RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

I think some of ye can't see the potential here because ye strongly dislike Ryan. If he converted 5% of his listeners into podcast subscribers he'd make way more than the 170k. It's likely he'd convert a far higher percentage and win new listeners .

RTE will continue without Ryan, that's not in dispute. But Ryan has his following and he's in an outstanding position to launch a very lucrative podcast. Whether you are a fan of him or not is irrelevant.

Sunny do you remember or are you willing to admit that Tubs lost his audience on 2FM and had been put in place for 5 years to save the station after the death of G Ryan?

From what I can see of this thread, even if we don't like Tubs most of us have state if he can succeed he should go and succeed and well done if he does, it won't move us to like him anymore than we do or of our opinion that he's not a requirement for RTÉ.

He’d need to setup a new company, employ staff(researchers, a producer etc).

Would possibly need offices, certainly would need good quality recording equipment, and presumably guests/interviewees would need to be paid also.

So say he got 10000 subscribers at €5 a month, that’s 600k revenue. After taxes, employee wages, rent, the percentage taken by the payment platform(assuming he uses Patreon or an equivalent) and other deductibles he’s not coming out with nearly a third of that.

Ryan has two significant hurdles on the road to Joe Roganesgue world podcast domination as I see it:

1) He's lazy as a teenager on midterm break. Unless he does a Harry and Meghan type deal where he just has to show up and ask some questions that have been handed to him, I don't think it's going to work. It didn't work for the Duck and Duckess.

2) His fanbase, ie older ladies who think whatsapp photos are the height of tech wizardry and younger ladies who like a natty dresser with a 6 figure current account, won't be going in search of his ramblings on podcast. If he's not on Radio1, they'll suddenly become enamoured with the next guy who takes over at 9am

You need a USP for podcast success. Dunphy is a world class current affairs host. David McWilliams is world famous for sound bytey economics chat. Brolly and Fanning have Brolly's prickly persona. What exactly can RT do that will get people subscribing in huge numbers. A whispery, intimate show ala Jarvis Cocker, where he ruminates on social/cultural issues? Ok. But he's never ruininated on anything in his life beyond which shade of beige jacket to wear to a corporate gig.

LiDL are always an option....

If there was seriously money in the podcast business he'd have jumped to it already.

Sports podcasts have a solid following, but a podcast just for the sake of talking is a non runner.

The Two Johnnies basic slock is Irish life outside Dublin and RTE bought their internet following by hiring them. RT in some many ways has been a space filler. I never heard anyone say they loved Ryan Tubridy.

And to add, Patrick Kielty has already had a 'first' act in terms of his profile in comedy and TV work.

No, Sunny, your hypothesis is not reasonable. If you're posting in good faith, then I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you don't really understanding how podcasting works. It also appear you don't know what makes Second Captains work either.

Tubridy is not a content-creator. That is to say, I don't really think he's an 'ideas' man. He's assimilated all the various parts of his persona everyone from Letterman to Byrne, Colbert to Gimmel. And he's expressed his imitation of all these personas badly. He has very little self-awareness; essential comic timing. He lacks curiosity, at at least the ability to fake it for an audience. He isn't really a great presenter.

Now while this hasn't necessarily counted against him at RTE, his 'own' business would face a world;

-without the ready-made audience that RTE provided.

-without the infrastructure that RTE provided.

-without the goodwill of a large amount of Joe Public.

-without the trust of many of the advertisers he's worked with in the past.

And the last two things there are key. The reasons why your Hypothesis is bogey. The public might give him a grudge-listen or two out of curiosity. But the novelty will soon wear off, listeners will move on and so will any advertisers dumb enough to sign on with him in the first place

Funnily enough I used to work on a couple of podcasts. It's relatively cheap. Three to four people plus Ryan I would imagine. Other expenses are fairly minimal. If all of the Second Captains can make €110k with approximately 10k subscriptions I think it's a no-brainer that Ryan is going to do well.

A lot of people on this thread won't subscribe, but that's fine, there are an awful lot of people who love Ryan. Some people obviously don't rate him at all, but they're essentially irrelevant to such a project. Ryan is a very well known, very talented broadcaster. In financial terms the podcast is a no-brainer, but he's so loyal, he may only want to go back to RTE and not do anything to destabilise his return.

Have to agree. Keeping paying subscribers is a difficult job.

If we take the second captains example it’s generally 6/8 hours content per week depending on what’s on.

What would Tubridy have his show be about that produces that much content while also being unique enough for people to decide it’s worth paying for? He can’t just do a radio show, there’s too many free alternatives.

€5 a month is 37.5% of the license fee. Who would pay that much specifically for a Tubridy show?

So pray tell us all- what exactly is he going to “podcast” on that will make 10,000s of his followers flock to a podcast website and pay out their hard earned money to?

Jaysus once he doesn't go Bizzaro-Tubridy and try his luck on Onlyfans.

Oh Sunny Disposition

You're his only true fan😁

While I won't rejoice in someone's downfall, even one brought on by themselves, the man will not get my sympathy or my ear☺️

If you used to work on podcasts, then you know that what you're saying doesn't stack up.

There is a HUGE difference between listeners and subscribers. General rule of thumb is 10% of your audience (or less) will be regular subscribers. If the figure of 10k subscribers for Second Captains is accurate, then they much be achieving hundreds of thousands of downloads - far in excess of Tub's radio numbers.