RTE Cutbacks The Plan

Beechwoodspark · 07-11-2019 9:55am

Some RTÉ Union guy on morning Ireland now trying to throw the cutback plan into the bin before it is even announced. Typical montrose craic

Beechwoodspark · 07-11-2019 9:56am

Boggles wrote: »

I thought you were basing it on you personally knowing a "huge proportion of RTE listeners".

That was downgraded quite quickly. :pac:

That's the very definition of personal.

Sorry now it’s business not personal

07-11-2019 9:57am

Who the hell is this? Any other company laying off people gets 2 minutes mention and straight to the sports results.

Edit: Seamus Dooley of the NUJ

NIMAN · 07-11-2019 9:57am

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

Some RTUnion guy on morning Ireland now trying to throw the cutback plan into the bin before it is even announced. Typical montrose craic

He'd be happy for the taxpayer to continue to bail out a badly run business.

uck51js9zml2yt · 07-11-2019 9:57am

Heard Brian Dobson interview Dee Forbes this morning. He showed no mercy.
Was a tough interview which I reckon she regretted doing.

blackbox · 07-11-2019 10:00am

How much does Marty Morrissey pay them to appear on TV?

Maybe they could charge him a bit more without giving him any more airtime?

Beechwoodspark · 07-11-2019 10:00am

Topgear on Dave wrote: »

Who the hell is this? Any other company laying off people gets 2 minutes mention and straight to the sports results.

I made that exact point earlier.

RTÉ see themselves as “really special”. They will happily take up most of the flagship morning national news programme discussing internal RTÉ industrial relations.

That’s rte’s problems in a nutshell.

They see nothing wrong and think they should clog up the national airwaves just because someone has the temerity to suggest some cuts to their narnia wonderland that joe taxpayer has been propping up for decades.

Richard Hillman · 07-11-2019 10:01am

I posted it during the rugby world cup but for the NZ game, RTÉ had 4 pundits in the studio and a presenter. They even flew Michael Lynagh in for 2 days, no doubt flights and accommodation were included.

They also sent a commentary team, cameramen, sound and producers to Japan for 2 months. All of this when they could have just used the World English Feed Commentary which had Eddie Buttler doing the big game of the day.

For last year they said they lost money by doing the Football World Cup. How is that even possible?

They are a company with notions far above their station

07-11-2019 10:01am

TheValeyard wrote: »

Glad Lyric is saved. Great station.

Very much so. Best station of the lot

07-11-2019 10:01am

Dublin has no drinking water.

Let's pay to keep RTE in the style to which it has become accustomed.

Boggles · 07-11-2019 10:02am

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

I made that exact point earlier.

RTÉ see themselves as “really special”. They will happily take up most of the flagship morning national news programme discussing internal RTÉ industrial relations.

That’s rte’s problems in a nutshell.

They see nothing wrong and think they should clog up the national airwaves just because someone has the temerity to suggest some cuts to their narnia wonderland that joe taxpayer has been propping up for decades.

You are top poster on a thread about it. :pac:

Beechwoodspark · 07-11-2019 10:03am

Thanks boggles. I am a top poster yes

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo · 07-11-2019 10:03am

In fairness, Pat Kenny did leave to non state funded Newstalk. But I remember him specifically saying his pay was going down in the move.

Sir Oxman · 07-11-2019 10:05am

Calhoun wrote: »

Some comments on some of the questionable ones.

the Joe Duffy ad comment

I listen most days and I swear 90% of the ads are for RTE shows.

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo · 07-11-2019 10:06am

Richard Hillman wrote: »

I posted it during the rugby world cup but for the NZ game, RTÉ had 4 pundits in the studio and a presenter. They even flew Michael Lynagh in for 2 days, no doubt flights and accommodation were included.

They also sent a commentary team, cameramen, sound and producers to Japan for 2 months. All of this when they could have just used the World English Feed Commentary which had Eddie Buttler doing the big game of the day.

For last year they said they lost money by doing the Football World Cup. How is that even possible?

They are a company with notions far above their station

They didn't even show most of the World Cup. The interest they have in sports is leaving.

Harry Palmr · 07-11-2019 10:08am

Re TV licence, mine was up for renewal at end of October, still no notice in the post.

Richard Hillman · 07-11-2019 10:09am

Dee Forbes on RTÉ Radio saying that they are moving big Sporting events to RTE1 and will start using RTE2 to link viewers towards the RTE Player.

The RTE Player that doest work.

odyssey06 · 07-11-2019 10:11am

Richard Hillman wrote: »

I posted it during the rugby world cup but for the NZ game, RTÉ had 4 pundits in the studio and a presenter. They even flew Michael Lynagh in for 2 days, no doubt flights and accommodation were included.
They also sent a commentary team, cameramen, sound and producers to Japan for 2 months. All of this when they could have just used the World English Feed Commentary which had Eddie Buttler doing the big game of the day.
For last year they said they lost money by doing the Football World Cup. How is that even possible?
They are a company with notions far above their station

Yep, it's the same with soccer coverage. Back in the studio, an anchorman and 3 pundits discussing a game is way overkill.

Should be 1 pundit for most games. I expect this kind of over-staffing occurs all the way down i.e. not just what we see on screen.

07-11-2019 10:12am

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

I made that exact point earlier.

RTÉ see themselves as “really special”. They will happily take up most of the flagship morning national news programme discussing internal RTÉ industrial relations.

That’s rte’s problems in a nutshell.

They see nothing wrong and think they should clog up the national airwaves just because someone has the temerity to suggest some cuts to their narnia wonderland that joe taxpayer has been propping up for decades.

I would see it as 2 things

1. If they shy away from it they will be called out as hiding away from making 200 people jobless
2. They can manage the message to push Forbes idea of broadcasting charge, without tackling the systemic issues in RTÉ such as the permanent staff numbers and the insistence of having their headquarters in a sprawling DonnyBrook campus.

ednwireland · 07-11-2019 10:13am

Pauliedragon wrote: »

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

stick a cheap movie on RTE2 and fill rte1 with the little sport they have left i guess

as aside i dont think ive heard bryan dobson as annoyed about anything as this when he was "interviewing" dee forbes on morning ireland this morning.

shame he cant get that animated about some real issues

07-11-2019 10:13am

Re a special entity, RTE sees itself as a great platform for younger viewers too. I haven't watched "The Den" in years.
It used to sponsor the "Young Scientist" exhibition as well years ago.

Oasis1974 · 07-11-2019 10:14am

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

George Hamilton does what every year to get that salary? It's the sports Hamilton right?

facehugger99 · 07-11-2019 10:16am

Richard Hillman wrote: »

The RTE Player that doest work.

The RTE player is the single worst piece of technology I have ever had the misfortune to use in the last 2 decades.

That's not an exaggeration.

whisky_galore · 07-11-2019 10:16am

Selling off the RTE Guide.

RTE luvvies being interviewed by other RTE luvvies, and tv and radio schedules, which you can get online for free anyway.

FrancieBrady · 07-11-2019 10:16am

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

I made that exact point earlier.

RTÉ see themselves as “really special”. They will happily take up most of the flagship morning national news programme discussing internal RTÉ industrial relations.

That’s rte’s problems in a nutshell.

They see nothing wrong and think they should clog up the national airwaves just because someone has the temerity to suggest some cuts to their narnia wonderland that joe taxpayer has been propping up for decades.

Hate to tell you this but if you go to Newstalk site, it is the top story there too.

u140acro3xs7dm · 07-11-2019 10:24am

Oasis1974 wrote: »

George Hamilton does what every year to get that salary? It's the sports Hamilton right?

He commentates on pretty much every sport, and he has a show on Lyric fm. I don't think he deserves that salary though.

Bazzy · 07-11-2019 10:26am

Does Dee realise she's in charge of the whole thing and its all one big family?? Rte 1 this and Rte 2 that

The easiest way to save a fortune and i'm surprised it hasnt been mentioned here is to get rid of Fair City !!!!

Howitzer the 5th · 07-11-2019 10:27am

Calhoun wrote: »

Some comments on some of the questionable ones.

The near one million they spunk on Tubridy and D'arcy is long debated with no sane justification or rationale from any quarters.

Tubridy benefits from family member Todd Andrews elevation to RTÉ authority in the 1960's which is where one can trace his ultimate and undeserved status as chieftain of Montrose.

D'arcy's immeasurable fifth rate qualities are barely worthy of regional hospital radio. His is RTÉ's profound mystery.

Sean O'Rourke is due to retire. Joe Duffy cannot be too far from retirement or some useful selfless act. The late great Gay Byrne's great legacy tarnished somewhat by the irritating omnipresence of Joe f*king Duffy.

Claire Byrne is their best card. Challenging and earnest. Overpaid but increasingly building a worthy name.

Miriam Marian Dobbo et al and the gratuitous waste of money all reflective of years of inadequate indecision at government and RTÉ management level.

Boggles · 07-11-2019 10:28am

This is hilarious.

Posters on one side claiming RTE will ignore this story and then on the other saying they shouldn't be giving it so much airtime.

It's one of the top stories on all Irish media and they are participating in an active thread about it.

You couldn't write it, actually maybe RTE should make a program about it.

zeebre12 · 07-11-2019 10:28am

No mention of RTE News Now getting the chop?

zeebre12 · 07-11-2019 10:30am

suicide_circus wrote: »

sweet jesus

I know times are different now but Pat Kenny was on €951,000 in 2008. Crazy

zeebre12 · 07-11-2019 10:34am

lisasimpson wrote: »

I use to feel the same but my opinion has changed. Its not her fault RTE were stupid enough to pay her the amount she is on to be a showbiz reporter...ie read the dailymail.If you were in your 20s and offerred that amount of money for a handy number you would bite their hand off. Another clear example of bad management of RTE in relation to Lottie is not having her fill on for Eoghan McDermot the last few weeks. How much money was wasted on Greg O Shea hes so boring he would put you back to sleep. I have not heard one positive word about him on it. When Lottie filled in for Jennifer Mc on thr previous breakfast show she wasnt all that bad

The only popular 2Fm show amoung young people is Jenny Green and RTE were shamed into bringing her back

What is she getting paid?

07-11-2019 10:44am

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.

RTÉ Radio 1 and RTÉ 1 need to be kept as an absolute minimum.
Lyric is also another which the public market does not service.

RTÉ 2 and 2FM should be long gone.

Reason the main TV and radio stations need to be kept is that we need a public news service.
Service for national sports (Sky is not an option behind a paywall) and leaving only Virgin means no competition and sports organisations will suffer. Unless you want government to directly fund the shortfall.

What we really need is more home made TV drama. Bloody hell we have the actors (always do), the BBC and American TV/Film is awash with our established names. Funds that would be freed up from the bloat could go to funding these.
And I mean proper shows, not the muck they cobble together on the shoestring budgets they have left over. If UK channels can make Young Offenders, Derry Girls, Falling Down (for the Irish slant) or simple well made shows like Unforgotten, Line of Duty etc there is nothing stopping RTÉ commissioning similar.
FFS look at the casts on some of these, these people have done well in UK/America, varying degrees to be sure but the talent is there even outside these headliners.

Love/Hate:

Tom Vaughan-Lawlor
Aoibhinn McGinnity
Charlie Murphy
Robert Sheehan

Love is the Drug

Allen Leech
Ruth Negga
Ruth Bradley
Orla Fitzgerald
Colin O'Donoghue

Bachelor's Walk

Don Wycherley
Simon Delaney
Keith McErlean
Kelly Campbell

Pure Mule had Charlene McKenna

Ardent · 07-11-2019 10:44am

RTE want an extra €55M in funding from the taxpayer. €1M only pays Tubridy and Darcy's wages. Think about that for a moment.

07-11-2019 10:46am

Dillon Dazzling Radar wrote: »

Heard Brian Dobson interview Dee Forbes this morning. He showed no mercy.
Was a tough interview which I reckon she regretted doing.

It was tough but she had an answer to everything. It was a planned interview where he could not be seen going easy on her.

nkl12xtw5goz70 · 07-11-2019 10:47am

facehugger99 wrote: »

The RTE player is the single worst piece of technology I have ever had the misfortune to use in the last 2 decades.

That's not an exaggeration.

Illegal streamers provided a more reliable online service during the Rugby World Cup than our multimillion-euro national broadcaster.

The RTE player currently gets an abysmal 1.6 stars on Google's Play Store. The BBC iPlayer gets 4 stars and the ITV Hub gets 4.4 stars. Channel 4's app gets 4.8 stars.

Maybe if RTE put money into things that people actually value, such as a good streaming service, and stopped pumping it into a black hole of lavish salaries for presenters and executives, people would be more supportive.

07-11-2019 10:48am

Oasis1974 wrote: »

George Hamilton does what every year to get that salary? It's the sports Hamilton right?

Hamilton is on Lyric also and is one of the most intelligent people in that organisation. Not to that money but far more useful than most others, if they bothered using his abilities.

Boggles · 07-11-2019 10:52am

Noemi Shapely Weakling wrote: »

The RTE player currently gets an abysmal 1.6 stars on Google's Play Store. The BBC iPlayer gets 4 stars

The RTE player is terrible but The BBC spend more money on just online services than RTE's entire budget.

Brock Turnpike · 07-11-2019 10:53am

Bob Harris wrote: »

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.

Sting me BOLLIX. He knows he's still having his cake and eating it, as he wouldn't come close to earning that elsewhere.

Dammer · 07-11-2019 10:54am

Anyone remember that Secret RTE producer who tweeted a load of "issues" within RTE

Heres a list of those tweets on Reddit.

They really only have mostly themselves to blame...

nkl12xtw5goz70 · 07-11-2019 10:59am

Boggles wrote: »

The RTE player is terrible but The BBC spend more money on just online services than RTE's entire budget.

I'm not proposing that RTE should emulate the BBC, which receives licence revenue from a country of 67 million people.

But seriously, how much would it cost to create a service that could stream even one channel reliably without endless buffering, stalling, and crashing?

Boggles · 07-11-2019 11:03am

Noemi Shapely Weakling wrote: »

I'm not proposing that RTE should emulate the BBC, which receives licence revenue from a country of 67 million people.

But seriously, how much would it cost to create a service that could stream even one channel reliably without endless buffering, stalling, and crashing?

I've no idea, but I imagine more than what is being invested at the moment.

I doubt they are making it shít on purpose.

All though saying that, the Ads run flawlessly. :pac:

07-11-2019 11:07am

facehugger99 wrote: »

The RTE player is the single worst piece of technology I have ever had the misfortune to use in the last 2 decades.

That's not an exaggeration.

The way people consume media has changed and RTE is stuck in the mid 2000s

I can't understand why they aren't prioritizing the RTE player. It is literally their only chance to survive as a media entity. Instead they produce a half cooked pile of rubbish.

Feisar · 07-11-2019 11:08am

They lost their way somewhere along the line. To many dawlings and fancy Dan types. State broadcaster, basically they should be on the same pay scales as the rest of the civil service. Before someone someone argues about salaries for "talent", does anyone really notice that much of a difference with the quality of local radio presenters and RTE's top paid presenters. Now there are exceptions and I believe there should be exceptions made. However by and large RTE have notions above their station which is the crux of the issue.

nkl12xtw5goz70 · 07-11-2019 11:12am

Boggles wrote: »

I've no idea, but I imagine more than what is being invested at the moment.

Why, in the world of RTE, is "we need more investment" always the solution?

If this were a private company, people would be told to get their arses in gear and fix the problem with the resources they already had.

Boggles · 07-11-2019 11:14am

Noemi Shapely Weakling wrote: »

Why, in the world of RTE, is "we need more investment" always the solution?

If this were a private company, people would be told to get their arses in gear and fix the problem with the resources they already had.

Because RTE are not a tech company, they have outsourced the nuts and bolts of the player AFAIK.

Now it could be because that company or incompetent or maybe the tech that makes it run better is more expensive.

07-11-2019 11:16am

Noemi Shapely Weakling wrote: »

Why, in the world of RTE, is "we need more investment" always the solution?

Well, since Bewley's did'nt go tits up, why should'nt they? - "An Bord Bun"

An old acquaintance of some eminent RTE staff. - "An Bord ..."

zeebre12 · 07-11-2019 11:18am

How do other countries with a similar population to Ireland manage their state broadcaster?

ToBeFrank123 · 07-11-2019 11:18am

Changing times and RTE have been slow to adopt.
Sounds like the digital stations were a significant loss maker.
They've let go workers before and ended up having to hire in contractors to replace them.
But its good the government are holding firm on not providing an increase in funding.
Evasion was always a problem with the licence fee and will also be there when the broadcasting charge comes in.
RTE need to accept they are no longer a monopoly but existing in a highly competitive dog eat dog environment.

10000maniacs · 07-11-2019 11:20am

FrancieBrady wrote: »

Is DAB not on life support anyway? Surely it's days are numbered with internet radio and Alexa's etc and other simpler ways of listening to radio?

I bought a DAB radio for quite a bit of money for a simple radio :eek: and it never worked, sitting at the back of press somewhere.

What other countries did with more successful implementations of DAB was allow independents on the platform for free. You see here RTE claim they pay to be on the service, but its license payers money when you think about it. Not earned money.
Its the same with the Digital television platform. RTE are the only ones in HD on Saorview because they charge a huge premium for HD which of course they claim they pay for.
But its also license payers money which the independents don't get.

RTE Cutbacks The Plan

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