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

Revenue are going to have RTE's guts for garters.

But of course the taxpayer is going to end up bailing RTE out for its bad practices... sigh

How did RTE get away with pretty much zero representation of Eastern Europeans on air as staff/contractors in the last 20 years with all the money this group of people are spending on the tv licence? The last time I seen someone that could be represented this way was Tatiana Ouliankina, a Russian Act Ress (Liveline ultra pr1ck term for a woman who is an actor) on Fair City circa 10 years ago.

Queenie died so Mickey D was on hand to read a poem!

Christ...

RTE's website said tickets started at 25 euros...

That's a major 'mark up'. Minimum ticket price on the site is €32.50 including fees... 😱😱😱😱

Who's paying for it - probably you and me

I imagine that this is will sell out before any real reviews. I imagen it will be a very paint by the numbers type of musical with few up beat numbers.

Act 1: Young girl dreams of a better life

Act 2: She's told by a teacher that she will never make it

Act 3: A boy will be choose over her for the part in a play

Act 4: She end's up on the Toy Show singing If I were a Toy !

Now that's my begrudgary for the year I guess, if it is successful it will return for a second run, but if they are smart once will be enough.

In other news budget tops RTÉ up by 15m for 2023

Just to recap: -

2019 - Funding from Licence fee to TG4 return to RTÉ, worth an estimated 8m in extra funding (RTÉ fail to mention this)

2020 - 10m extra (RTÉ say it didn't make up for the lose in Ad rev or Licence fee ren)

2021 - 10m continues (RTÉ fail to move the NSO over to the NCH even though it would have been worth an 8m saving)

2022 - 10m continues (RTÉ "successfully" transfer the NSO over the NCH a year late, saving them 8m)

2023 - 10m conintinues + 15m interim funding .... (RTÉ say it was eat up by inflation).

Increase in annual funding to RTÉ since 2019 .... est 41m !

I have a feeling it will have a large dollop of 'pantomine' to it too.

Cue repurposed songs, maybe 'I wanna be where the Toys are' to the tune of The Little Mermaid's 'Part of your world'.

I'm very proud to admit I am going on over a decade now of not watching the LL Toy Show. I think I watched two of Ryan's Toy shows, and then just went 'Nope-I'm done'. From what I've heard, it's gotten worse since then.

There was a report out today from the C&AG on the absolute state of the national lottery - them spending c.€120m of unclaimed winnings on advertising and bullsh!tting with their 90% to good causes crap. Another part of the report was about the bogus self-employment issues in Ireland including the entertainment industry. It was covered a bit on Drive Time and must have been a bit awkward for the two contractors.

On the 6.1 they mentioned the lotto bit, but the absentminded little scamps totally forgot to mention the self-employment part of the report.

If it's [s/employ] mentioned on the RTE news site I can't find it, after a fair bit of digging.

Kind of the usual deal, I think. Especially if you do a special report.

And no surprises about extending coverage of the news - horrible, tragic circumstances.

By all accounts, they're more involved in the production of the show-including the research. So them not being able to do the news, and host this show is more about the research and production that goes into it.

Claire Byrne doing radio 5 times a week, well...radio is far less demanding. Much of the production is done by the crew behind the scenes. There's also less 'choreography' that goes into radio. On TV, it's almost like choreographing a play. You need to be there for rehearsals, staging and so on.

Radio, it's sit in a chair for a few hours, speak to people over the phone, less arranging guests because they'll be on the phone. Ryan Tubridy does his show 5 times a week, and then the LLS on Friday. Only allowances he gets is being rubbish. :)

https://www.screenireland.ie/news/rte-and-screen-ireland-announce-the-eight-storyland-projects-which-will-now-go-into-development

The above are the list of films that RTE will be airing- Storyland, a 'launching ground' for new talent...

Except look at man of the names, such as Simon Delaney-hardly 'new' talent. And can anyone name a single 'talent' unearthed by Storyland?

So no potential for a Sunday Night Drama or a Netflix series.

Each of those who got development should no largely be ready for production, I wonder if any will sell to any international service?

RTÉ have 4 forms of Drama

In House Soap - Fair City

Commission - Very limited you have to largely go back to Can't Cope Won't Cope for a full commission

Co-Productions - these can been divided into 2 - Local Irish commissions with Irish Film Board and international co-pros with the likes of Scani companies

International Productions - e.g. shows produced by BBC, Disney, AMC and so on.

The first 2 don't have to be sold but I would

1. Create a space for writers and actors, reduce FC to 2 nights a week and bring in 3 weekly dramas, that may or may not be renew come the end of the year
2. Commission programming for an Irish Audience, these might be lucky to get funding from other sources but in general these should be about cultivating talent in the country, retaining talent, giving opportunities to actors, directors, writers. The can still be considered "Home produced" if they get some funding from the IFB or the BAI.
3. Continue with Co-productons like KIN and North Sea Connection
4. and Buy in shows like Normal People

Thus you might create an environment for better drama and scripted comedy. You may not have 3 or 4 in a few years time.

Well, Mustard started out as a play, first. Written by and starring the lead actress.

Plays translated to film/ TV are often not very good. There are rare adaptations that work far better in TV and movie adaptation form, but it's very rare.