Marian Finucane - hours v. salary - true?

donaghs · 09-11-2009 05:23PM #1

Reading about all the RTE salaries recently one name stood out in particular. Marian Finucane has been one of the highest earners in recent years and was paid €570,000 last year.

While I think she's ok on the radio, I was surprised at this as I didn't think she was as high-profile or as popular as other RTE broadcasters (Pat Kenny, Gerry Ryan, Derek Mooney, Ryan Tubridy, Miriam O'Callaghan etc).

Also, if I'm not mistaken, she currently is only on the radio 4 hours a week?!
11am-1pm Saturday and Sunday
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/marianfinucane/

That's quite a good deal. Or am I missing something?

mike65 · 10-11-2009 01:02PM

Its a fantastic deal! Of the RTE "money-bags" she is easily the best paid for what she does. Its not like her shows even require a huge amount of prep unlike Pat Kennys radio prog for which he has to be up to speed with interview subjects and discussion topics.

GerardKeating · 10-11-2009 01:44PM

donaghs wrote: »

Reading about all the RTE salaries recently one name stood out in particular. Marian Finucane has been one of the highest earners in recent years and was paid €570,000 last year.

While I think she's ok on the radio, I was surprised at this as I didn't think she was as high-profile or as popular as other RTE broadcasters (Pat Kenny, Gerry Ryan, Derek Mooney, Ryan Tubridy, Miriam O'Callaghan etc).

Also, if I'm not mistaken, she currently is only on the radio 4 hours a week?!
11am-1pm Saturday and Sunday
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/marianfinucane/

That's quite a good deal. Or am I missing something?

This assume this is/was all she was paid for, does she do some TV as well.

Also the media makes a big fuss about how much the stars are paid, but does not bother to report who much advertising revenues they generated for this salary...

ateam · 10-11-2009 01:45PM

The Sunday morning programme requires very little research for her - it's essentially a discussion on the weeks events. All she needs to do is keep up to date with current affairs. Her salary is outrageous.

ateam · 10-11-2009 01:45PM

GerardKeating wrote: »

This assume this is/was all she was paid for, does she do some TV as well.

Also the media makes a big fuss about how much the stars are paid, but does not bother to report who much advertising revenues they generated for this salary...

It doesn't excuse the high salaries.

Rondolfus · 10-11-2009 01:47PM

GerardKeating wrote: »

Also the media makes a big fuss about how much the stars are paid...

Marian finucane....star..... Am i missing something??

GerardKeating · 10-11-2009 01:50PM

ateam wrote: »

It doesn't excuse the high salaries.

It does if the advertising more that pays for the salary.

Sleipnir · 10-11-2009 01:51PM

GerardKeating wrote: »

Also the media makes a big fuss about how much the stars are paid, but does not bother to report who much advertising revenues they generated for this salary...

Does RTE report on how much each each star makes for them? They are the media too you know.

jdivision · 10-11-2009 04:27PM

Her salary's ridiculous but she doesn't just work on the radio, some of the stuff is pre-recorded during the week and she does go in during the week I'm told by people who work there. Having said that whatever Eamon Dunphy's on (about E250k apparently) is ridiculous too, Marian by contrast has a big loyal audience.

ateam · 10-11-2009 06:07PM

jdivision wrote: »

Her salary's ridiculous but she doesn't just work on the radio, some of the stuff is pre-recorded during the week and she does go in during the week I'm told by people who work there. Having said that whatever Eamon Dunphy's on (about E250k apparently) is ridiculous too, Marian by contrast has a big loyal audience.

Her Sunday programme requires no prior research as it's live and basically a chat with 6 other people.

DublinWriter · 10-11-2009 06:10PM

GerardKeating wrote: »

It does if the advertising more that pays for the salary.

...which in turn we pay for as consumers of the goods and services being advertised.

donaghs · 10-11-2009 09:39PM

The ad revenue from the weekend afternoon slots is an interesting "if". Would presumably be based on listnership figures. Are these available for each radio program?

Would also be interesting to then compare this with the Today FM or Newstalk, and how well they pay their broadcasters.

GSF · 13-11-2009 09:17PM

donaghs wrote: »

Or am I missing something?

Yes you are missing the 3 months holidays she gets every year

donaghs · 01-09-2010 07:49AM

GSF wrote: »

Yes you are missing the 3 months holidays she gets every year

That's true. I didn't factor that in either. She had 3 months off in 2010, due back this September apparently.

speedboatchase · 01-09-2010 09:22AM

We need her, if we didn't pay her €750,000 a year she'd be pinched by top UK broadcasters like the BBC and ITV, then we'd be fooked! :rolleyes:

Lenny Lovett · 01-09-2010 05:45PM

Sleipnir wrote: »

Does RTE report on how much each each star makes for them? They are the media too you know.

It's irrelevant how much advertising revenue is generated by their programme. They are there primarily to present a programme not to sell advertising. The way RTE reports it's accounts there is no breakdown of ad sales v salaries paid equally there is no breakdown of how much licence fee money is paid out in salaries/fees etc.

jdivision · 03-09-2010 04:14PM

How do you know how much advertising they would get without her? I mean, a lot of places would advertise on RTE anyway.

Rubik. · 04-09-2010 12:30AM

donaghs wrote: »

The ad revenue from the weekend afternoon slots is an interesting "if". Would presumably be based on listnership figures. Are these available for each radio program?

Would also be interesting to then compare this with the Today FM or Newstalk, and how well they pay their broadcasters.

I think it would be more interesting to see if there was a drop in revenue over the period that Rachel English and Charlie Bird presented the show. I'd imagine there was little, if any, fall off and certaintly not enough to justify Finucane earning multiples of the other two's salaries. Which begs the question - why does she?

Head of RTE Radio, Claire Duignan, claimed last week that RTE presenters must accept the boom years are over "and they need to get in step with the drive down to more modest remuneration". I wonder, what size of a salary does Ms Duignan earn.

coletti · 04-09-2010 10:03AM

There is no doubt that Marian Finucane is good at what she does, but her talent is not exceptional.

Working it out, lets say she works 39 out of 52 weeks a year, thats 39 weeks @4 hours broadcasting per week, or a total of 156 hours a year, for which she is paid €570 000.

Thats an hourly rate of €3654.

In other words, for presenting two shows per week, two hours on Saturday and two hours on Sunday, she is paid, each week, €14616.

I wonder is it possible to find anyone in, for example, the BBC who is paid, for radio broadcasting, at the rate of €3654 per hour?

Lenny Lovett · 04-09-2010 10:08AM

Rubik. wrote: »

I think it would be more interesting to see if there was a drop in revenue over the period that Rachel English and Charlie Bird presented the show. I'd imagine there was little, if any, fall off and certaintly not enough to justify Finucane earning multiples of the other two's salaries. Which begs the question - why does she?

Because they trot out this silly excuse that if they [RTE] don't pay her half a million a year an opposition station will and she would jump ship. Now, there's no way Newstalk - the only possible other Irish station that would be interested in her - would or, indeed, could pay her such a fee. So it's all a smokescreen.

Rubik. wrote: »

Head of RTE Radio, Claire Duignan, claimed last week that RTE presenters must accept the boom years are over "and they need to get in step with the drive down to more modest remuneration". I wonder, what size of a salary does Ms Duignan earn.

I seriously doubt Claire Duignan is on a salary anywhere near that of her top five 'talent'.

Rubik. · 04-09-2010 03:19PM

Lenny Lovett wrote: »

I seriously doubt Claire Duignan is on a salary anywhere near that of her top five 'talent'.

No, probably not. But Cathal Goan did earn 326,000 euro last year and I am curious to know if RTEs management were as generous to themselves as they were to Marian & Co. over the boom years.

FlutterinBantam · 04-09-2010 03:29PM

GerardKeating wrote: »

It does if the advertising more that pays for the salary.

Don't be talking rubbish.

bytey · 04-09-2010 03:33PM

all of these useless parasites need to be fired .

stars me h0le ..

actually i rephrase that - brown stars me h0le

this would do just a good a job as any of these overpaid wasters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws58s9wzYsA

FlutterinBantam · 04-09-2010 03:38PM

bytey wrote: »

all of these useless parasites need to be fired .

stars me h0le ..

actually i rephrase that - brown stars me h0le

this would do just a good a job as any of these overpaid wasters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws58s9wzYsA

:eek:

What!!

'Stars me brown hole 'surely.

Bucked are we?

mike65 · 05-09-2010 10:57AM

Pat Kenny speaks out about pay and conditions

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/were-paid-peanuts-compared-to-soccer-stars-says-pat-kenny-2325322.html

"Well, I always smile to myself about the salaries issue. Back in the Eighties, Gaybo was earning in real terms more than everyone is earning in RTE now. So the idea that these are on Celtic Tiger rates of pay is not really true."

He said that RTE had to "incentivise" its stars.

"I often wonder why there isn't the same fuss over the salaries paid to footballers like John O'Shea, earning more in three weeks than Marian Finucane earns in a year.

"There is a double standard there. These people put themselves on the line, they entertain the nation week in, week out, and yet they are paid a trivial amount compared to footballers.

Astonishing just astonishing

Lenny Lovett · 05-09-2010 02:38PM

Yeah Mike. As I said on another forum, Kenny and Co have the cheek to accuse the Politicians of being out of touch? Did nobody tell him that we don't pay a tax towards the premiership footballers salaries like we do for these people?

tbh · 05-09-2010 04:51PM

coletti wrote: »

There is no doubt that Marian Finucane is good at what she does, but her talent is not exceptional.

Working it out, lets say she works 39 out of 52 weeks a year, thats 39 weeks @4 hours broadcasting per week, or a total of 156 hours a year, for which she is paid €570 000.

Thats an hourly rate of €3654.

In other words, for presenting two shows per week, two hours on Saturday and two hours on Sunday, she is paid, each week, €14616.

I wonder is it possible to find anyone in, for example, the BBC who is paid, for radio broadcasting, at the rate of €3654 per hour?

a 30 second ad during her show costs 720 euro - that's the 600 standard weekend slot, plus a 20% surcharge for the MF show. Lets say there's 10 minutes of advertising per hour, that works out at 10 * 60 = 600 / 30 = 20. 20 30 second ads at 720 per ad is 14,400 per hour, and 28,800 for two hours, or 2,246, 400 for her 156 hours a year.

2,246,400 - her salary of 570,000 = 1, 676, 400.

Her surcharge alone covers 374,400 of her salary, and that doesn't include the cost of sponsorship which is in addition to ad revenue.
Now, I'm not saying that RTE couldnt charge those rates if they didn't have Marser in the slot (although plenty seem to be happy to pay the 20% surcharge), but even allowing for the fact that possibly there wouldn't be ten mins of ads per hour, those figures would make you think.

no?

Rubik. · 05-09-2010 05:25PM

tbh wrote: »

Now, I'm not saying that RTE couldnt charge those rates if they didn't have Marser in the slot.

no?

But thats the key point. It would only make sense to pay Finucane what she is being paid if is she was the only one who could command that much ad revenue in that time slot. Rachel English and Charlie Bird have shown over the summer that they are more than capable of doing the programme( better able, imo, but thats down to personal taste). I don't have any JNLR figures to back me up, but I doubt they have lost many listeners.

tbh · 05-09-2010 05:29PM

Rubik. wrote: »

But thats the key point. It would only make sense to pay Finucane what she is being paid if is she was the only one who could command that much ad revenue in that time slot. Rachel English and Charlie Bird have shown over the summer that they are more than capable of doing the programme( better able, imo, but thats down to personal taste). I don't have any JNLR figures to back me up, but I doubt they have lost many listeners.

That is a very valid point. I would wonder tho, if Marion went to newstalk, would/could they charge a similar rate? I'd suspect they could, or maybe about 90% of it. If they could, they could afford to pay MF a similar salary and it'd be a huge coup for them. Again, I'm not saying I'm happy with rte paying her so much, but from a business point of view, the figures add up IMO

Rubik. · 05-09-2010 05:48PM

tbh wrote: »

That is a very valid point. I would wonder tho, if Marion went to newstalk, would/could they charge a similar rate? I'd suspect they could, or maybe about 90% of it. If they could, they could afford to pay MF a similar salary and it'd be a huge coup for them. Again, I'm not saying I'm happy with rte paying her so much, but from a business point of view, the figures add up IMO

I don't doubt it would be a coup for Newstalk. But in the past few weeks we have seen presenters going in the opposite direction, mainly due to the differences in pay and conditions between RTE and Newstalk. It has to be remembered that Newstalk has yet to make a profit and would offer none of the security that RTE does.

FlutterinBantam · 05-09-2010 05:52PM

No they don't.

First of all the slot time is important.

Given the slot time ,people will tune in,and as others have said there are several
others who can draw the same audience.

Let's look at it this way.

The national broadcaster will command a good fee for ad rev. between 1100 and 1800 on the weekends.

Put out a good programme and the rest is up to the presenter.

The presenters will influence this, but not to the extent MF is paid.

Commercial rates will apply and I cannot see,cannot see, MF commanding a comparative salary scale in any of RTEs competitors

Cannot see it

That should be the comparator, it's fairly basic economics.

Marian Finucane - hours v. salary - true?

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