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

Cool, I want all Rté officials who committed fraud and/or fiduciary negligence prosecuted…starting with Dee.

Pure pot and kettle

https://www.irishtimes.com/podcasts/in-the-news/will-this-golden-envelope-solve-rtes-funding-crisis/

Explainer: Many people are no longer liable for a TV licence this is one of the major issues…. no its not…. almost everyone has a big screen TV, almost all TVs are still sold with a tuner and a satellite tuner … I know there are a few people who might have decided to go down the road of find a smart TV without a tuner but all most all are still sold with a tuner… Sky Glass has analogue turner… even sky stream box's have an analogue tuner … though they can't be used (someone confirm this)

Ireland's high evasion rate … its because RTÉ isn't very good and the collectors aren't good at their job… there where three kind of evaders … those that ignore the letters … those that don't get letters … those that refused to pay … and now those of us who know RTÉ were lying about their finances.

People just don't understand the concept of the licence fee… but they pay more for other services … this has always been the case … long before the streamers … long before RTÉ people were pointing to the north!

Democracy and nationhood … forget about drama, comedy, entertainment … and how bad RTÉ do these things.

Why did we not have an increase in the licence fee in 2008 … thanks to the green minister, who was supporting FF… so thanks now to the new Green minister.

So they talk about it being a shortfall due to evasion … but actual what the government are doing is to add to the shortfall because there will be no increase to the 160 price … the top-up is to avoid increasing the licence fee as this would be political hell for the government … yes some of it will be due to continued evasion rates of the licence fee … but that's not the full reason. It is also to allow the funding to go slowly over to the exchequer and to help out An Post, McRedmond asked for some money in case he has to make staff redundant.

And then they are on to the free licence … and sure doesn't RTÉ already get Exchequer funding there … yes but this is part of the DSP budget and is them paying for free licences… and the government did reduce the amount down at one stage due to the financial crisis.

Now to the stability of RTÉ … I took a look back over the last 7 years (Dee Frobes time at the broadcaster)…. 1.3 billion … largely the same about given to them each year … averages around 190m a years… you want stability for the PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTER…. they always had stability .

Oh the figures sound huge because they went with 3 years… imagine if they went with 4 years! 1billion euro over 4 years …. now that is some stability.

Short term stability … seriously 3 years, Backhurst will be gone the following year.

Making up strategy documents not know how much they will have ? You forecast … you talk about why you did not reach targets … but guess what none of the strategic targets have ever really been about content and RTÉ have always self-review those strategies can anyone point me to where RTÉ failed to meet a target or any real tangible ones for the audience.

Lead times to produce TV programmes … yes… but there are live shows that can be produce tomorrow… RTÉ reduce its live news programmes and children's programming fairly instantly … they can pretty much re-introduce RTÉ NEWS on 2 tomorrow and children's programming.

It would be bad with all this that RTÉ would have to wait 2 years to show the results to its audience.

Discussion on other options and why did they keep this method… yeah! … but she can say that they might have 150m a year in advertising … no way they have stability there!… and back to Pat Rabbitte's argument when he was minister due to the water charges … same old talking points really.

Is it enough ? (they don't answer this really, but their answer is no!)

RTÉ asked for more … then she goes through the strategy ! and the cuts that will not happen … IMO.

Did the minister say what it should be spend on?

Well she should not get to … but she should see some plans for content and for the audience… sadly this is all about cuts and nothing more … hopeful to retain what we have rather than to change RTÉ for the audience.

They then say that RTÉ has statutory commitments towards certain content (I'd argue that is in Irish Language content rather then any other genre).

And sure look at RTÉ Investigates programming… yes this is part of news and current affairs.

Oh she's just realized that RTÉ don't spend much on Drama outside of Fair City (she says 6m, I'd argue more like 3m from that fund she talks about, with another 3m on Irish drama co-pro and imports, potentiality less).

Then she attacks the politicians when they ask "as to why aren't you doing this and that", but she forget this was when Dee Frobes went in and said that Normal People cost 3m per episode, Drama is expensive but look at what RTÉ had done in the pass with Bachelor's walk, paths to free, can't cope won't cope and even some of the TG4 dramas. The Quite Girl was produced on 1.4m while RTÉ were off spending 2.4m on a musical.

We need a grown up view on how much it cost to operate, has she looked at what these people did over the last 7 to 10 years?

Back to the license fee and evasion and An Post. We need a database of those that should pay! The presenter says there doesn't seem to be an acknowledgement that the world has change… what about An Post why can't they do their job?

Pat Rabbitte did nothing … linear and watching programming… like almost every house has a TV… even student houses… people want that big screen … to watch sport and film.

VMTV … bet they do not mention their 4 channels … being just an opt-out service … and also that they have more ad minutes … a similar budget if not more than TG4… when UTV Ireland came in it over shot on news coverage… it took about 3 years after the takeover of UTV Ireland for VMTV to revert back to what TV3 had being providing… there are 150 -200 staff in VMTV … how many are journalists? … the report from the wax works on Sinead O'Connor sounded like a intern. … much of VMTV's news was driven by UTV Ireland and Mick McCafterty (though this has fallen away sadly).

They axed news on the weekend. She forgets that they did this on the launch of Xpose, and again the weekend news largely return because they had a competitor in UTV Ireland.

They have massively reduce down in terms of VMTV, in fairness just didn't show their cuts. with the exception of the Elaine show.

Then back to political pressure.

Sorry for the rant.

Also you can't get much more consistent than

2020 is covid year and this are operating costs total revenue was 331m in 2020, same as 2021 operating costs.

So I checked out RTÉ's last decade of Revenue.

The average revenue each years was €337m (consistent increases since 2013, bar 2020, which is COVID year)

RTÉ should largely have been able to forecast their income based on this hindsight.

And its a great graph above because it makes it look like RTÉ saw a massive drop in 2020 but that's only 10m off the previous year and remains above both 2014 and 2013.

A perfect rant for the ages. Thanks @RoTelly

So is fraud.

.......

Still no consequences for the Breda handshake of 400k.

If you are a FFG supporter, do you defend this? If you do, why?

Quite the nerve of Kevin Bakhurst to complain on Twitter about Twitter.

He needs to get his own house in order and start sacking people and reducing the wage bill.

Why do you think I am a FFG supporter?

By the way I was not insinuating that you are a FFG, I was talking to the FFG cheerleaders on here.

We All Good @skimpydoo

BTW I do not think I am a cheerleader for any of the parties currently, disgusted with them all if I am honest

Ah if you remember RTÉ have taken full responsibility for that even offering to pay her tax bill due to the error cause, when she was CFO!

Really RTÉ should release the text message that she sent and her email to the DG asking for him to make a representation for her to the Oireachtas Committee.