TG4 Wimbledon Coverage

yosser hughes · 29-06-2011 07:02PM #1

I was just watching Wimbledon there on TG4. Nadal versus Fish. It was the 4th set and by no means over, Nadal was 4-2 up. Then TG4 just broke off from coverage for the weather and news!!

Do they give a ****?

mike65 · 29-06-2011 07:06PM

Sure they only have coverage to fill the hours. On the BBC everything else gets shoved to one side for two weeks.

yosser hughes · 29-06-2011 07:16PM

mike65 wrote: »

Sure they only have coverage to fill the hours. On the BBC everything else gets shoved to one side for two weeks.

Perhaps,but it's like breaking off from a football game with 10 minutes to go. It shows they have no real interest. If that is the case why do they have it? How much did they pay for it? Could RTE 2 not have shown it instead?
I have no idea what the inner workings of the state funded broadcasters are?
I know they do seem to have a huge staff in their sports department,I just wonder what a lot of them do all day.
I was enjoying the game and then it gets cut.

onemorechance · 29-06-2011 07:25PM

The 7pm news and weather on TG4 start to near second accuracy every night, rain, snow or wimbledon!

flyswatter · 29-06-2011 08:56PM

mike65 wrote: »

Sure they only have coverage to fill the hours. On the BBC everything else gets shoved to one side for two weeks.

Also TG4 don't have a red button.

Chuck Stone · 29-06-2011 09:02PM

Pity they didn't have an option for sports commentary in English like S4C do in Wales.

Everytime I watch sports on TG4 I get that wierd mild depression feeling that comes from the trauma of only having two channels and having to watch GAA with Irish commentary of a Sunday morning.

Clareman · 29-06-2011 09:17PM

TG4's remit is covered here as you can see from

TG4’s vision is to “continue to promote successfully Irish language and culture using television and
web content so as to ensure a central place in Irish people’s lives – both in Ireland and abroad”
with its mission being to “provide an attractive and innovative television and content service in
Irish, that celebrates Irish creativity and identity – language, culture, music and sport, packaged
and presented to be accessible and appealing in order to connect to audiences in Ireland and
worldwide”

their interests is to cover Irish stuff, the language being top of their list, I don't see why they should spend money on getting English anything when they are promoting Irish, personally I like watching sport in Irish, after a while you get to the gist of things

Chuck Stone · 29-06-2011 09:27PM

Clareman wrote: »

TG4's remit is covered here as you can see from
their interests is to cover Irish stuff, the language being top of their list, I don't see why they should spend money on getting English anything when they are promoting Irish, personally I like watching sport in Irish, after a while you get to the gist of things

I don't have any Irish so I may as well be listening to someone loudly chewing gum.

They don't seem to have a problem subtitling many programs to accomodate people without Irish.

S4C seem to be able to do it so I can't see why TG4 shouldn't - they do get funding from the public purse after all (AFAIK).

Clareman · 29-06-2011 09:58PM

I don't think TG4 get's anything from the TV license, they get grants from the government as part of their remit of promoting the Irish language.

Chuck Stone · 29-06-2011 10:08PM

Clareman wrote: »

I don't think TG4 get's anything from the TV license, they get grants from the government as part of their remit of promoting the Irish language.

Yeah govt grants come from the public purse.

TG4 were getting €37,000,000 PA up til 2009 - not sure what it is now.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/tg4-funds-and-sustainability-projects-face-chop-1826417.html

Clareman · 29-06-2011 10:15PM

Looks like it's cut to 32 mill
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/1118/1224283627581.html

IMVHO, it's very important to keep the Irish identity alive, 1 of the ways to do this is the Irish language, TG4 responsibility is to promote the Irish language, they should put all their money into doing this rather than giving people English as an option, after all people already have an option (mute)

Chuck Stone · 29-06-2011 10:24PM

Clareman wrote: »

Looks like it's cut to 32 mill
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/1118/1224283627581.html

IMVHO, it's very important to keep the Irish identity alive, 1 of the ways to do this is the Irish language, TG4 responsibility is to promote the Irish language, they should put all their money into doing this rather than giving people English as an option, after all people already have an option (mute)

Fair enough. I too think it's good to keep the our identity and language alive but by choice. People don't have a choice whether they want to fund TG4 or not so IMHO they should to at least try to consider who they get their funding from. I wouldn't call mute an option.

I actually think it would be good for TG4 viewership and revenue from advertising if they did this (only for the live sport mind).

onemorechance · 29-06-2011 10:58PM

Chuck Stone wrote: »

Fair enough. I too think it's good to keep the our identity and language alive but by choice. People don't have a choice whether they want to fund TG4 or not so IMHO they should to at least try to consider who they get their funding from. I wouldn't call mute an option.

I actually think it would be good for TG4 viewership and revenue from advertising if they did this (only for the live sport mind).

Then it would be more like TV4 than TG4. One of it's main purposes is develop programs in Irish. It is also one of the most cost-efficient tv stations in Europe.

hotmail.com · 30-06-2011 01:04AM

Clareman wrote: »

Looks like it's cut to 32 mill
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/1118/1224283627581.html

IMVHO, it's very important to keep the Irish identity alive, 1 of the ways to do this is the Irish language, TG4 responsibility is to promote the Irish language, they should put all their money into doing this rather than giving people English as an option, after all people already have an option (mute)

What's good about having an Irish identity? What benefits does it have

32 million for that channel is already too much.

TG4 cancel their daily programmes to show Wimbledon when there's no Irish interest (except for the 1st round this year). Seems like an odd decision that might upset their regular daily viewers (all 6 of them).

hotmail.com · 30-06-2011 01:06AM

onemorechance wrote: »

Then it would be more like TV4 than TG4. One of it's main purposes is develop programs in Irish. It is also one of the most cost-efficient tv stations in Europe.

What's your evidence to back that up? Because that sounds like you just made that statement up because you love TG4.

PseudoFamous · 30-06-2011 01:20AM

hotmail.com wrote: »

What's good about having an Irish identity? What benefits does it have 32 million for that channel is already too much.

Well, we'd have feck all tourism a feiceáil if we didn't have our Irish identity. People who come here don't come for the weather. If you ever watch TG4, you'll see that the programming is pretty good. South Park in Irish was genius, it provides great TV shows for kids, and they show the Wicklow matches that no one else will

RTÉ is given €200m from the TV licence, and all they show is muck, by that amount. TG4 has a wide range of TV shows aimed to be interesting at a broad audience, and they do it for a sixth the amount given to RTÉ.

hotmail.com wrote: »

TG4 cancel their daily programmes to show Wimbledon when there's no Irish interest (except for the 1st round this year). Seems like an odd decision for their regular daily viewers (all 6 of them).

They got the licence for Wimbledon cheaply, so they plan on using it. That said, News and Weather is still a vital show, and they decided that it was more vital than Wimbledon. I watch TG4 daily, so who are the other 5?

hotmail.com · 30-06-2011 02:23AM

PseudoFamous wrote: »

Well, we'd have feck all tourism a feiceáil if we didn't have our Irish identity. People who come here don't come for the weather. If you ever watch TG4, you'll see that the programming is pretty good. South Park in Irish was genius, it provides great TV shows for kids, and they show the Wicklow matches that no one else will
RTÉ is given €200m from the TV licence, and all they show is muck, by that amount. TG4 has a wide range of TV shows aimed to be interesting at a broad audience, and they do it for a sixth the amount given to RTÉ.

They got the licence for Wimbledon cheaply, so they plan on using it. That said, News and Weather is still a vital show, and they decided that it was more vital than Wimbledon. I watch TG4 daily, so who are the other 5?

Having an Irish identity is all about tourism now? lol For the record, if there is such thing as an Irish identity, which I do think there is, it has nothing to do with the Irish langauge, that's for certain.

They're cancelling their kids tv programmes for Wimbledon. A sport that is a minority sport in Ireland at the best of times.

PseudoFamous · 30-06-2011 03:08AM

hotmail.com wrote: »

Having an Irish identity is all about tourism now?

No, but tourism is all about the Irish identity. If we didn't have that, people would simply go to Wales.

hotmail.com wrote: »

For the record, if there is such thing as an Irish identity, which I do think there is, it has nothing to do with the Irish langauge, that's for certain.

The Irish language is part of the Irish identity. Without it, what would we have to differentiate ourselves from every other national identity? What else do we have that's unique?

hotmail.com wrote: »

They're cancelling their kids tv programmes for Wimbledon. A sport that is a minority sport in Ireland at the best of times.

While there are other options for kids TV shows (albeit in English) for those without satellite, there is no other option for Wimbledon. Rather than compete with other TV shows, it's probably better for viewership to have something not shown with other broadcasters. Wimbledon may well draw 50000 viewers, as there is no other station broadcasting Wimbledon on terrestrial television in Ireland, rather than 10000 viewers for a kids tv show, who have other options, such as RTE2.

onemorechance · 30-06-2011 06:41AM

hotmail.com wrote: »

What's your evidence to back that up? Because that sounds like you just made that statement up because you love TG4.

That statement you just made sounds angry! :eek:

Reference: http://www.afl.com.au/international%20broadcast%20partners/tabid/14533/default.aspx

TG4 is a public service television broadcaster in Ireland. Broadcasting primarily in the Irish language, the channel's signal covers Ireland and is receivable throughout the island directly by aerial and on cable. The station is carried on digital satellite in the Republic and Northern Ireland.

TG4 has been broadcasting AFL content since 1996 and is very proud of its long association with the Australian Football League. Weekly highlights can be seen on TG4 every Wednesday night during the season at 11pm, and again on Saturday afternoons at 4.30pm.

TG4 has earned praise for its documentaries and sports coverage and the station is acknowledged as one of the most efficient and cost effective television stations in Europe. TG4 has premiere exclusive live TV rights for a number of top Gaelic Games competitions, as well as soccer, tennis, cycling, horse racing and sailing.

Irish fans have a keen interest in Australian Rules as quite a number of Gaelic games stars from Ireland have made the grade in the Australian game too. Tadhg Kennelly starred for the Sydney Swans in their 2005 premiership victory, and Setanta Ó hAilpín, a former Cork hurler, made his Carlton debut against Richmond in May 2005.

Former Gaelic football star Jim Stynes of Dublin moved to Australia to play Australian Rules Football and went on to become one of Australian rules football's most celebrated players, a member of the Australian Football Hall of Fame, and the first player recruited from outside Australia to win the prestigious Brownlow Medal.

Example: http://www.eurotek.ie/catalog/tg4.aspx

TG4 becomes first European customer for FlipFactory TrafficManager; integration with Adstream Digital Delivery Service
Telestream, the leading provider of media encoding and workflow solutions for the broadcast industry, today announced that TG4, Ireland 's national television channel, is the company's first European customer for its FlipFactory TrafficManager commercial workflow automation application. Following successful deployment in the United States , TG4's implementation becomes the first in Europe to utilize Telestream's FlipFactory TrafficManager with new digital delivery services from Adstream. Together, the Telestream and Adstream solution enables TG4 to integrate their current Adstream digital delivery system with a fully automated, all-digital workflow for the receipt and ingest of commercials at their broadcast facility.
"The beauty of the new technology is the advanced level of automation and operational efficiency it provides us," said Neil Keaveney at TG4. "Now we can receive commercials, news packages, promos, etc. digitally without having to go to tape. The entire workflow is seamless, from receipt to playout. It drastically reduces the steps involved, and the need for operator intervention, which saves us time and money. Operational staff are obviously delighted with the elimination of one of the more mundane aspects of their job."
Adstream, a leading provider of online advertising production and delivery services targeting UK , Ireland and Australia , utilizes Telestream's FlipFactory universal transcoding application at their materials preparation facilities in London and Sydney to encode media files to a common format for delivery to catch servers located at the broadcast sites. TG4, the Irish-language public broadcaster and one of the most cost-efficient stations in Europe , wished to take advantage of the new Adstream digital delivery service.

TG4 ordered Telestream's FlipFactory TrafficManager from Irish distributor, John Roche at Eurotek Ireland Ltd., to automate their commercial ingest operation. As a result of this order, Telestream developed a software plug-in which monitors the Adstream catch server to automatically detect the arrival of new commercials, extract appropriate metadata, and deliver the information to the station's traffic application.

"Telestream's FlipFactory TrafficManager fulfills an important part of the commercial content delivery workflow for our broadcast customers," said Andy Jones, Chief Technology Officer at Adstream. "Telestream integration extends our digital delivery to provide automated media ingest from our servers, including format transcoding, critical metadata extraction, and media and metadata file transfer to destination devices."

At TG4, once their traffic operator has accepted the commercial, FlipFactory TrafficManager automatically transcodes the media file into the format used by their Profile broadcast server, and it notifies their OmniBus automation system that the new clip is ready for play out.

maudgonner · 30-06-2011 09:26AM

hotmail.com wrote: »

TG4 cancel their daily programmes to show Wimbledon when there's no Irish interest (except for the 1st round this year). Seems like an odd decision that might upset their regular daily viewers (all 6 of them).

64,000 watched the Wimbledon coverage alone last week, a 9.8 market share apparently. Still think no-one has any interest?

http://www.tg4.ie/en/production/tg4-viewing.html

yosser hughes · 30-06-2011 03:45PM

hotmail.com wrote: »

Having an Irish identity is all about tourism now? lol For the record, if there is such thing as an Irish identity, which I do think there is, it has nothing to do with the Irish langauge, that's for certain.

They're cancelling their kids tv programmes for Wimbledon. A sport that is a minority sport in Ireland at the best of times.

Not sure about that. As a participation sport you'd be surprised how many people play the sport as opposed to those who sit on their arses watching football for example,without actually playing it.
Anyway,I think TG4 is a good channel all in all,good variety and a better channel than RTE. I was just disappointed that they just abrubtly cut short a tennis match. I see though that the thread has been derailed but no matter.It's an interesting discussion.:)
The ability to speak Irish does not define your Irishness.

hotmail.com · 30-06-2011 07:34PM

PseudoFamous wrote: »

No, but tourism is all about the Irish identity. If we didn't have that, people would simply go to Wales.

The Irish language is part of the Irish identity. Without it, what would we have to differentiate ourselves from every other national identity? What else do we have that's unique?

While there are other options for kids TV shows (albeit in English) for those without satellite, there is no other option for Wimbledon. Rather than compete with other TV shows, it's probably better for viewership to have something not shown with other broadcasters. Wimbledon may well draw 50000 viewers, as there is no other station broadcasting Wimbledon on terrestrial television in Ireland, rather than 10000 viewers for a kids tv show, who have other options, such as RTE2.

No one in Ireland speaks Irish. Therefore not part of any 'identity'.

maudgonner · 30-06-2011 09:35PM

hotmail.com wrote: »

No one in Ireland speaks Irish. Therefore not part of any 'identity'.

I speak Irish every day. And I'm far from the only person. Maybe there are no trolls that speak Irish, but the rest of us realise that while there may be many arguments to say that Irish is a dying language, it's not dead yet.

onemorechance · 30-06-2011 10:25PM

maudgonner wrote: »

I speak Irish every day. And I'm far from the only person. Maybe there are no trolls that speak Irish, but the rest of us realise that while there may be many arguments to say that Irish is a dying language, it's not dead yet.

For some people, the shame is so great, denial is their only option! :P

flyswatter · 30-06-2011 10:43PM

hotmail.com wrote: »

No one in Ireland speaks Irish. Therefore not part of any 'identity'.

What a ridiculous comment to make.

For their budget, TG4 do a very good job indeed and produce some interesting programmes, more than can be said for RTE at times.

TG4 Wimbledon Coverage

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