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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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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭RoTelly


    Last time I checked it was still all over about.rte.ie

    https://about.rte.ie/one-rte/

    If it is taken down during the we know …. they are reading … wonder if they have anything to say?


    ______

    Just one more thing .... when did they return that car

    Yesterday



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,363 ✭✭✭saabsaab


    Re the reducing headcount wasn't it supposed to be reduced some years ago? It seems that soem staff may have been re assigned to contracting roles (now found to be incorrectly labled) and numbers didn't really reduce at all?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 603 ✭✭✭Shan Doras


    Yeah, reducing headcount by several hundred has been in every RTE "plan" for the last 15 years but it never actually happens and that's no wonder when it's always voluntary



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,118 ✭✭✭Expunge


    Yes. It was a crazy HSE style load of cock to begin with.

    The running of the four FM radio networks were cast to the wind in different "units", for instance.

    New middle managers sprang up all over the place (appointed ultimately by Forbes) and some are quietly heading for the exits now, knowing they will climb no further.

    Are they resigning? Of course not!

    Leave of absence for now, then they'll see how much of a package they can secure with the VR/ER scheme opens.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭RoTelly


    Leave of absence? currently, how many managers are on a leave of absence? Are they still being paid?


    ______

    Just one more thing .... when did they return that car

    Yesterday



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 603 ✭✭✭Shan Doras


    I wonder how much "fees" do RTE pay Bebbak Ltd for Dave Fannings services doing weekend rerecord shows on RTE Gold?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,118 ✭✭✭Expunge


    I have heard of two by name and rumours of some more. Unpaid but not sure.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭RoTelly


    Any idea what the units were called? was it just in Radio?


    ______

    Just one more thing .... when did they return that car

    Yesterday



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,546 ✭✭✭Raoul Duke III


    Is there any update on how licence fee receipts are holding up? Seeing as we're halfway through the year.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭RoTelly


    https://www.thesun.ie/money/13357659/tv-licence-fee-rte-scandal-shortfall-80million/

    As of June 21, 358,000 out of 1.3million homes eligible under law had paid the €160 charge.

    The TD also revealed that 800,000 TV licences were sold last year, which netted RTE €128million in revenue.


    ______

    Just one more thing .... when did they return that car

    Yesterday



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,661 ✭✭✭✭retalivity


    I got a letter through the post last week about how my address does not have a tv license registered against. I havent had a tv in 10+ years, and submitted a letter to the license people/an post around 2016, this is the first correspondance ive had with the since. Guess that panic has set in and they are casting the net wider now



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭RoTelly


    Bought a new house back in 2021, the licence letter was originally addressed to previous owner/tenant, so I returned to sender. I put off paying but kept getting the "householder" reminder letter, the week before the scandal I was just about to head to the Post Office to pay for any missing year (I agree with the licence fee and public service broadcasting) but then the scandal hit and I decided not to pay. Since then no letters from the TV Licence section to the house. (I will probably get one in the next week), I won't be paying.

    to paraphrase Robert Shortt (RTÉ company secretary and former board member)

    However, I ask that we all consider the language we around the licence fee. As we know, it is what we have at the moment and we should take it very seriously. We should take the payment of the licence fee very seriously. I was taken aback by the how RTÉ was spending it to buying a round of drinks in a pub!


    ______

    Just one more thing .... when did they return that car

    Yesterday



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 688 ✭✭✭Baba Yaga


    i was rather dis-gruntled when i saw they were spending it on flip-flops! (and all the rest!!)


    "They gave me an impossible task,one which they said I wouldnt return from...."

    ps wheres my free,fancy rte flip-flops...?

    pps wheres my wheres my rte macaroons,kevin?

    "You are him…the one they call the "Baba Yaga"…



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭RoTelly


    Robert Short is a great collector of Flip-flops, still can understand how he got into the position of Company Secretary ? He sat on the board from 29 May 2018 to 3 November 2024, I wonder what he did not do during that period?


    ______

    Just one more thing .... when did they return that car

    Yesterday



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 688 ✭✭✭Baba Yaga


    didnt go into the office? didnt go to board meetings? didnt do much reading either!


    "They gave me an impossible task,one which they said I wouldnt return from...."

    ps wheres my free,fancy rte flip-flops...?

    pps wheres my wheres my rte macaroons,kevin?

    "You are him…the one they call the "Baba Yaga"…



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,339 ✭✭✭Viscount Aggro


    Ormond is driving a 150K range rover.

    Is he making big money or something?

    Doesnt he own a fantastically successful shoe brand called Movrs?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 603 ✭✭✭Shan Doras


    How will RTE react if Donald Trump is reelected in November? Do you remember when Dee Forbes tried to blame some of RTE's money problems on Trump ? https://www.rte.ie/news/2016/1122/833691-communications-media-dail/



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭RoTelly



    ______

    Just one more thing .... when did they return that car

    Yesterday



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,453 ✭✭✭RabbleRouser2k


    I'd say Pippa is more the money maker there than Brian. She's got quite a few products she's promoting. And Movr's shut down last year. Went into liquidation. Probably should not have gone into business with Brian… he's not very savvy.
    https://www.thephoenix.ie/article/brian-ormond-misstep/

    I wonder will the Viper turn up to collect the money owed to the liquidators?

    https://www.thesun.ie/tv/13347096/dancing-with-the-stars-new-season-future-fears-rte/

    Larry Bass is acting as if folks have amnesia-that the last year or so didn't happen.
    He's absolutely clueless. He popped up on The Tonight Show last week I believe… and he started talking about how RTE spend way more money than Virgin media on original programming. Yes, they do - but Virgin media didn't pour money down the drain on flip flops, expensive getaways, a two million euro musical that bombed, and fiddling the books to hide where almost €200, 000 euro went into the pockets of Ryan Tubridy…all while complaining of being under funded. RTE is just a poisoned well.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭RoTelly


    Lar Bar has a role to play, remember when he invited Dee and Leo to DWTCanteen


    ______

    Just one more thing .... when did they return that car

    Yesterday



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭RoTelly


    Surprised to see Irish Times printing a letter berating RTÉ

    RTÉ sings its own praises

    Marketing hype

    I hardly believe that Neighbours, Home and Away, and Spice Girls: How Girl Power Changed Britain represent public service broadcasting.Somebody should tell the RTÉ marketing department that these repetitive ill-conceived slogans don’t have any traction with the public – quite the reverse. – Yours, etc,MARTIN BLOCK

    Potential printed as he's founded a number of the local Dublin stations and set up 4fm (now Classic Hits).

    I think Neighbours is the definition of Pubic Service Broadcasting, I really do, and how dare they ever postpone Home and Away for the Soccer, I don't think they ever got to broadcast that episode of Alf.


    ______

    Just one more thing .... when did they return that car

    Yesterday



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 89,020 ✭✭✭✭JP Liz V1


    RTÉ is set to be funded into the future by a mixture of the existing TV licence fee and a "multi-annual" State payment as part of a long-awaited plan set to go to the Cabinet next Wednesday.

    The details of the plan were discussed by officials from the Department of Finance, Department of Public Expenditure and Department of Communications, as Taoiseach Simon Harris said there is a "middle way" to resolving the issue.

    Government sources have confirmed that, as part of the plan, the existing TV licence fee of €160 will be retained, although they would not clarify if it will continue to be collected in the same way.

    In addition, a "multi-annual" stream of funding from the exchequer will also be provided to RTÉ.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,027 ✭✭✭✭titan18


    Worst of both worlds really. We still have to pay the licensee fee and RTE are propped up by government money so can continue to be wasteful



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 603 ✭✭✭Shan Doras


    So now RTE will actually have 3 incomes, TV licence, government funding and Advertising



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,111 ✭✭✭fplfan12345


    So when people continue to refuse paying their TV licence as a form of protest the government will just top up the shortfall ?

    So why would anyone pay their TV licence ?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,316 ✭✭✭✭Loafing Oaf


    This is why I'd be surprised if they kept the current licence fee system collected by An Post, even if they're going with some form of 'mandatory' charge…



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,222 ✭✭✭Tow


    I wonder how much it costs to run the 'Advertising Department' versus the amount of money it brings in?

    When is the money (including lost growth) Michael Noonan took in the Pension Levy going to be paid back?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,238 ✭✭✭hoodie6029


    If they don’t have your name and you don’t answer the door to an inspector (which you are under no obligation to) then there is nothing they can do about a licence not being registered at your address AFAIK. I wouldn’t even send the ‘householder’ addressed letters back return to sender. Straight into the bin.

    I don’t see their powers to investigate of compel people to get a licence changing in the new legislation. It will still be based around having ‘a television capable of receiving a signal’ which was fine in the 60’s but with so many more options these days, it is completely antiquated.

    This is water. Inspiring speech by David Foster Wallace https://youtu.be/DCbGM4mqEVw?si=GS5uDvegp6Er1EOG



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭RoTelly


    I assume the top up is to retain the level of the licence fee not to help those not paying (like me :) )

    If the new laws given to An Post are to believed then we will have a 100% collection rate.

    that would be 288m with around 40 going to CnaM's sound and vision and another 10 going to An Post (prob more because to implement these new super powers An Post will need more money).

    RTÉ would ONLY have 238m plus JUST 150m in ad revenue / commercial sales

    That's ONLY JUST 388m a year.

    The top up then will bring by ONLY 22m giving RTÉ JUST 400m per year.

    RTÉ will ONLY JUST be able to provide us with the service we are used to.

    Also we are paying (if we pay the tv licence) 4 times: -

    1. Licence Fee
    2. Tax to the Social Protection Department to pay for the free ones
    3. The Top up via Tax
    4. Via the products we buy from advertising / any public service announcement on RTÉ


    ______

    Just one more thing .... when did they return that car

    Yesterday



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 36,533 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    Put her in the Aras… then we'd know where she is

    In Cavan there was a great fire / Judge McCarthy was sent to inquire / It would be a shame / If the nuns were to blame / So it had to be caused by a wire.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 688 ✭✭✭Baba Yaga


    that sounds the same as always…instead of saying its a bail-out for rte its a top-up…what a load of shite 💩

    should be in mountjoy…


    "They gave me an impossible task,one which they said I wouldnt return from...."

    ps wheres my free,fancy rte flip-flops...?

    pps wheres my wheres my rte macaroons,kevin?

    "You are him…the one they call the "Baba Yaga"…



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭RoTelly


    I had time for Suin Ni R, as chair. I felt she had begun asking questions and brought most of this to light, she was possibly too slow to make it public but in fairness she brought much of this out into the open. However, she seems to forget the good work she did to get this into the public domain and falls back on the supposed issue of the licence fee.

    She and Prof Brian MacCraith can, with the help of Dee and Moya, remain Deeply Dissappointed.

    Also she says "TG4 is directly funded by the exchequer annually, meaning long-term planning by the Irish-language station is impossible, and there is no certainty about the level of funding, she said."

    Wouldn't that be the **** same for RTÉ if it were funded by the Exchequer, now they want to know 5 years in advance as to what they will get.

    https://www.irishtimes.com/media/2024/07/20/keeping-rte-licence-fee-would-be-deeply-disappointing-ni-raghallaigh/


    ______

    Just one more thing .... when did they return that car

    Yesterday



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 801 ✭✭✭SeeMoreBut


    I assume she told them how many licence fee payees were used to pay her salary and benefits while working and now towards her pension and lump sum. That’s right. Didn’t think so.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭RoTelly


    Just to mention that the Chair is not a full time position and that they get about €30k a year, while the other board members get €15k per year excluding the DG who has a salary with RTÉ.

    However to me it is a never ending story of asking for more money.

    The Norwegian government increased the budget for their public service broadcaster to €501m (ads are not carried) but the broadcaster is still trying to make cuts.

    https://www.publicmediaalliance.org/nrk-budget-cuts-sees-downsizing-tough-priorities/

    Ireland in a few years time: -

     RTÉ's Director-General said the state budget confirmed the importance of a strong publicly funded public broadcaster and recognised that 2026 would be an “exceptional year”.

    However, for 2026 RTÉ will nonetheless “receive a tight financial framework, which, together with abnormally high price and cost growth, means tough priorities,” the public broadcaster said. Irish Times reported that the increased wage and price growth in society, along with an increased employer’s tax, will mean that NRK will have a shortfall of more than €25 million in 2023.

    “It has been challenging to save more than 25 million in next year’s budget. All reductions are made with a view to how we can best protect our important mission, audience use and RTÉ's ​​reputation,” The DG said.

    There seem to be no wherewithal to stay within budget or to produce low budget content, while at the same time blaming the licence fee for RTÉ current problems.


    ______

    Just one more thing .... when did they return that car

    Yesterday



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,935 ✭✭✭glenfieldman


    Money grabbing cnuts

    Fresh clampdown on TV licence fee dodgers in new funding plan for RTÉ - Indo



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 688 ✭✭✭Baba Yaga


    probably want to know that so they can plan the pish-ups better and how much to give to the "talent" so the BBC doesnt steal them away! have they(rte)never heard of budgets or even…god forbid…saving money? its just going to be the same ol shite again…


    "They gave me an impossible task,one which they said I wouldnt return from...."

    ps wheres my free,fancy rte flip-flops...?

    pps wheres my wheres my rte macaroons,kevin?

    "You are him…the one they call the "Baba Yaga"…



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,316 ✭✭✭✭Loafing Oaf


    According to this the licence fee has only got a temporary stay of execution and will be phased out within five years in favour of full exchequer funding. Is this what other media coverage is saying?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭RoTelly


    I pretty much guessed this.

    It will be interesting to see how much they get in total. Is it going to be capped at 255m a year?


    ______

    Just one more thing .... when did they return that car

    Yesterday



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,316 ✭✭✭✭Loafing Oaf


    It's a strange move politically though. If you'ver determined the licence fee has to go eventually why not do it right away, settle the issue, get it off the political agenda rather than have it hanging over the next government, which is looking increasingly likely to be FFG again in some form…



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭RoTelly


    Because you don't want to deal with the elephant in the room… the mismanagement of RTÉ.

    This has moved from the scandal surrounding RTÉ's management to going back to how RTÉ is funded. I mean Dee Forbes could return to RTÉ tomorrow, heck give Moya Doherty they job of DG. It seems to me we should forget about their inability to do their jobs.


    ______

    Just one more thing .... when did they return that car

    Yesterday



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 301 ✭✭Oxo Moran


    It's classic FF/FG. There's a scandal. We know who's responsible. They get rewarded and the public gets hammered.

    No more quangos, no more golden circle, because the country was bankrupted. Set up Irish Water with plenty of contracts and jobs for the lads.

    RTE scandal. All found out. Secure the licence, pledge more money.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,339 ✭✭✭Viscount Aggro


    I hear they are going to ramp up the surveillance and enforcement of TV licences. They will be getting real tough on fines and convictions.

    Property owners will be liable. How's that going to work? Professional landlord, investment funds.. they will add it onto the rent.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭RoTelly


    This would be a very strange move. The TV licence is much like a bill, you pay it not your landlord, its not like the property tax. Were is the legislation for this?


    ______

    Just one more thing .... when did they return that car

    Yesterday



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 84,761 ✭✭✭✭Atlantic Dawn
    M


    At the moment hotels and commercial operators here are charged a €160 licence no matter how many TVs they have on the premises, they want to move to the UK model where the first 15 TVs would come in at €160 and each additional 5 TVs would be €160.

    https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/business-and-organisations/hotels-hostels-mobile-units-and-campsites-aud13



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭RoTelly


    I FoI'd An Post a few years ago to find out the number of commerical providers paying their licence fee and the numbers that have been taken to court for failure to pay, and the number that have been find and the numbers that have had reminder letters sent to them. Happy to let you get guess what they came back with.

    The idea of adding businesses to the licence fee not so long ago was to increase the amount going to the national broadcaster. This was never reviewed.


    ______

    Just one more thing .... when did they return that car

    Yesterday



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 889 ✭✭✭amlinopta


    Claire McNamara and Kate Varley sharing the report from Paris on the 6-1 news. No reason for having both of them. The junket has begun in earnest



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭RoTelly


    An now leave poor RTÉ alone, they've a whole month in Paris, hard work.

    Oh look July 29th see 1pm, 6.1 and 9 news go on the bus mans holiday.

    Good Morning also : -


    ______

    Just one more thing .... when did they return that car

    Yesterday



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 603 ✭✭✭Shan Doras


    I know the concept of the TV licence is very outdated in 2024 but the Brits STILL to this day have the option of a Black and white TV licence, it's also about 100£ cheaper than a colour TV licence, which interestingly shows that it was once a progressive tax in that those who could afford to buy/rent a coloured set payed a higher licence more then the person who could only afford a b&w one. Anyway, we scraped the b&W licence in the late 90s iIrc, it's amazing that the Brits have kept it on the books, essentially after the 2012 Analogue switch off



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,089 ✭✭✭✭hotmail.com


    Sometimes nice to keep odd quirks going for no reason.

    Amazing reports tonight about this 725 million euro bailout for RTE in the next 3 years.

    I suspect this will get buried in the RTE obsession with American politics and they've good reason to distract the public at the moment.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,089 ✭✭✭✭hotmail.com


    Claire Byrne gone on holidays for 5 or 6 weeks. On 280 grand.

    And they expect the public to swallow this bailout?



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