RTE Cutbacks The Plan

SPDUB · 07-11-2019 12:13am #1

Main Points are

200 jobs lost

Indefinite pay freeze for all staff

10pc pay cut for senior executives

15 per cent pay cut for its highest earning presenters

Lyric will not closed but will “much reduced” and operate out of Dublin and Cork

Other cuts include the closure of RTÉ’s digital radio stations and the closure of Aertel.

All major sporting events will be moved to RTÉ One.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/rt%C3%A9-planning-200-job-cuts-and-15-per-cent-pay-reduction-for-top-presenters-1.4074889

Infernal Racket · 07-11-2019 12:14am

Meh. Watery enough. They could sack duffy, tubridy, darcy and all the other ****ehawks. That'd be a good start

Twister2 · 07-11-2019 12:18am

Are they cutting the licence fee too?

Infernal Racket · 07-11-2019 12:21am

Twister2 wrote: »

Are they cutting the licence fee too?

No, they're doubling that cos ya know, salaries and broadcasts and service and blah blah blah. ****ehawks

nkl12xtw5goz70 · 07-11-2019 12:24am

Dee Forbes repeatedly quoted whinging about the need for these cuts, given the government's failure to extract enough licence revenue from the taxpayer -- although this is comical from someone with a total remuneration package of €338,000.

Mezzotint · 07-11-2019 12:28am

RTE needs to get its priorities straight.

1) They're a BROADCASTER. Above *ALL* else you do not cut broadcasting services.
2) Anything else is superfluous to the reason for RTE to exist - cut all that stuff! They do a load of nonsense like sponsorship of events (leave that to commercial entities or the Arts Council, Sports bodies etc), I know we love the concert orchestras and all that, but seriously - put them into some other body, they've nothing to do with being a public service broadcaster.. there's a long list.
3) Reduce insane salaries that are way above market rates and massively trim admin bloat and other layers of stuff that is nothing to do with broadcasting.

The choices are quite bleak: either be realistic about the budget or the organisation will end up in a total crisis and a shadow of its former self.

bigroad · 07-11-2019 12:31am

They won't to many ****h halls on too much trying to save their own skin.

Pauliedragon · 07-11-2019 12:33am

Maybe I'm missing something but how does moving sports to RTE 1 save money? They still have to pay the rights.

TheValeyard · 07-11-2019 12:35am

Glad Lyric is saved. Great station.

Eric Cartman · 07-11-2019 12:35am

Ten Pin wrote: »

RTE will definitely find a way to cut back on the cutbacks

"ryan, joe, pat, marian, youre all going to get a 15% cut per hour, the good news is we've sacked the people who made love hate and dublin murders and increased the length of your chat shows by 20% to make up for it, the rest of the programming will be a non stop vigil to gay byrne and reruns of GAA matches past"
pat : "well that sounds like a resounding success, lets go celebrate these cuts in the part of my back garden i don't officially own"

Harry Palmr · 07-11-2019 12:36am

Pat? Which Pat? Expensive Pat is at Newstalk for years now.

SPDUB wrote: »

Main Points are

200 jobs lost

Indefinite pay freeze for all staff

10pc pay cut for senior executives

15 per cent pay cut for its highest earning presenters

Lyric will not closed but will “much reduced” and operate out of Dublin and Cork

Other cuts include the closure of RTɒs digital radio stations and the closure of Aertel.

All major sporting events will be moved to RTÉ One.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/rt%C3%A9-planning-200-job-cuts-and-15-per-cent-pay-reduction-for-top-presenters-1.4074889

So there goes the attempt by RTE to broaden and diversify it's listening base
meanwhile RTE 2FM continues, surely it would have made sense to sell the pop music channel rather than save pennies by closing all the DAB/soarview stations.

(oh yes this means effectively the death of DAB in Ireland, not that it ever developed beyond the first stage)

Not sure how moving "major" sport to RTE 1 helps financially - also what's major? Come the next Euros or World Cup does that mean all games on 1 or just the Irish matches? If the big sport events are moved surely that weakens RTE Two in the market, RTE One is strong as it is so that feels like a shooting yourself in the foot strategy.

RTÉ says it will continue to provide “a mid-west news service” in Limerick

why? The South East and the North West do not have such luxury!

No mention of the dreaded orchestras which cost several millions a year

Eric Cartman · 07-11-2019 12:38am

on a serious note though the only thing RTE had me in any way attached to was listening to RTE pulse, some quality programming and no ad's there. They won't be getting any attention from me again.

MrMusician18 · 07-11-2019 12:43am

Eric Cartman wrote: »

"ryan, joe, pat, marian, youre all going to get a 15% cut per hour, the good news is we've sacked the people who made love hate and dublin murders and increased the length of your chat shows by 20% to make up for it, the rest of the programming will be a non stop vigil to gay byrne and reruns of GAA matches past"
pat : "well that sounds like a resounding success, lets go celebrate these cuts in the part of my back garden i don't officially own"

??
Pat is gone from RTE a long time.

RTE does have a huge problem in that its commercial revenue has collapsed but has a lot of legacy issues. Many of these really can not be resolved, so perhaps its time to wind it up and start afresh with a new state broadcaster?

Idbatterim · 07-11-2019 12:45am

Why don’t they sell or close two fm ?

Ursus Horribilis · 07-11-2019 12:46am

Why is 2FM not being affected by these cuts? It's a station that's losing money and is providing nothing different to the umpteen other youth stations that exist now. Harking back to its heyday in the 1980s (when it only had some pirates as competition) is an exercise in futility.

According to RTÉ's numbers, 2FM produced a deficit of €342,000 in 2017, which was down on the loss of €778,000 in the previous year. On the face of it, that looks like a great improvement - but analysis of RTÉ's annual report suggests that station's performance worsened in 2017. Net commercial revenues went from €5.8m in 2018 to €4.4m. Public funding plugged the gap, with licence fee attribution going from just over €5m in 2016 to €6.7m a year later.

Last year was a tough year for radio advertising and despite RTÉ's efforts to return 2FM back to its 'hugely profitable' glory days when the station was a cash cow for the group, the youth station continues to be challenged.

(Source Here)

washiskin · 07-11-2019 12:50am

Gold gone???! Ffs! One of the few reasons to listen to RTÉ.

elperello · 07-11-2019 12:51am

Sell, cut, fire.
Depressing lack of vision.
At the end of the day it is our broadcasting service.
It is too important to be left to the current incumbents both in Montrose and Leinster House.
It is sad to witness it being decimated by poor management and feckless politicians.

07-11-2019 12:51am

TheValeyard wrote: »

Glad Lyric is saved. Great station.

Lyric FM is indispensable. Fire Ray D'Arcy, Joe Duffy & other moaning michaels out of a cannon. Then Dee Forbes can shove that licence fee increase up her arris.

Infernal Racket · 07-11-2019 12:52am

Lottie Ryan. That is all

Loafing Oaf · 07-11-2019 12:54am

elperello wrote: »

Sell, cut, fire.
Depressing lack of vision.

What else can management do given the financial position?

07-11-2019 12:55am

Won’t anybody think of tubs,Marian and friends - now going to be on the bread line

07-11-2019 12:58am

Gerry G wrote: »

Lottie Ryan. That is all

Doireann Gahirty, Bernard o Shea, Vogue ... Huberman Ray Darcy , Jennifer Maguire, eoin McDermott.... most of these planks need to be culled and whomever gave them shows needs to be booted

JDxtra · 07-11-2019 12:59am

Aertel was still a thing?

The only digital station worth retaining is RTE Gold. Shame about them dropping the DAB platform entirely, it has so much potential but I'm not surprised as the commercial stations won't support it.

elperello · 07-11-2019 12:59am

Loafing Oaf wrote: »

What else can management do given the financial position?

The situation needs to be taken in hand by the Government.
They were not elected to stand by and let our national broadcasting service become a third rate backwater.

Idbatterim · 07-11-2019 1:01am

elperello wrote: »

The situation needs to be taken in hand by the Government.
They were not elected to stand by and let our national broadcasting service become a third rate backwater.

What do you mean become a third rate backwater? It’s a farce !

If they are so broke , maybe let all those getting free tv license , pay for one. They are the ones most likely watching rte crap !

jk23 · 07-11-2019 1:08am

Ryan Tubridy – €495,000
Ray D'Arcy – €450,000
Joe Duffy – €389,988
Sean O’Rourke – €308,964
Marian Finucane – €300,617
Miriam O'Callaghan – €299,000
Claire Byrne – €216,000
Brian Dobson – €198,146
George Hamilton – €186,195
Mary Wilson – €185,679

These are the top 10 earners in RTE, can anyone justify any of these broadcasters being on this money? :O

Calhoun · 07-11-2019 1:10am

elperello wrote: »

The situation needs to be taken in hand by the Government.
They were not elected to stand by and let our national broadcasting service become a third rate backwater.

Is it not a third rate backwater already? Not allot of original programming, bloated and not really value for money.

Then the seemingly sku'd version of the news. Just a quick look at the news website right now and there is an article criticizing funding for victims of sexual violence but a case in which two were found guilty of sexual violence not showing up on it at all.

Infernal Racket · 07-11-2019 1:10am

jk23 wrote: »

Ryan Tubridy – €495,000
Ray D'Arcy – €450,000
Joe Duffy – €389,988
Sean O’Rourke – €308,964
Marian Finucane – €300,617
Miriam O'Callaghan – €299,000
Claire Byrne – €216,000
Brian Dobson – €198,146
George Hamilton – €186,195
Mary Wilson – €185,679

These are the top 10 earners in RTE, can anyone justify any of these broadcasters being on this money? :O

I reckon Ray Darcy caught Gaybo riding Marian Finnucane across the late late desk while being filmed by Gerry Ryan. Nothing else explains the hold he has over rte and the salary he gets. It's comical

Loafing Oaf · 07-11-2019 1:11am

elperello wrote: »

The situation needs to be taken in hand by the Government.
They were not elected to stand by and let our national broadcasting service become a third rate backwater.

So our politicians should be less 'feckless' by giving RTE a big chunk of taxpayers' money?

Ursus Horribilis · 07-11-2019 1:12am

Idbatterim wrote: »

If they are so broke , maybe let all those getting free tv license , pay for one. They are the ones most likely watching rte crap !

What about all the people who don't bother paying for a TV licence? There are huge numbers of people who don't pay and there seems to be nothing done to them apart from the odd slap on the wrist for the odd person.

ballsymchugh · 07-11-2019 1:13am

are RTE gold/pulse etc going completely or will they still be available as internet stations? DAB is a complete clusterfk in ireland anyway.

Ursus Horribilis · 07-11-2019 1:18am

The impression I get from this article is that the stations will be gone completely. They'd still have the same overhead costs if the stations kept going as online ones. RTE Gold probably cost more money to run than you'd think, seeing as it had reasonably well known presenters on its books.

Calhoun · 07-11-2019 1:23am

jk23 wrote: »

Ryan Tubridy – €495,000 No idea how they think he is worth this.
Ray D'Arcy – €450,000 Insufferable gob****e, who is having his show cut down in time.
Joe Duffy – €389,988 Probably justifies it due to the ad revenue his program brings in but why should we even have ads when we are paying a tax.
Sean O’Rourke – €308,964 Not a bad presenter but don't know if hes worth the cost.
Marian Finucane – €300,617 4 ****ing hours a week and she gets 300K a year
Miriam O'Callaghan – €299,000 Probably not but she has many kids to feed
Claire Byrne – €216,000 Much better than when she was on newstalk.
Brian Dobson – €198,146
George Hamilton – €186,195
Mary Wilson – €185,679

These are the top 10 earners in RTE, can anyone justify any of these broadcasters being on this money? :O

Some comments on some of the questionable ones.

Idbatterim · 07-11-2019 1:35am

It’s still a gravy train , but she’s slowing down ! About time !

Ursus Horribilis · 07-11-2019 1:37am

There's no doubt RTE has quite a few overpaid presenters on its books and they shouldn't be offering them such wildly inflated salaries. But firing/cutting their pay isn't going to stop the sinking ship. I'm still convinced there is a lot of money being mis-spent in the organisation and it's not necessarily on salaries.

The Satanist · 07-11-2019 1:44am

Relocate to Athlone or somewhere, sell the Palace of Donnybrook to free up some cash. The superstars can get cheap gaffs in the Midlands on their heavily reduced salaries.

Zird · 07-11-2019 1:46am

These cuts are actually very sensible, Dab is a waste of time now as it's 15 years too late. RTE gold is a waste of money as it's only available terrestrially in 3 cites which already have independent stations for the 35s+ market. Lyric moving to Dublin is also sensible as stand alone radio studios are actually very rare these days, communicorp in recent years have moved all their Dublin based stations into Marconi house.

Mezzotint · 07-11-2019 1:56am

Eric Cartman wrote: »

on a serious note though the only thing RTE had me in any way attached to was listening to RTE pulse, some quality programming and no ad's there. They won't be getting any attention from me again.

Quality programming, no ads, few listeners, no revenue and probably significant overheads.

I would argue the kind of things that Pulse and 2XM are doing are the kinds of things that 2FM should always have been doing, rather than chasing what is the space that is already occupied by commercial radio.

It’s fairly obvious that there’s been absolutely no commercial interest worth talking about in DAB and it’s basically a dead duck in the Irish market. It’s also been massively surpassed by ubiquitous mobile broadband and ability to download podcasts. I know people will start chiming in with stories about how there’s no 4G on the back of some mountain in Leitrim, but there’s FAR more 4G+ than there is availability of DAB and it does a hell of a lot more with the bandwidth it’s using.

I’ve always felt that DAB was launched far, far too late here and that it’s been a solution in search of a problem ever since. It’s not comparable to DTT as it doesn’t really provide anything other than a few extra radio channels and seems to provide audio that’s as good as or worse than FM.

RTE could move to a lot more development of quality podcasts and online content that could actually drive real revenue, rather than wasting money on an expensive DAB project that is either going to be a dead end technology that’s just going to disappear, or will ultimately be a straight replacement for FM at some stage in the future, although I think that’s quite honestly unlikely to ever happen. I’d suspect broadcast radio would disappear first.

When I hear DAB being discussed I’m kinda transported back to a world when ISDN was fast broadband.

There’s a BIG potential audience for RTE produced online content and they are not really making proper use of that potential. So far it still feels like it’s a plug in and add on to RTE broadcast radio. Bring the content to life, put a bit of effort into marketing it and get it bringing in some serious local and international revenue, rather than being an overhead.

Also when it comes to TV, just throw away the RTE player. It’s clearly beyond the technical capabilities of the organisation to maintain and support. I’d rather see RTE content just moved over to being on some kind of open platform that could place it on YouTube, Netflix, AppleTV, etc etc.

Also, is there any scope for cooperation between EBU members or EU-based public service broadcasters like RTE to develop a single, quality technical platform to do some of this stuff? It seems like far too many of them are struggling and going it alone. Very few of them have the kinds of resources that BBC, France Televisions, ARD etc can throw at these projects.

AllGunsBlazing · 07-11-2019 2:51am

Rte's time has come and gone.

It served an important purpose back when everything came from an analogue signal via the local transmitting tower. But the staggered arrival of cable tv services, satellite, and then finally broadband internet have rendered it obsolete.

I'd be for continued (and reasonable) funding for Rte news - but everything else simply has to go.

end of the road · 07-11-2019 3:11am

Harry Palmr wrote: »

So there goes the attempt by RTE to broaden and diversify it's listening base
meanwhile RTE 2FM continues, surely it would have made sense to sell the pop music channel rather than save pennies by closing all the DAB/soarview stations.

the problem is that there would be nothing to actually sell in real terms.
the studios would remain with rte, the transmission network would likely also remain with 2rn, and nobody would want the branding. also selling off a national frequency which could allow one of the soon to be defunked digital stations to transfer to fm, wouldn't be a good move, especially as the already existing national commercial pop music station isn't setting the world alight these days i believe.

Harry Palmr wrote: »

(oh yes this means effectively the death of DAB in Ireland, not that it ever developed beyond the first stage)

it is certainly a blow, and perhapse it won't help matters, but i don't think it will ultimately cause the death of dab in ireland. it certainly doesn't need to anyway.

end of the road · 07-11-2019 3:15am

The Satanist wrote: »

Relocate to Athlone or somewhere, sell the Palace of Donnybrook to free up some cash. The superstars can get cheap gaffs in the Midlands on their heavily reduced salaries.

that would likely be pointless, as by the time you build the new building and equip it, whatever they would get would probably be almost wiped out anyway.

Mezzotint wrote: »

Quality programming, no ads, few listeners, no revenue and probably significant overheads.

I would argue the kind of things that Pulse and 2XM are doing are the kinds of things that 2FM should always have been doing, rather than chasing what is the space that is already occupied by commercial radio.

It’s fairly obvious that there’s been absolutely no commercial interest worth talking about in DAB and it’s basically a dead duck in the Irish market. It’s also been massively surpassed by ubiquitous mobile broadband and ability to download podcasts. I know people will start chiming in with stories about how there’s no 4G on the back of some mountain in Leitrim, but there’s FAR more 4G+ than there is availability of DAB and it does a hell of a lot more with the bandwidth it’s using.

I’ve always felt that DAB was launched far, far too late here and that it’s been a solution in search of a problem ever since. It’s not comparable to DTT as it doesn’t really provide anything other than a few extra radio channels and seems to provide audio that’s as good as or worse than FM.

RTE could move to a lot more development of quality podcasts and online content that could actually drive real revenue, rather than wasting money on an expensive DAB project that is either going to be a dead end technology that’s just going to disappear, or will ultimately be a straight replacement for FM at some stage in the future, although I think that’s quite honestly unlikely to ever happen. I’d suspect broadcast radio would disappear first.

When I hear DAB being discussed I’m kinda transported back to a world when ISDN was fast broadband.

There’s a BIG potential audience for RTE produced online content and they are not really making proper use of that potential. So far it still feels like it’s a plug in and add on to RTE broadcast radio. Bring the content to life, put a bit of effort into marketing it and get it bringing in some serious local and international revenue, rather than being an overhead.

Also when it comes to TV, just throw away the RTE player. It’s clearly beyond the technical capabilities of the organisation to maintain and support. I’d rather see RTE content just moved over to being on some kind of open platform that could place it on YouTube, Netflix, AppleTV, etc etc.

Also, is there any scope for cooperation between EBU members or EU-based public service broadcasters like RTE to develop a single, quality technical platform to do some of this stuff? It seems like far too many of them are struggling and going it alone. Very few of them have the kinds of resources that BBC, France Televisions, ARD etc can throw at these projects.

the overheads for pulse bar dab would be tiny.
staffed mostly by volunteers i believe.
as for dab, there is no interest from the existing fm commercial broadcasters but they would never allow competition anyway.
for any other prospective operators who actually may have an interest there is no legal framework for them to operate so they can't use the platform legally even if they wanted to.

Zird wrote: »

These cuts are actually very sensible, Dab is a waste of time now as it's 15 years too late. RTE gold is a waste of money as it's only available terrestrially in 3 cites which already have independent stations for the 35s+ market. Lyric moving to Dublin is also sensible as stand alone radio studios are actually very rare these days, communicorp in recent years have moved all their Dublin based stations into Marconi house.

gold is a very different proposition to the independant stations available to be fair. it's much better for a start, so certainly not a waste of money. the issue is expanding it, which is where 2fm's transmission network might come in handy.

end of the road · 07-11-2019 3:18am

AllGunsBlazing wrote: »

Rte's time has come and gone.

It served an important purpose back when everything came from an analogue signal via the local transmitting tower. But the staggered arrival of cable tv services, satellite, and then finally broadband internet have rendered it obsolete.

I'd be for continued (and reasonable) funding for Rte news - but everything else simply has to go.

this is not the case.
neither broadband, or cable television with it's multiple stations of junk, have made rte obsolete yet.
broadband may do so eventually, just like the rest of terrestrial radio, but for now, rte's time certainly hasn't come and gone.

highgiant1985 · 07-11-2019 3:22am

Pauliedragon wrote: »

Maybe I'm missing something but how does moving sports to RTE 1 save money? They still have to pay the rights.

I was confused by this as well when I read it!

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo · 07-11-2019 3:30am

Online content can be produced in a very cost effective manner and get ratings that RTE can only sniff at. In about 5 years time, on YouTube's 20th birthday, after more cuts, they might have someone with the vision to see what online content actually is.

Children watch online content now. They are going to grow up not knowing what RTE is and freak out when their friendly local tv license inspector knocks on their college flat door looking for money.

They have the resources. They are just not effectively utilised well enough.

MrMusician18 · 07-11-2019 8:24am

With the moving of Sport from RTE2 to One it looks like they are laying the groundwork for the eventual closure or sale of RTE2.

Some high profile contracts are not going to be renewed, I wonder what names they have lined up for the chop?

10000maniacs · 07-11-2019 8:31am

Ursus Horribilis wrote: »

The impression I get from this article is that the stations will be gone completely. They'd still have the same overhead costs if the stations kept going as online ones. RTE Gold probably cost more money to run than you'd think, seeing as it had reasonably well known presenters on its books.

I stopped listening to RTE Gold when the DJs and jingles between every track came in. It spoiled the whole station. I loved the randomization of it all.Then they started seperating the programmes into categories which also was a bad idea.

dvdman1 · 07-11-2019 8:36am

Add RTE to a referendum Yes/No

"Should RTE be shut down?"

I predict a landslide for Yes campaign

malinheader · 07-11-2019 8:39am

jk23 wrote: »

Ryan Tubridy – €495,000
Ray D'Arcy – €450,000
Joe Duffy – €389,988
Sean O’Rourke – €308,964
Marian Finucane – €300,617
Miriam O'Callaghan – €299,000
Claire Byrne – €216,000
Brian Dobson – €198,146
George Hamilton – €186,195
Mary Wilson – €185,679

These are the top 10 earners in RTE, can anyone justify any of these broadcasters being on this money? :O

This says it all. Should be totally scrapped and a proper broadcasting station put in place. RTE over the years has become a rich man or woman's club with plenty of jobs for the boys or girls who are in the special circle. Cronyism is rife in RTE.

u140acro3xs7dm · 07-11-2019 8:39am

I am guessing that outside of RTE, Pat Kenny is the highest-paid broadcaster in Ireland - does anybody know what he is paid?

On the independent market, he would probably still command more than any of the current RTE crop. RTE should base their wages on what competitors can pay - if Virgin Media want Tuberty and are offering 150k a year, then give him 160k a year.

Does anybody outside of RTE want Ray Darcy? Highly unlikely - so offer him 40k a year.

The only time I watch RTE these days, is in a pub watching a big match, yet I've to pay €160 a year - joke of an organisation, but it reflects the country in general, from our welfare class to our political class - all in it for an easy ride.

malinheader · 07-11-2019 8:43am

dvdman1 wrote: »

Add RTE to a referendum Yes/No

"Should RTE be shut down?"

I predict a landslide for Yes campaign

I would still like to keep my national broadcaster, but certainly am not willing to fund the ludicrous wages these self righteous bunch of gobs_ites demand.

Bob Harris · 07-11-2019 8:47am

Tubridy's salary was 723k in 2011. 8 years later and it'll be not much more than half that.
Still a generous salary but from his point of view it has to sting a bit losing just over 300k per year in that time.

RTE Cutbacks The Plan

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