Is RTE a real national gem?

Norma_Desmond · 09-01-2014 02:20AM

RTE is terrible, they have produced little of note in recent years.
When the best show you are putting out is the news, your station has some issues.
Even then, the news is too long and they rarely have enough content/news to fill
it properly and are reduced to nonsensical U.S. style news segments.
The Six-One news yesterday was almost entirely dedicated to people talking about the stormy weather,
with reporters/politicians standing next to fallen walls.

A few episodes of Love/Hate were also decent enough,
but they've ruined that by hyping it up and putting too much pressure on the writer/creator,
causing the show to fall flat in the 4th season.

The RTE Player is also a ball of dirt and rarely works properly.

It's a station that has more negatives than positives.
Considering how much the 'stars' are paid, I worry about how much top brass etc. are being paid,
as the strange Celtic Tiger mentality there would have me believe that they are on massive salaries.

Daqster · 09-01-2014 02:24AM

My Dad used to love watching Nationwide and I have taken the baton from him on that and watch it whenever I can. I used to hate the thought of it but now I quite like it. It's a very positive show and regularly has episodes dedicated to people who started their own businesses and stuff like that.

What? It's good.

I'm getting old amn't I

Thanks very much · 09-01-2014 02:34AM

No.

Rte with their very carefully vetted presenters are traitorous and do not represent and never have represented the ordinary people of Ireland.

RTE represent the elite and their views. RTE are enablers and highly paid enablers at that. They are of course not unique in this. They are standard for the course in all national media organisations worldwide. There is no integrity within RTE and they are certainly not a national gem.

marienbad · 09-01-2014 02:47AM

My biggest bugbear with RTE is their pay.

Possible the biggest scandal in Ireland today is the remuneration packages of the higher public service, quangos , charities, politicians but how can the premier news outlet do a expose on this when Miriam O'Callaghan is paid more than the Taoiseach

suicide_circus · 09-01-2014 02:49AM

Joe Duffy alone justifies the 160quid to me

Thanks very much · 09-01-2014 02:51AM

These people are very highly paid not to ask the right questions, can't you see that?

signostic · 09-01-2014 02:53AM

suicide_circus wrote: »

Joe Duffy alone justifies the 160quid to me

:eek:

Sir Arthur Daley · 09-01-2014 03:09AM

RTE produce brilliant soaps, Fair City for example - coronation street eat your heart out.

Bipolar Joe · 09-01-2014 03:22AM

I hate RTE. Don't own a television, refuse to give them money, and I will refuse to pay any charge for having a laptop if that happens. They don't have the budget? Balls they don't. They get advertising, the license fee and Government help. Fuck 'em. The reason they don't have the budget is because their "Talent" gets paid a stupid amount to be the megaphone in front of whoever runs the country at the time. Stop trying to shill bullshit to me, stop paying pandering, nepotistic little lick-arse presenters, use the talent already here to craft decent television of all sorts. It's a sham. What should it be replaced with? Either a decent station or a potato.

househero · 09-01-2014 04:14AM

Bipolar Joe wrote: »

It's a sham. What should it be replaced with? Either a decent station or a potato.

Can we vote on this?

I'm with the potato

RTE should ONLY make the news.

Cookie_Monster · 09-01-2014 04:26AM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

The Clinic, Love/Hate and Mrs. Brown's Boys, for starters.

wtf are the first two and the third is pure ****e of the highest order. For some bizarre reason it seems to be popular over here though

The only world class programme RTE produces is reeling in the years

Sir Arthur Daley · 09-01-2014 04:40AM

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

The only world class programme RTE produces is reeling in the years

And that is because it is based on fact.

Mr Pseudonym · 09-01-2014 05:09AM

Most documentaries are commissioned from external production companies.

News and Current Affairs output isn't good. Leaving R1 aside, for a moment, Prime Time, Six One News, and Week in Politics are the serious programmes in that category. Prime Time masquerades as real analysis, but rarely digs deeper than the superficial; the hour long Six One News can be tedious in the extreme, with stock 'pan, tilt and zoom' shots illustrating many stories; and Week in Politics is an unimaginative panel discussion which can't attract high profile guests (it should be replaced by an Andrew Marr Show equivalent). The news correspondents are distinctly average (I would exclude Davin-Power and McCullough from that criticism) - Sean Whelan, the Economics correspondent doesn't even have an undergraduate degree in that discipline. Oireachtas Report is packaged in such a way as to make it almost unwatchable.

From an entertainment perspective, Late Late Show has become a farce, with viewership rapidly declining. This is supposedly the land of poets and scholars, yet you wouldn't think it from watching RTE. Why isn't there more serious Arts programming; why aren't university professors given a platform to promote their work? There is relatively cheap stuff that BBC does - Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, for instance - which RTE could easily replicate.

No one expects RTE to compete with the BBC on every level - it shouldn't provide regional Radio services, have a global news gathering division, commission ground-breaking wildlife documentaries in exotic locations. But, it should at least be able to compete when it comes to cheap-to-make studio-based programming.

Returning to R1, it is certainly the most impressive feature of RTE (though it has its flaws). Here is a personal response I gave of it, on another thread:

Radio 1 is one of the things Ireland can be proud of: the balanced and earnest, agenda-setting Morning Ireland; the cultural stimulation of Arts Tonight and Sunday Miscellany; the almost literary excellence of some of the Saturday documentaries; the diversity of the weekend schedule: farming, business, world affairs, history; the debate that is nurtured across so much of its output. It has its flaws, but Irish life would be much the worse in its absence.

Logical Fallacy · 09-01-2014 05:18AM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Punch way above their weight in my opinion.

How many high end New Zealand TV productions can anyone here name off the top of their head, for example?

Not too sure what your point is, as i imagine not too many folk from New Zealand could name any from here. lol

Mr Pseudonym · 09-01-2014 05:21AM

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

The only world class programme RTE produces is reeling in the years

Regardless of how well it's done (and I'm not sure Reeling in the Years does it especially well), contextualising file footage and giving it a soundtrack could never be considered world class, IMO.

I think Nationwide is an important and generally under-rated RTE programme.

pauldla · 09-01-2014 06:47AM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Punch way above their weight in my opinion.

How many high end New Zealand TV productions can anyone here name off the top of their head, for example?

So I asked my colleague, who is from NZ and has never been to Ireland, this very question.

Pause.

"Er....Father Ted?"
"UK production, I'm afraid."
"Really? Oh, OK. Er....that show about the young boy and his imaginary friend..."
"Moon Boy? Is that not a Sky production?"
"Oh. Er, that awful show with the man dressed up as a woman?"

So, he managed to name one. I presume Mrs Browns Boys is an RTE production? (My apologies for my ignorance, I have never seen the show).

kneemos · 09-01-2014 07:04AM

pauldla wrote: »

So I asked my colleague, who is from NZ and has never been to Ireland, this very question.

Pause.

"Er....Father Ted?"
"UK production, I'm afraid."
"Really? Oh, OK. Er....that show about the young boy and his imaginary friend..."
"Moon Boy? Is that not a Sky production?"
"Oh. Er, that awful show with the man dressed up as a woman?"

So, he managed to name one. I presume Mrs Browns Boys is an RTE production? (My apologies for my ignorance, I have never seen the show).

RTE doesn't produce anything it's all commissioned.

Sir Arthur Daley · 09-01-2014 07:09AM

kneemos wrote: »

RTE doesn't produce anything it's all commissioned.

Not true they produce a load of rubbish.

Thanks very much · 09-01-2014 07:19AM

kneemos wrote: »

RTE doesn't produce anything it's all commissioned.

Exactly.

greenflash · 09-01-2014 07:22AM

WikiHow wrote: »

And that is because it is based on fact.

Or maybe because Reeling in the Years is an exact copy of BBC's Rock and Roll Years.

I cannot stand RTE television beyond Love/Hate and MNS.

RTE radio is woeful, unless it's the late night music shows presented by the likes of Dan Hegarty. Pretty much everything on Radio 1 feels like it was produced by retarded baboons in comparison to BBC Radio 4, which I look forward to listening to whenever I'm near or over the border.

RTE is just so embarrassingly miserable, introspective and amateurish.

spank_inferno · 09-01-2014 07:34AM

Be quiet & pay your poll tax.

greenflash · 09-01-2014 07:57AM

spank_inferno wrote: »

Be quiet & pay your poll tax.

Council Tax. You'd know that if you listened to more BBC radio.

MRnotlob606 · 09-01-2014 08:03AM

i like that channel they have where you can watch the news at anytime.

Irish Guitarist · 09-01-2014 08:05AM

I have no interest in hurling, politics, constantly hearing about the recession or watching people being interviewed by someone who has a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp.

The only (original) programmes on RTE that interest me are Come West Along The Road and Transatlantic Sessions and neither of them are on at the moment.

greenflash · 09-01-2014 08:05AM

MRnotlob606 wrote: »

i like that channel they have where you can watch the news at anytime.

Babestation?

kneemos · 09-01-2014 08:16AM

They've made a complete mess of 2FM,they have a chat show a sports show and a never ending litany of competitions and gibberish interrupted by an occasional piece of music.

Wabbit Ears · 09-01-2014 08:47AM

Cant stand the people in RTE, horrible primadonna tossers the lot of them but the fact is that they still get really high viewing ratings. So, love them of hate them Their programming is actually popular and watched by the majority of Irish households.

MrCreosote · 09-01-2014 08:49AM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Punch way above their weight in my opinion.

How many high end New Zealand TV productions can anyone here name off the top of their head, for example?

Banjo String wrote: »

Passport control (i think it's called)
And I think there's a cop one (highway patrol or something)

Wonder if many kiwis could name any rte shows all the same?

Having lived in both countries, I can tell you that RTE is so much better than the sh*t that passes for public telly in NZ it's not just on another planet, it's in another galaxy.

It's not the Beeb for sure, but compares very well with anywhere else I've been, especially news, current affairs, docos

Franticfrank · 09-01-2014 09:02AM

The best way to appreciate RTE is to move abroad, especially to a place like Germany where the standard of television is absolutely horrific. Tom Hanks was on their main talk show (for 3 or 4 hours) and the host jumped around him in a sack - he had no idea what the show was about and longed for it to end. Our drama, current affairs, sports coverage and dare I say the Late Late Show beats Germany's broadcasters, a nation of more than 80 million people, right out of the water.

Complain all you want about RTE but go and live in a non English speaking country and you'll really appreciate it.

Irish Halo · 09-01-2014 09:03AM

Mr Pseudonym wrote: »

stuff that BBC does - Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, for instance

a) The RI Lectures have very little to do with the BBC (being organised by the RI since 1825)
b) BBC actually ditched them in 1999 and were not broadcast by them again till 2010 and then relegated to BBC Four

I'm a fan of the BBC but to give them credit for something started almost 100 years before they were founded, do not bear the brunt of the costs for and have little to no input on is unfair.

Is RTE a real national gem?

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