RTP to be partially privatised in Portugal, how about RTE?

rlogue · 06-07-2011 09:56AM #1

So RTP the Portuguese national broadcaster is to be scaled back and one of its television channels is to be sold off in an austerity-driven move by the Portugese Government.

Shouldn't the same happen with RTÉ?

RTE Two could be sold off, along with the roster of RTE's overpaid "stars". RTE One would then focus entirely on home produced programming and the need to keep it encrypted on satellite would disappear.

RTE NL ought to be sold but the more likely outcome would be to merge it with ESB Networks.

RTE Two could remain the home for sports and imports under new ownership and remain encrypted.

icdg · 07-07-2011 07:18PM

rlogue wrote: »

So RTP the Portuguese national broadcaster is to be scaled back and one of its television channels is to be sold off in an austerity-driven move by the Portugese Government.

Shouldn't the same happen with RTÉ?

RTE Two could be sold off, along with the roster of RTE's overpaid "stars".

RTÉ's overpaid stars, by and large, appear on RTÉ One (and RTÉ Radio), not on RTÉ Two. Selling off RTÉ Two creates a number of logistical problems:

- Childrens programmes are largely on RTÉ Two. Would you be proposing that they move to RTÉ One? Or would they go with RTÉ Two? The danger of selling them with RTÉ Two is that the new owners would hastily move to shut down the childrens output (which doesn't broadcast adverts) leaving Ireland with no domestic childrens programming in the English langauge. Also, the standalone RTÉjr channel would no longer be an option (unless it was sold with RTÉ Two).
- Would all of RTÉ's sporting rights be sold with RTÉ Two? Or would you propose they be split between RTÉ One and RTÉ Two? I can imagine the new owners moving quickly to drop much of the live sports output that is expensive to produce. TV3's only live sports is European football (the biggest cost of which is rights acquisition, all TV3 need to do production wise is run a studio and a panel) and the 13 GAA games they show each summer. I can imagine the Pro 12 Rugby, the horse racing, and the minority sports coverage all being dropped by a privatised RTÉ Two. I'd also imagine GAA coverage would be scaled back hugely - would a privatised RTÉ Two, with no licence fee output send camera crews to grounds for the sake of two or three minutes worth of coverage? No. You'd have the live matches and that would be it.
- What happens to RTÉ Sport personnel who work on both TV and radio. Would they be required to choose one or the other? Would they choose TV in the knowledge of the huge cutbacks in sport output that would be made by a privatised RTÉ Two?
- Obviously the newly privatised RTÉ Two would be required to conclude a programme service contract with the BAI. What kind of news/current affairs requirements would you envisage it having?

Personally I think a privatised RTÉ Two would quickly become TV3 Mark II - almost entirely dependant on US imports and what sport remained after the inevitable cull.

RTE One would then focus entirely on home produced programming and the need to keep it encrypted on satellite would disappear.

RTÉ One already largely focuses on home produced programming. The only foriegn programme between 17:40 and 22:15 on tonight's schedule is Eastenders. No Irish broadcaster will ever be able to focus entirely on Irish programming. Even RTÉ One.

RTE NL ought to be sold but the more likely outcome would be to merge it with ESB Networks.

I wouldn't merge with ESB Networks. Personally I would privatise RTÉ NL.

RTE Two could remain the home for sports and imports under new ownership and remain encrypted.

As I say above, a privatised RTÉ Two, shorn of its licence fee subsidy and required to survive on advertising revenue alone, would take a hack to the sports budget pretty quickly. I'd imagine it would be quickly peared back to football, international rugby, and a much-scaled back GAA prescene. Certainly there wouldn't be camaras at every GAA ground any more. I'd imagine the Pro 12 Rugby, horse and greyhound racing, boxing, and all the other minority sport coverage (such as it is) would go pretty quickly.

watty · 07-07-2011 09:47PM

RTE NL ought to be part of State Infrastructure. Eircom network (only retail) should not have been sold. The Mobile would give x4 better performance if a single wholesale infrastructure.

It makes no sense to privatise or to try an have competition on strategic national assets that there should logically be only one off. Eircom debt has quadrupled and there has been no net investment and far too little too late upgrades. Now also the most expensive line rental in World.

Before the idea of ESB /Electricity competition we had competitively priced Electricity. There are stupid wasteful practices in ESB. It needs reformed not privatised. The Regulator artificially raised Electric Retail prices to bring in "fake" competition. It has reduced efficiency and added EXTRA stupidity...

Elmo · 08-07-2011 11:12AM

Simple resturcture

1. RTÉ (Ireland's National Public Service Broadcaster (PSB))

RTÉ ONE, RTÉ NEWS NOW (with ads and aimed at an international audience) and a new TV station RTÉ GOLD (docs and archive)

Radio 1, 1 Extra, Lyric, Gold, Choice and Chill

2. New Service (To be disposed of when appropriate, completely commerical)

RTÉ TWO and a new extra TV channel (licence based on providing over 6s/teens programming AKA TRTÉ/TWO TUBE)

2fm, 2xm and Pulse

3. TnaG (Ireland's Irish Language, Children's and Film PSB)

TG4 (retains Cula and Punk), takes control of RTÉjr* (time shared with 4MOIDE*) and is given IFB channel.

RnaG, RnaG Pop/Rock, RTÉjrRadio.

All channels bar RTÉjr (under TnaG and rebranded) will carry advertising.

4. RTÉ NL becomes a separate company in control of saorview and remaining in state hands.

5. RTÉ Performing Groups removed from RTÉ

The following would retain Licence Fee funds RTÉ (40%), TnaG (40%), Performing Groups (10%) and sound and vision fund (10%).

The new service would act like Channel 4 and the government would review yearly weather or not to sell the service, it would have the same number of ads as the commercial broadcasters. News would initially come from RTÉ but it could choose other providers after year one. It acts as a commercial broadcaster.

TnaG would divided its licence fee evenly between Irish Language, Film and Children's. This would give more money to Film and Children's TV. Their exchequer funding would be removed due to the economy of scale in the new TnaG.

This would provide more choice to audiences.

*moide is the Irish for plus pronounced mode and is a similar type of TV channel to that of RTÉ PLUS. RTÉjr would remain predominately English Language but Cula4 would benifit from economies of scale.

In terms of rights RTÉ even if only providing Irish programming on RTÉ One still requires a huge number of rights to pay if it were to be unencrypted via satellite. (EastEnders would move over to RTÉ TWO under my proposal, Sporting rights would be spread across RTÉ One, RTÉ Two and TG4).

rlogue · 08-07-2011 01:55PM

Good points Elmo. Of particular concern is that RTE control the broadcasting platform as well as being a broadcaster. This must end - in fact I know that ComReg are starting to investigate serious complaints from TV3 and TG4 over RTE's control and costs for the Saorview platform.

RTE should concentrate on making home produced programming rather than trying to behave like Sky and distort the Market by deciding who can and can't broadcast on their Lilliputian DTT service.

And we all know what is happening to Sky at the moment!

Sam Russell · 08-07-2011 09:39PM

rlogue wrote: »

And we all know what is happening to Sky at the moment!

Would not the separation of platform and content provider be something that Sky should suffer from? Sky run the platform, run many of the channels, buy the rights, control the EPG and decide the subscription rates. What RTE do is in the halfpenny place in comparison.

Elmo · 09-07-2011 12:24PM

Sam Russell wrote: »

Would not the separation of platform and content provider be something that Sky should suffer from? Sky run the platform, run many of the channels, buy the rights, control the EPG and decide the subscription rates. What RTE do is in the halfpenny place in comparison.

Not to forget they also have partnerships with other companies for English versions of multinational brands such as Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, A&E etc does BSkyB still own shares in ITV?

In terms of the TV3 complaint (are TG4 involved???) I believe that this is away around avoiding paying for Saorview in directly. Good news for Solicitors bad news for programme makers, however it does not take from case for the removal of RTÉ Networks from RTÉ.

Sam Russell · 09-07-2011 12:57PM

I am not sure how well integrated RTE NL is in RTE. They clearly have not got much traction within RTE with respect to the 'new' Saorview service. They have already launched it twice, and will have to launch it a third time when RTE HD (for real) is launched on Mux 2. It is extraordinary that RTE advertises 'digital' radio is available on DAB and on line (but not apparently on Saorview).

There is no move by RTE to sort out the rights issues with RTEjr that has blank screens at the weekend. No move to allow home produced programmes like 'Fair City' to be repaeted an hour later on RTE 1+1. So we have our two new channels banjaxed by rights issues and forced to have blank screens. RTE News Now also has restrictions on it that prevents advertising, and on showing new material.

All this, and not a peep from RTE. Or for that, RTE NL. Nor anything from Mary Curtis.

Are there more disappointments coming down the line?

rlogue · 09-07-2011 12:59PM

Yes I believe TG4 are involved in the complaint too.

TV3 believed that with the arrival of commercial DTT that they would have been carried for free courtesy of the commercial operators. Since RTE invented the €25 million bond (and I understand it was a CASH bond - not some insurance policy) no sane company would operate DTT on that basis and all walked away.

This left RTÉ holding the DTT baby so to speak and what do they do? What they always have done and tried to create a platform that would have only their own content. TG4 and TV3 would be expected to pay for carriage and that would be it.

Unfortunately for RTÉ their ploy to keep themselves off mainstream platforms other than their own (RTE 2 HD anyone?) and make the other two broadcasters pay for it has backfired; I believe TV3 have not and will not pay for Saorview let alone Soarsat and that a formal joint complaint is underway with ComReg as the BAI appear to have ignored it.

Saorsat in particular is a bone of contention, not least because of the following reasons:

Proposed carriage cost too high for the other broadcasters
Badly chosen satellite position meaning another dish is needed
Unknown cost to consumers of pioneering LNBs that may or may not be cheap
The inconvience of Irish planning law that means planning permission WILL be required for a second dish on houses

It's felt that RTE in trying to be the dominant broadcaster AND platform provider are trying to increase their level of dominance in the Irish broadcasting scene. Flushing the advertising market with cut price advertising despite losing millions at the moment is also a curious strategy. It will be interesting to see how all this develops.

I would advocate the immediate removal of RTE NL from RTE and that the spun off RTE NL is state owned. This new entity would act as a wholesaler of Irish channels, open to any platform operator who wishes to carry Irish channels subject to the regulations laid out in the Broadcasting Acts.

I would not be surprised that RTE's witholding of the HD version of RTE 2 in particular would be scrutinised by ComReg and I look forward to hearing of more developments on this.

leeroybrown · 09-07-2011 01:09PM

I for one would rather do without RTÉ's broadcasting rather than go to the additional expense of paying for new equipment for it. In fact, given the poor service they've provided to it's viewer over the last couple of years I'd quite happily support any move to scale it back and reduce it's cost to the taxpayer. It was a sad day when I had to deliberately open British media to get accurate unbiassed coverage of our own internal politics and economics.

Elmo · 09-07-2011 07:32PM

rlogue wrote: »

I would not be surprised that RTE's witholding of the HD version of RTE 2 in particular would be scrutinised by ComReg and I look forward to hearing of more developments on this.

Any investigation into RTÉ TWO HD is not needed as it is already part of the Broadcasting Act 2009. TG4 AS is also outline in that Broadcasting Act, as is RTÉ ONE HD. On agreeing to the 2ish new RTÉ services the Minister outline that RTÉ has to provide HD to other operaters, I assume he means TV3.

Since RTE invented the €25 million bond (and I understand it was a CASH bond - not some insurance policy) no sane company would operate DTT on that basis and all walked away.

Lets face it a pay digital services wouldn't have worked out. Saorview was always going to launch and RTÉ NL constantly stated it wished for both Saorview and the Commercial Pay TV service to launch together. I can only imagine that this would be to:-

1. reduced the need for RTÉ to launch extra channels
2. allow people to get a "free" STB (via pay services) which would allow for a minimum FTA service (rte one, two, tv3 and tg4)
3. Market the new DTT platform as pay

This is how RTÉ, ComReg, the government and the BAI have been thinking all along.

It's felt that RTE in trying to be the dominant broadcaster AND platform provider are trying to increase their level of dominance in the Irish broadcasting scene. Flushing the advertising market with cut price advertising despite losing millions at the moment is also a curious strategy. It will be interesting to see how all this develops.

Helen Shaw has allot of questions to answer a woman given the task of heading up RTÉ Radio and then writing a damning report of her own work at the service ????? I hate to say this but only in Ireland.

Sorry this is Duignan

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2011/0504/1224295989436.html

“I think it’s important that the media here stops eating itself,” says Duignan. “All this rowing is a refection of the financial pressure everyone is now under. I think it’s in everyone’s interest to have a strong public-service broadcaster, but it’s in RTÉ’s interest to have competition from strong domestic commercial broadcasters.”

Shaw adds: “As citizens, where we agree is we want all the Irish media as a whole to survive. The challenge is we have to rethink the model of content and its economic base. But we cannot assume what worked in the past will continue to work.”

It was a sad day when I had to deliberately open British media to get accurate unbiassed coverage of our own internal politics and economics.

Sad thing is many other Irish media outlets were also very slow on tackling the government of the day.

mikom · 09-07-2011 07:37PM

Elmo wrote: »

Sad thing is many other Irish media outlets were also very slow on tackling the government of the day.

Sad thing is RTE is the actual one paid to be our "Public service broadcaster"
By law they are given the right to dip into the household budget of every house containing a TV.

People have the option of not buying a newspaper.
At least they don't have to pay a licence to the INDO for the eyes capable of reading it.

Elmo · 09-07-2011 07:48PM

Sam Russell wrote: »

I am not sure how well integrated RTE NL is in RTE. They clearly have not got much traction within RTE with respect to the 'new' Saorview service. They have already launched it twice, and will have to launch it a third time when RTE HD (for real) is launched on Mux 2. It is extraordinary that RTE advertises 'digital' radio is available on DAB and on line (but not apparently on Saorview).

There is no move by RTE to sort out the rights issues with RTEjr that has blank screens at the weekend. No move to allow home produced programmes like 'Fair City' to be repaeted an hour later on RTE 1+1. So we have our two new channels banjaxed by rights issues and forced to have blank screens. RTE News Now also has restrictions on it that prevents advertising, and on showing new material.

I have heard Digital radio services state they are also available on Saorview but this seems to be dropped.

RTÉjr is broadcasting for 12hrs during the week even now with TRTÉ get more hours on RTÉ TWO I don't know if this is a rights issue at all. They could always do a retro RTÉjr at the weekend Bosco meets the Morbegs.

mikom wrote: »

Sad thing is RTE is the actual one paid to be our "Public service broadcaster"
By law they are given the right to dip into the household budget of every house containing a TV.

People have the option of not buying a newspaper.
At least they don't have to pay a licence to the INDO for the eyes capable of reading it.

But then RTÉ is not just about current affairs and news unlike newspapers and other media organisations in this country and still you had to pick up a UK edition. Surely the private sector could have got it right.

mikom · 09-07-2011 08:01PM

Elmo wrote: »

But then RTÉ is not just about current affairs and news unlike newspapers and other media organisations in this country

It would be a start.
God knows they are falling down on the entertainment aspect.

Elmo wrote: »

and still you had to pick up a UK edition.

What are you ramblin' on about?

Sam Russell · 10-07-2011 10:11AM

Elmo wrote: »

I have heard Digital radio services state they are also available on Saorview but this seems to be dropped.

I get the impression that RTE are ignoring RTE NL and its new hurdy-gurdy.

RTÉjr is broadcasting for 12hrs during the week even now with TRTÉ get more hours on RTÉ TWO I don't know if this is a rights issue at all. They could always do a retro RTÉjr at the weekend Bosco meets the Morbegs.

I was told by someone very close to the DVB project that it was a rights issue. That person also spoke in a way that suggested the RTE NL and RTE were at a difference on DVB. I got the impression that there is a lot of internal friction, but I may be wrong. Expect a third launch of Saorview.

But then RTÉ is not just about current affairs and news unlike newspapers and other media organisations in this country and still you had to pick up a UK edition. Surely the private sector could have got it right.

When Vincent Brown's programme was sponsered by Bank of Scotland, the programme studiously ignored the sponsors decision to pull out of Ireland, even though it was headline news on every channel except TV3.

The Indo does not discuss its own internal affairs in its pages when it's making the news in other papers. That's life.

RTP to be partially privatised in Portugal, how about RTE?

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