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

They actually claim that they do but there is a long running debate here which suggests that everyone is not happy with the current output.

I'm suggesting that we put everything on the table and for once and for all decide what we want from a PSB.

You correctly identify some of the dangers inherent in direct funding but I think with the proper structures, and checks and balances put in place it could work.

The debate is in this thread.

Maybe best if you scroll back a few pages and you will get the gist of it.

Lot's of stuff to be decided.

The TV Licence was an answer to a 20th century question. We need to move on.

18 months by recent calculations, there'll be no appetite for bailing out anyone,

"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."

RTE sold 8 acres of Montrose for €107m a year or 2 back. The remaining site there is approximately 30acres, so extrapolating that out and not counting for land price inflation, they are looking at €400m+ for the whole site if it went for sale. Imagine what size of site that would get you elsewhere, not even in the middle of nowhere, but somewhere within 1hr of Dublin - say in Offaly or Westmeath. They could have space, new buildings, tech, and change out of that €400m, as well as bringing industry, jobs, economic activity to somewhere (slightly) outside the pale that would badly need it.

But then Dee might actually have to use here car allowance to leave the city, and tubridys commute would take him away from the rock road or N11, so no chance.

He has about as much charisma as the bead of sweat running down my left ball as I got intimate with Mrs BoBandy the other night!!!!

I wouldn't have the time or energy to try to sum up a thread with more than than 8000 posts but ultimately it's just an online forum and doesn't get to decide anything really.

Welcome back.

If the government of the day cut funding to PSB you would expect that the quality of the output would suffer.

However the amount required to run a PSB is so small in the context of the overall government budget you'd hope that they would concentrate cost savings in more fruitful areas.

Please ignore....

This post is aimed at a Mod so I can link it and I don't have to try to fit all this into a pm.

Pre the boards.ie move to the new platform, the poll results were very different to the results seen it the OP now. I don't know how that happened and I doubt it can be undone. Can a Mod please edit the OP and include the snip below to more accurately reflect the true thoughts of posters. Perhaps the poll should be closed too.

The credit goes to @Varik on this one as he dug this out of his cache shortly after the change.

Pre platform change (approx July 2021) :

Post platform change :

Thanks.

The Valentine's special is coming back... dear God... this has been a car crash every &*@!ing times they've done it. Nobody's enjoyed it, nobody's walked away from it thinking 'that was worth the time'...

Instead it descends into a mess, something out of Jeremy Kyle or Jerry Springer. Even the 'usually' positive twitter folks never have a decent thing to say about it.

I'd say it's beating a dead horse, but that would be far less insulting to people's intelligence than this dross.

Firstly, @Beasty has put an edit/caveat into the OP in this thread as ye can see - *poll not working - pl ignore* - good job👍️

Secondly, y'know this whole Public Service Broadcasting craic, I'd like to see more of the 'Public' bit brought into play. RTE's interpretation of PSB is 'The public will get what we give them'. I believe PSB should mean giving the public what they want.

An example of the above:- SOR's slot became available some time back and iirc, Sarah Mc did a 6 month stand-in slot and was excellent in the position. This was pretty much reflected around these parts and I presume elsewhere on SM, in fact, I'd say it was visible from space. I would also presume RTE knew this because I hear on the grapevine, they actually have some computers in there. So in a bid to fulfil their PSB remit, RTE must have thought 'Right, it looks like the public want Sarah Mc in the slot, what will we do?'...I know, says some cretin, lets put Claire Byrne in there instead...feck the public'. How is that public orientated? This shows an astounding level of arrogance or the 'Noel effect' as I like to call it.

How did all that pan out in the end. Well, the show has tanked, it is struggling to get a sponsor and it has basically become a vehicle to promote people from Claire's own agency. Also, I don't recall SOR needing expensive TV ads made to promote/rescue his show. More cash down the drain.

D'Arcy - another disaster! I've pretty much said it all about him on his thread but just to add - RTE have paid him about €3m since 2015. I'd confidently say that the public would get rid of him in an instant if asked - now that would be real PSB

The public need way more influence on how this omnishambles of an organisation operates, possibly on a daily/micro level basis because frankly, RTE are incapable of making good decisions themselves. They have become completely institutionalised and are not capable of change.

Because RTE behave like an unruly child, there needs to be an Independent Oversight Committee that reviews all decisions/actions/promotions/contracts/new shows/salaries/fees etc, before they are taken and they have the final say to Y or N it. It might work like this:- RTE proposes that their Washington correspondent returns to Ireland, resigns from RTE, signs up with a agent and is contracted back in to co-anchor the 6.1 news and is paid extortionate fees way in excess of what an employee would earn. The Independent Oversight Committee can then reply to this proposal with: "Yeah nice try lads, not going to happen"

There's a whole world of hate out there for RTE and imo, it's justified. This hate has been brought onto RTE by RTE and nobody else.

Lets sit down and talk about all that Moya.

Jaysus...I feel better now😀

The only reason they do specials is because they have absolutely no idea how to produce an entertaining show each week. TLLS run out of ideas very quickly.

It's interesting to see how a thread about RTÉ has become a thread about TLLS, because much like TLLS RTÉ have no idea how to create something outside of TLLS.

Ray D'arcy (and Dustin) used The Den's cancellation/non-renewal to go after Dee Forbes. I'm no fan of Forbes, but it's the height of arrogance to condemn your employer whilst claiming a wage that's more than the American President gets in a year. She could easily kick D'arcy to the curb. She won't, but she could. Tells you all about the type of prat he is.

The 'Country' special gets more pathetic and depressing every year... especially because a good chunk of the acts die due to old age. Or they draft in failed pop stars who've 'gone country' because it's their last thread of relevancy.

IFAIK they are supposed to have something for public access under the broadcasting act 2009, but I could be wrong about that.

I would love to look at stuff from the 1950s only RTÉ TV just started at the end of 1961. Ireland was always 10 years behind.

You will be glad to hear that RTÉ produce very little light entertainment. Though in years to come we will be looking back at First Dates!

Do people notice that RTÉ produce relatively little programming?

So SOR to return to RTÉ!

Do they currently piggy back off C5, like VM do off ITV for their soaps?

Channel 5 are/were paying £5million a year for the rights but couldn't sell enough adverts to cover it.

So 5mil on top of whatever they're currently paying, yikes!

RTÉ pay around €2000 for an hour of TV from abroad. 5 EPS A WEEK 30 MINS 52 WEEKS OF THE YEAR ~€260,000 (give or take for inflation, been a few years since I heard €2000 for an hour of TV).

Channel 5 and the BBC were paying to broadcast in the UK, most likely the BBC realized it was cheaper to fund it, not sure if either the BBC or Channel 5 make a return on their investment.

RTÉ negotiations with Fremantle will be to look at what they replace neighbours with and if they will continue with the contract. RTÉ couldn't give €5m to neighbours when it is only willing to pay €3m to indo producers in Ireland for drama.

Still, on a more positive note Ken, if your pelvic floor is a bit rough around the edges, stay tuned.

Pelvic floor specialist on line 3

I'd like to sponsor the show.

Brilliant, that'll be three fifty for the year.

Great, I'll leave the €3.50 at the security hut.

It's actually €350 thousand sir.

Right, I'll leave it so.

To be fair I think subtitling is not done by humans any more.

So you'd often get spelling mistakes on it.