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

It's a future for public service broadcasting I'm interested in.

I don't see much comparison to an abusive personal relationship.

They get a block grant and trim the operation to fit the amount allocated, if 2FM vanished tomorrow would anyone notice? Same for that Lyric rubbish

Maybe, but then sometimes I think I might have had a sensibilities by-pass.

Often useful around here 🙂

OK.

I get it, you don't like Lyric but I do so let's park that for now.

I really don't mind ads myself especially if they are helping to finance programmes I like.

I'm pretty sure that the ads must work for those who place them or they wouldn't bother.

Seeing as Moya is sticking her oar in the water again...

Jan 2015

How's all that working out for ya now Moya? He hasn't had a sponsor for large periods (about 3 years) of his time there since you got him in - In 2018 1yr sponsorship was 270k and can now be bought for 210k and still no takers.

Claire Byrne and Brendan O'Connor also struggling for sponsors. So the contractors - Ray, CB, and BOC getting huge fees and no sponsors. I think the three of them may have something in common outside of RTE but I just can't put my finger on it :pac:

Perhaps a kitchen de-cluttering company will pay the 350k pa it costs to sponsor Today with CB.

Dee only has to look at her flagship show tonight, with one of her huge earners.

It is absolute muck, with terrible guests and even finishing earlier than it used to because they can't fill the time any more. Each episode is as bad as the last one.

Tommy Tiernan had Roger Daltrey from 'the Who' on last week, Gabriel Byrne the week before.

Tubridy has... Dancing with the Staff (former) contestants, and someone who was on the show a month ago. (The Toy Show, but I refuse to watch that).

But if you did this you'd surely be bringing back some, probably a lot, of the same people, infrastructure, even programmes (under tweaked formats and different programmes), given how limited a pool Irish broadcasting operates in.

I'm not sure making a big show of 'scrapping RTE and making a fresh start' would be much more than gesture politics...

Your shiny new public service broadcaster would literally not employ a single ex-RTE person? I find that hard to believe. Plus it would be a massive challenge for the new organisation to build a rapport with the public if it doesn't feature any familiar faces.

Do you literally think that it is feasible to close down our Public Broadcasting Service and have the staff all made redundant?

What happens then, have them all queue around the block to be interviewed by who?

Okay I took this to mean if the recruiters for the new broadcaster are competent and properly independent they will not rehire a single ex-RTE person.

But this implies you would accept some former RTE heads if their abilities are of the requisite level. I'm assuming this is your actual position.

A true miracle took place in D.4 today.

Just a few short hours after the post here regarding Brendan O'Connor's (and others) show not having a sponsor, suddenly there's a two hour show this morning with the RTE lady shouting 'Allcare Pharmacy' every few minutes. She forgot to shout that in yesterdays promo and for the last few months. Allcare were the previous sponsors so there was that handy recording lying about for emergency use.

The RTE page where the show was looking for a sponsor (prices etc) yesterday, today returns a 404 error

God moves in a mysterious way.

A more cynical person than I might think that Allcare Pharm are getting a few freebies or massive discounts just for the optics while they wait for another sucker sponsor to appear - but I couldn't possibly comment on that.

RTE, I'll ask you a question here and I'll try to keep it simple and give you a pointer because you do come across as being quite thick :- You are having problems getting sponsors for 3 shows that have presenters on very high fees and they come from the same agent. Where do you think the problem might lie?

Potential sponsors probably read this...

...and thought what else are they lying about

LMAO - the comments are less than complimentary but Ryan thinks he was amazing and that's all that matters

Altogether now -

"We want Paddy for our leader, Paddy is a man of class...."

Gone a bit quiet there 🙂

I was only being a bit lighthearted.

I don't think for a minute that PC really cares anyway.

My own position is that like PC I support Public Service Broadcasting.

I think we need to decide what sort of PSB we want and then decide how to pay for it.

I favour direct exchequer funding which means no chasing after people, no evasion and no collection costs.

PSB TV free at point of use just like radio is today.

Dublin Region actually accounts for 28.5% of the population and of course it is our capital city.

Some of the infrastructure in Montrose is showing it's age anyway but a move would be vey expensive and there would be little point in it unless you were prepared to fund a complex with the best of modern technology. I'd be open to the idea but would like to see the figures.

More regional coverage would be worth considering including some more decentralisation.

Direct funding would remove the need for regional payment differentials.