primary characteristic of the TV tax. Its far more nuanced. I cant even avoid the TV annual charge by blocking RTE from a TV set in my home purchased with my hard earned money or removing its tuner. RTE effectively act as landlords renting something to me that I already own. That's gangster racketeering . And a bunch of untrustworthy people sitting in the Oireachtas doing nothing about it might satisfy a cohort of bootlickers and sychophants but it doesn't do anything for me.

why do you pay it? Taking the piss, the only ones defending the license fee, must be getting it for free! Which is also laughable!

end of the road wrote: »

the tv tax is neither anti competitive or cartel racketeering.
the tv tax is not stopping competition in any way, as there are plenty of options available to watch tv without having a tv, and there are multiple channels available via tv in both paid for and free to air options.
it's neither cartel anything or racketeering as a country/society is entitle to charge taxes for the purpose of providing services.



it is not laughable that individuals who qualify for good reasons, will receive a free tv license.
nobody is "defending" the license fee, rather we recognise the real reason for it's existance.
i expect most people would rather it be funded from general taxation rather then a per household charge, i certainly would.

Why?

end of the road wrote: »

because it's a public service like any other public service, and i believe that public services should be funded from general taxation.

While I believe the government has to much control over RTÉ purse strings taking it from general taxation would be ten times worse the fee is supposed to give RTÉ some form of choice independence, general taxation would be at the whim of the finance minister.

The fee should be administered by the BAI with the sound & vision fund administered by Fís Éireann

elperello wrote: »

A mechanism would have to be found to make sure that the funding would be independent from political interference.

The BAI or an adjunct to it would be a possibility.

Direct funding means no more collection expenses, no more evasion and everyone in the country makes a contribution.

Hi,

While I like the principal, I struggle with the above considerations and also wonder, who ensures that we get decent value for money?

For me, the best starting point with RTE is to right size it - trim it back down to one TV station and say 2 radio stations. Obviously, that results in less staff being needed etc.

I'm okay with a genuine public service broadcaster being state funded, once the funding isn't going to feather the nest of Dee Forbes and a load of others.

Perhaps putting a professional firm of accountants in, to act as official Examiners, might be the way to deal with the rediculous expenditure at RTE?

It’s being made too complicated. Tell them no license fee and they live on revenue they generate. You’d be surprised how innovative you become when you have to sink or swim with no armbands. I should know , I run a company... about as far removed from that rte financial lunatic asylums as it gets !

elperello wrote: »

I would think this could be done following the Broadcasting Commission report which I assume will be delayed now because of the C 19 crisis.

As long as the funding was tied to certain set goals and deliverables any slippage should be easily monitored and corrected.

I'm not convinced that one TV station and two radio stations could deliver a comprehensive service but I'm open to persuasion.

I imagine we will be dealing with a changed landscape for RTE which should allay your fears re. expenditure etc.




Not sure why that would be a deal breaker what do you think?.

i agree, 1 tv station and 1 or 2 radio stations wouldn't go near being enough to provide a public service network.
the amount of stations bothradio and tv are the correct amounts.
rte 2 and 2fm can be swapped from their current formats to provide something new, and the entertainment fluff can be removed from rte altogether, and you then have a base from which to work with.

Idbatterim wrote: »

It’s being made too complicated. Tell them no license fee and they live on revenue they generate. You’d be surprised how innovative you become when you have to sink or swim with no armbands. I should know , I run a company... about as far removed from that rte financial lunatic asylums as it gets !

as already suggested, if we did things your way we would in all likely hood have no public service content on rte, only similar cheap filler as provided by the commercial channels, because public service broadcasting and the high standards expected of it are in all likely hood very expensive.
rte is not going to be able to provide a comprehensive, multi-channel public service operation, catering to as many of the tasts and needs and expectations of the people as possible with the revenue it generates alone, no matter how innovative they could ever be, if they could then they would be doing it as i would expect the government would have removed any form of public funding from them decades ago, or would have never implemented a mechanism to provide public funding to them in the first place perhapse.
i would expect very much so that the company you run cannot in any way be compared to any radio or tv station, never mind a multi-channel broadcaster expected to provide public service and minority content, cater to as many people as possible, and be commercially minded and focused all at the same time.

Idbatterim wrote: »

oh they will be cutting their cloth alright! as they will have to survive on only the revenue that they generate!

Man... if only RTE hadn't wasted all that money on sending 'celebs' on free holidays.

It was also rather 'tragic'... and by that I mean comical, that despite everyone being at home or quarantined due to Corona... Tubridy still couldn't get a decent guest on his show.
Stephen Fry was the only one he could get, but Fry will turn up for the opening of an envelope.

The Claire byrne show has gotten even more comedic in these trying times. From Claire reporting from her 'shed' (probably an RTE set, more than likely)... to bringing on Baz Ashmawy last week. (The 'why' he was there is one thing... but I couldn't help thinking that the fella behind '50 ways to kill your mammy' suddenly didn't want his mammy to die in case she caught Coronavirus).
RTE have even started bringing on their 'canteen crew'. Katrhyn Thomas talking about how she had to fire people... the poor diddums. I doubt this was the transformation her employees expected from that operation.
And of course... RTE brought on Brezzie...
Haven't people suffered enough?

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Of course she is, I thought you meant on boards, Dee said signing D’Arcy would bring in huge advertisement and that shows what good business sense she has

I used to be a fan of Rays on today fm, unable to listen to him for more than a minute on rte. He sounds completely lost