irish-stew wrote: » Care to elaborate?
AG2R wrote: » I'm guessing he is getting at that RTE are our chief broadcaster and in the UK BBC(their chief broadcaster) isn't allowed to advertise as they get the TV license fee. Nah I say let RTE have both.
El Weirdo wrote: » But there's the small matter of population size. You can't compare the two.
AG2R wrote: » Hence why I said let them have both
upandcumming wrote: » We have about 1.8 million homes in Ireland, where in the UK they have about 22 million. Can't compare the two.
My name is URL wrote: » I wouldn't mind paying a license fee if we were getting something decent in return. Instead we get Ballsy O'Connor & Tubridy interviewing their own RTE colleagues while we pay for to listen to them bleat on about the stuff they do which we're also paying for. It's a joke. Also, Derek Mooney.. wtf
HugoBradyBrown wrote: » I am loath to intrude on this discussion, but I feel it needs to be pointed out that for the price of the Racing Post a couple of times a week you get two full TV services, many radio services (including RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta and RTE Luric FM, value-added services on multiple platforms, Aertel, the two orchestras, a vast and rich archive and library, podcasts, RTE Player, some SW broadcasts when required, and much more. In addition,and at no cost from the TV tax, there are other fine services, such as the RTE Guide. (In addition, we sustain the infrastructure to allow other potential competitors to operate in the market.) 24 hour broadcasting, with the finest of production staff and of on-air talent, at a cost that is, in objective terms, in fact marginally too low. The cost ought to increase to 200 Euro immediately, with a gradual increase thereafter to 250 Euro, in order to continue to meet the quality and quantity demands of the audience, and the parallel demands of the professional personnel who know how to and want to deliver even more, even better. (I trust I have intruded on a trolling game?)
HugoBradyBrown wrote: » My name is URL wrote: » I wouldn't mind paying a license fee if we were getting something decent in return. Instead we get Ballsy O'Connor & Tubridy interviewing their own RTE colleagues while we pay for to listen to them bleat on about the stuff they do which we're also paying for. It's a joke. Also, Derek Mooney.. wtf (I find it hard to believe that this is not simply provocative posting calculated to get under the skin of patriotic listeners and viewers, but I cannot resist correcting the record.) Derek is, as it happens, a highly gifted broadcaster, who has adapted to a dead time of day to enliven life for us. He is equally capable of much more serious broadcasting, as his scientific background would lead one to suspect. We have Joe, we have Marty on RTE Lyric FM, we have Ronan on the senior service, we have Frank McNamara on RTE Lyric FM, we have John Murray making the nation laugh, RTE Lyric FM is where people go to hear Gay on a Sunday afternoon, we have Ryan on RTE 2FM, we have Pat every morning, we have Marion at weekends, there's Andy many Saturday evenings, there is Miriam, Mike is back on RTE One, Pat is in his element on Frontline: this is the talent that the competition tries and fails to poach. Patriotism and loyalty keep the on-air talent here; the viewers and listeners should demonstrate the same cordial loyalty to their national station. Behind the mics and behind the cameras, RTE is also awash with talent that is the envy of broadcasters the world over. Stick with what you know and value what you have and pay the modest tax to allow us to continue to enjoy the crème de la crème.
desertcircus wrote: » Except I don't buy the Racing Post. Or watch much RTE television. Or listen to the radio. Or really make much if any use of the others. There's something to be said for the infrastructure, but that should probably be separated out from the rest.
senorwipesalot wrote: » Yeah ,sick of paying for that sh1te when I dont even watch it.
desertcircus wrote: » Who among those has been offered a better contract from another country and rejected it?
TheZohan wrote: » It's a tax.
HugoBradyBrown wrote: » TheZohan wrote: » It's a tax. Yes, it is generally agreed, both inside and outside, that it is a tax. As a European, I find the loud American-style insistence that tax is evil hard to understand. We should be proud to pay taxes legitimately levied by our parliamentary representatives, whom we have elected to office. It is a tax, an extremely modest tax, paid by people of sufficient income and below a certain age. A progressive tax, yielding public good rewards of far greater multipliers in terms of quality, utility and happiness than many another tax.
HugoBradyBrown wrote: » (I find it hard to believe that this is not simply provocative posting calculated to get under the skin of patriotic listeners and viewers, but I cannot resist correcting the record.) Derek is, as it happens, a highly gifted broadcaster, who has adapted to a dead time of day to enliven life for us. He is equally capable of much more serious broadcasting, as his scientific background would lead one to suspect. We have Joe, we have Marty on RTE Lyric FM, we have Ronan on the senior service, we have Frank McNamara on RTE Lyric FM, we have John Murray making the nation laugh, RTE Lyric FM is where people go to hear Gay on a Sunday afternoon, we have Ryan on RTE 2FM, we have Pat every morning, we have Marion at weekends, there's Andy many Saturday evenings, there is Miriam, Mike is back on RTE One, Pat is in his element on Frontline: this is the talent that the competition tries and fails to poach. Patriotism and loyalty keep the on-air talent here; the viewers and listeners should demonstrate the same cordial loyalty to their national station. Behind the mics and behind the cameras, RTE is also awash with talent that is the envy of broadcasters the world over. Stick with what you know and value what you have and pay the modest tax to allow us to continue to enjoy the crème de la crème.
desertcircus wrote: » I have no problem with tax. There's a difference between objecting to a specific use of public funds and having a problem with taxation itself. I'm not convinced RTE delivers sufficient benefit to justify its funding. Between overpaid presenters, declining market share and, to be honest, a lack of need for the full range of what's done (does a population of four and a bit million really need three dedicated TV channels?), I don't see the case for keeping RTE as is. It's not nearly as central to Irish life as you think it is.
Borderfox wrote: » When you look at it that way RTE is proportionally sh*te in comparision to BBC by the equivalent factor so it evens out the population numbers
imitation wrote: » I think the TV license is fair as a certain amount of broadcast media should be supported by the state, and just like car tax only those who pay should use. I think they way it is handled should be changed though, currently we have 3 state owned channels and one private sector one. The fact one channel is state subsidised and the other is not skews things too much. I think the state should retain the broadcast infrastructure and keep a channel or two for public interest (News/Documentrys etc). The rest should be cut loose and the market can decide. Why should our taxes be spent on expensive cable TV shows so the private sector competition can be beaten down? The state can then tender out any jobs for movies / programmes to the cheapest bidder.
HugoBradyBrown wrote: » I find it appealing when questions are easily answered authoritatively, and particularly when a direct comparator is available, allowing for the illustration of that knockdown argument. Let us cast our gaze north of the border, to a place with a population not too dissimilar to ours, and where the broad culture of the people, the population distribution, the general demographic picture and so forth are identical. There their radio and television are little more than regional opt-outs and adjuncts of larger broadcasters. They have quite primitive news and current affairs broadcasting, with nothing like the resources or talent pool available to us. What they call ‘local news’ is squeezed into the schedules early in the evening and in a brief burst late at night. Their own stories do not dominate their main news bulletins, but get put into a form of Nationwide at the end. Even their weather bulletin is a brief squint at 'the Province', and nothing like the full-on visualization provided to us here by Jean Byrne and her assistants. Consider too that they have no broadcast orchestra, and feel the denuded cultural life that is their unfortunate lot. And yet they, too, pay their own TV tax, to learn about the weather in Suffolk and salmonella outbreaks in Brighton at the top of the hour, rather than about events in Belfast or Dungannon. If we hold ourselves out to be a distinct state, surely we need to hear and see our own stories, to have our Public Service Broadcaster facilitating us talking to ourselves. Indeed, we have President Higgins when he was a politician to thank for ensuring that in the Irish service, we have that available to us from Galway. Since the new Presidency is going to be themed around our distinct cultural gifts, it is more Public Service Broadcasting that we will require, rather than less. The issue is, I submit, clearly closed.
