Dee Forbes banging the RTE TV licence drum again 60m uncollected fee *poll not working - pl ignore*

Quote:

RTE don't think about elderly people in nursing homes etc... 

RTE don't think about anybody but RTE. It's as simple as that.

I'd say the ratings weren't as good as they thought. I mean, twitter folk aren't an endorsement. But for a supposedly 'simple' show, I'd say the costs were rather large. D'arcy on 500 grand, Double Z productions getting paid. Puppeteers, 'comedians', guests... someone might have gotten too greedy behind the scenes, or someone's agent might have been too pushy about their 'talent' and trying to get more money.

I didn't watch a single episode of 'the new Den'. I didnt' want to taint my memories of the Den in its heyday.

You can't recapture that moment in time, because it was a product of its time. Fast forward almost three decades later - Sky, Netflix, Amazon prime, Apple tv, HBO Max (coming soon), Disney +, to name a few, offer many options for your viewing pleasure. It's not the 'stuck with 2 channels' like it was before. Not for many of us.

I thought it might get another year, but not surprised it didn't.

Were there ever official numbers released? I mean, Kin had 500,000 viewers on its first night. The new Reeling in the Years had 515,000 viewers on it's first episode.

I'm glad to be proven wrong, but I don't remember RTE releasing any viewers numbers for the Den.

The Den infested by D'arcy will always be the poor relation once Dempsey's Den get's mentioned.

It's not you Ray, it's us. We've had some great times but we feel we're holding you back. We think you can go on to much better things outside of our organisation.

ring, ring

'Dee, it's Linda. I have Noel Kelly on line two'

'------ ----- ------?'

'Yes, that's the one, your boss'

He's got no negotiating tactics with em, tbh. Nobody's trying get him on any other channel. If his manager tries to pull the 'he's heavily in demand' then it's blatantly obvious to any idiot that he isn't.

IF anything, he's irrelevant. 'The Den' was his last shot at relevancy. RTE could, essentially, still bring it back-they just don't need him. The Den had many presenters after he left.

It is possible that RTE management are clearing the decks in advance of fecking D'arcy out the door when this contract ends.

The radio listenership have been ok and the telly has been a disaster. Willie O Reilly, who I believe was instrumental in bringing him into RTE is long gone now.

Maybe it's wishful thinking.

I'd forgot all of that, not sure if I should thank you!

Also Tyrone are behind The School Around The Corner, which is just around the corner from Moya Doherty's house!!!

I'd say Moya Doherty and Willie O'Reilly were instrumental in getting Ray to RTÉ. Moya former owner of Today FM, Willie former CEO ... Moya being on the remunerations committee.

The Anne Doyle Quiz was part of numerous poilots that RTÉ undertook in the 2010s. It was part of "The Format Farm", very few took off. If you also remember the comedy pilots from a few years ago, in association with Screen Ireland/Fis Eireann, again nothing came of these pilots. These have pretty much moved to the RTÉ Player, and are largely sponsored programmes.

Is half a mil compensation enough for having your mug forever associated online with that shoite?!?

Does RTE pull a gun on its presenters when show ideas are put forward, or something?

Very reminiscent of the endless, hopeless attempts to get Gerry Ryan on TV. Disaster after disaster. Who came up with these "ideas" and how much are they getting paid, because if it's anything it's too much.

It's terrible that you're forced to listen to a station you find so objectionable for a whole day

Those comedy pilots always felt like a cheap way for RTE to be like 'we're funding Irish productions' even when these 'pilots' were not pilots at all. I mean, one of those 'pilots' had an actress from Derry Girls in it. You just knew she wasn't going to walk away from a high profile project like Derry Girls (which has international attention-not just at home), so nothing was gonna happen there.

More money wasted. But I'm sure RTE could bring the receipts back to the government and show how 'important' they are to the Irish Arts.

Quite an interesting doc on one there, its called L'agression about a Maureen Kearney (nee) an Irish woman living in Paris who was a union rep there and the French nuclear industry, made me want to read up more about the case

There's some really good shows on at the weekend (even Brendan O'Connor is an easy listen) - doesn't make up for the drivel during the week tho