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

I really dislike the idea of another household charge, even if it replacing the TV licence. As per previous commentators, the best solution is to downsize RTÉ, and pay it a grant from the public purse. I've been looking up figures for the other TV broadcasters, and it really highlights how bloated RTÉ, with its 1,800 to 1,900 staff, really is. Teilifís na Gaeilge, which runs TG4, had 121 employees in 2022. Virgin Media Television had 250 employees in 2015, and apparently 260 staff in 2020 (this second figure would be from a less well-known website, so I'd be less sure of it), which was more than sufficient to run 4 television channels.

If RTÉ want to keep their current number of staff, they should be trying to produce more commercially viable entertainment that could be licenced out to Netflix, etc., or radically cut the size of the organisation to something more manageable. Why wouldn't an RTÉ of between 500 and 1,000 staff, on a total budget of €150 to €200m (government funding & advertising combined) be more than sufficient to meet our public service requirements? TG4 produces plenty of cultural related programming for a fraction of the price RTÉ does, and of at least comparable quality. Even if RTÉ had to reduce their output of Irish programming, so what? Most if it has a small to very small audience anyway, with the main people losing out being the various RTÉ insiders and friends currently feeding from the trough, all subsidised by the general Irish population/taxpayers.

Indeed. However, RTÉ don't even come close to similar sized countries when it comes to content or services provided. And if they can compare themselves to BBC when talking about repeats we can compare them to the BBC. I have been long enough here to end defending RTÉ against people comparing them to the BBC.

They should have closed LW down more than 10 years ago and focused on a decent DAB+ coverage all across Ireland. LW radios are very rare these days, even buying new ones is a bit hard. RTE Radio 1 also wasn't historically ever on LW, the LW transmitter came into play because of Atlantic 252, commercially between the CLT and RTE.

Hard to say as we don't have the insight. I'd say, it was probably part of the problem. However the cost of LW must have been a concern otherwise they would have continued.

DAB is roughly only one tenth of the cost of FM, plus RTE would have had the opportunity to transmit all of the programmes, like RTE Gold, Radio 2XM etc...

LW was probably the worst in terms of cost and listenership or return of investment. On top of that, the RTE never historically transmitted Radio 1 on LW, - it only happened after Atlantic 252 and TeamTalk stopped. So RTE Radio 1 never had to rely on LW, no ageing listeners with old radios and nostalgia as well. The Irish expats in the UK relied already on other means than LW.

The RTE's strategy was in a very dumb way twice wrong:

• They've spent the cost of Radio 1 transmissions on LW for nearly 20 years, which has low to very low listenership.
• They've missed building a DAB+ network to transmit their other programmes like Gold or 2XM to attract further listeners.

And they've lost both, their LW transmission plus a decent DAB+ network, and have another problem, their finances.

One can hardly say the word "smart" in this case.

I can't imagine a broadcasting charge being brought in before the general election.

If RTÉ make a decision on LW or on DAB, that is their decision to make. Depending on your view point it is either a good or bad decision. I would offer that RTÉ didn't really make a decision on either, showing their lack of leadership skills.

I do think that if RTÉ had retained LW and DAB, and they had not had the bad governance that they currently have, it would just be a normal managerial decision.

I am not saying their decisions on DAB and LW were bad, they could easily be, and they may well be more clear signs of bad management in RTÉ over the last few years.

For example in 2021 there were able to move the NSO to the NCH, this would have saved they €8m in 2021 but the move was postponed to 2022, even though preparation for the move had started in 2018.

There are plenty more day-to-day issues that they were unable to grapple with.

Did they say this. That would be a lucrative contract, for RTÉ it is a risk to take a popular show from that time slot. I heard that they were considering The Masked Dancer as a replacement, not sure how true that is.

Virgin Media Television has the Republic rights to The Masked Singer/Dancer.

Do they have the rights to produce the show in Ireland or just to show the UK version.

He was only there for a few months, only went to one meeting and resigned.

However he's largely head that Sunday Night since Popstars and You're a Star with just the exception of the 3 years of the All Ireland Talent Show which was produced by .... Moya Doherty's Tyrone Productions!

Ah, The Voice of Ireland... formerly hosted by Eoghan McDermott (cough) and Kathryn Thomas. Apparently the owners of the Voice IP did NOT want Grainne Seoige to host it, tho RTE(and Noel Kelly) were pushing for her to be the host. She'd hosted The All Ireland Talent Show, which was 'Ireland's got talent' but even s****er than you could ever imagine.

It did give us a really funny Savage Eye sketch tho.

Tyrone productions website is a list of 'Just no'... http://www.tyroneproductions.ie/celebrating-30-years/

Tyrone productions also gave us the INFAMOUS Celebrity Farm... 20 years later, and nobody's ever truly accepted the blame for that horrible moment in Irish history. Christ. Oh, and The Mentor, where Jay Bourke advised people on how to run their businesses... you know, the same guy who's bee court ordered not to manage any businesses, and is bankrupt, trying last year to have €13.7 million worth of debt written off. (And that's before we even touch on The Berlin bar fiasco.)

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/agribusiness-and-food/restaurateur-jay-bourke-declared-bankrupt-over-558-000-tax-debt-1.4862312

They also tried to shove Ray D'arcy into anything, including Superstar Dogs (link on the site above) and the remake of School Around the Corner, which went as well as any Ray D'arcy project in the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s.

The whole autumn schedule sounds like a savage eye episode

A good idea for an Rte show could be one called... Look who's dead now... A weekly show concentrating on those who've passed away in the previous week, including funeral footage, interviews with those who vaguely knew the deceased, the local parish priest, the Iman and business people, finally the show would finish with a visit to the grave where the one and only Duffster would sign off for another week with suitably sombre music playing in the backround, while the great man intones "that's it for another busy week on the deathwatch, join me next week for more Deaths on BABOOM LOOK WHO'S DEAD NOW BABOOM.... just remember it could be YOU 👉

Nkm seem to have done ok again.

Kathryn Thomas, Baz and Dermot Bannon to name 3 for starters. Probably more hidden away in there.

In fairness Ireland's Got Talent was an even shitter version of the All Ireland Talent Show.

Another Drama that RTÉ put little money into!