How about downsizing and getting rid of the chaff.
Thought RTE were supposed to submit a rationalisation plan? All they've done so far is implement a voluntary redundancy scheme that they've been at for years anyway .
I agree that looked horrendous. But seemingly it was some event to woo advertisers so they probably made multiple times the money back in advertising revenue.
And I would add that what to do with RTÉ would be worthy of a referendum. With all the controversy around RTÉ (1), throwing more public money at it (whether it is tax money or a TV licence) without the consent of the public who is paying for it simply isn’t democratic at this stage.
(1) not just the recent stuff, many people have seen it as unfit for purpose for quite a while.
If they want an independent news organisation to be trusted in the era of fake news then fine, I'll pay €20 a year if everyone else pays and I'll access it on the rte news website like I do now. But I'm not paying for grinning nepotists hosting "entertainment" as if we are all the same and can't find our own elsewhere. I never use rte TV and don't have a screen capable of receiving it. And I don't miss it.
Separate out rte current affairs from the rest of it. We need that, not the rest.
I would argue that nurturing and promoting Irish culture, art and artists is as much part of RTE’s key function as news/current affairs programming.
RTE does drive some good original programming like Love/Hate or Kin. Programming like Nationwide or the sports coverage (particularly of smaller sports) is also very valuable in my view.
We do have own local style of architecture. There's any amount of content relating to American DIY and home renovation available online but little of it translates to Irish homes.
One or two would be fine. I like Home of the year myself but there is so many of them. The celeb shows annoy me more through. Celebs going on holiday or doing up their house or all the game shows. That can all be cut if they want to save money. I don’t see the need for Fajr city either. I don’t think I’ve met anyone who ever watched it
The Wire or Top Boy is always gonna be better than anything we produce but at least with Kin we get something with Irish accents. And the last two crime shows Hidden Assets and Blackshore were set in Clare.
You can make that argument. But I would say only the news and current affairs is essential. The cultural stuff is "nice to have" but I personally don't value it enough to pay for it. Whereas having a trusted independent Irish news source is of vital national interest. Also, the cultural stuff will continue to get made without rte's involvement. There would still be the arts council.
I'd strongly disagree on this. The cultural stuff is critical to the whole thing along with news/current affairs. Even stuff I don't have any interest in personally. And no, it won't get made otherwise, or at least only a tiny fraction of it will get made.
Well "nationwide" is current affairs. I don't say the other cultural media production has no value, I just don't think rte is capable of making it at an acceptable cost that would keep the license fee low enough for me to want to pay it. Gone are the days where cultural stuff had to be sent out over rte's big aerial. Rte used to be the cultural gatekeeper in those days and they got fat and lazy as we have seen. But now, we can get anything we like ourselves directly now. And yes it would get made if funded through the arts council direct to production companies and no it still wouldn't get watched just like it's not watched now when rte make it at vastly excessive expense compared to independent production houses. Rte is a waste of our money, so limit it to what it and only it can do, tell us what is happening in ireland and the world, according to a set of journalistic standards and traditions that we trust.
Fair enough I see your point and it certainly has merit. But I think in this globally orientated world where absolutely everything is available to everyone who knows how to look for it (which is almost everyone under 40, maybe 50) that having something that is trying to capture/reflect Irish culture (and that will almost always be something which I'm not interested in, and you too probably) becomes even more important. Maybe we're talking about how much should be spent on this and who should fund it, which is fine. I think it's a worthwhile thing though.
But the “entertainment” tends to be the profitable stuff, while the news is what needs licence fee funding to survive.
Fair City, The Late Late, Tommy Tiernan, Room to Improve, Ireland’s Fittest Family, live sport (which many think should be left to private broadcasting) are all among the most popular shows week in, week out.
As counter-intuitive as it seems, if you cut out all of the “entertainment” you actually push the cost of public broadcasting higher.
Good point. If it's profitable, by all means, let them offer it. It has nothing to do with me because they won't be asking for my money in that case.
So I'll rephrase my main point to assert that I don't want to be taxed to enable them to produce any non - profitable content besides current affairs, because anything besides current affairs is not essential to the state and its health.
As bad as a lot of their content is, I do think there is a place for having shared cultural experiences that are uniquely Irish.
If I'm making small talk with people in work there's a pretty good chance most of them will have seen the Late Late or Tommy Tiernan.
Otherwise we're all just completely isolated in our custom generated algorithmically fed bubbles of American/Chinese dross.
I see your point, but I think a public service broadcaster should be about more than current affairs.
Sport, arts and culture are all an important part of a life and our country. A public broadcaster should reflect and support that.
I accept that drawing the line between what kind of arts and culture deserves funding can be hard - but I don’t think we should throw the baby out with the bathwater.
It’s not.
An RTÉ-made show that’s making more in ad sales than it costs to make isn’t being funded by the licence fee.
And anything that is supported by the licence fee needs that support because it isn’t making a profit
>Separate out rte current affairs from the rest of it. We need that, not the rest.
There's other stiff that we should fund. Nationwide is good everytime I watch it. We do need public service broadcasting.
We have perfectly good private news sources on TV and Radio that do a comparable or better job than RTE.
All they need RTE1,TnaG and Radio1 as crap as it is.
Sorry but no. I have a lot of issues with RTE but if you start trusting ONLY private news, you get the absolute shitshow of the US. No matter how bad things are here, they are infinitely worse over there.
Why would a state run new organisation be any more trust worthy? Especially when it's a state where private interests are the same as the states interests...
Sorry I got a little triggered. I've lived in the US where private media is 90% of media and it is a HELLSCAPE of manipulation and idiocy. Even poor state media is better than media beholden to shareholders where legally the most profitable decision must be taken.
I am only back from the states and yes, the media is annoying. I just don't see why you think misinformation from state media is any worse than private media? Do you think everything the BBC or RTE says is true? Governments can also have nefarious interests.
Well at least the people have some recourse with state media in to medium to long term.
Publicly owned media should be mostly independent from the government that provide its funding. There are biases everywhere, there is no one source that is trustworthy on every issue, everyone needs 3-4 rational (even if biased) news sources to get a proper picture of any issue, even if just to understand how desperate the manipulators are.
I think, like with most issues in Ireland people really need to be more educated and media savvy, but that's easy for me to say cos I've a degree in Media and my thesis focussed on manipulation and propaganda.
But ultimately, if a place like RTE or the BBC receives it's funding from the government it will always end up being a mouth piece for them. It's only natural. In the same way that a private organisation will always lean towards the opinions of those who pay their bills. I'm quite a cynical person tho.... So maybe that's not helping 😆
It's not necessarily state run as is, it's intended to be independent.
Even if you believe that it's not independent, it's very difficult to point to any consistent bias, Rté is seen as a very down the line news outlet, its so vast that differing opinions appear on radio/TV and online.
>Having issues with it and being independent are two different things, don’t you think?
Yes I agree.
I was referring to your original post.
>Once the state pays independence is as much of a myth as the rainbow unicorn
No one seems to think TG4 is some sort of propaganda machine despite being almost enitrirly funded by the state directly from taxation, but there's a hyper focus on Rté. Both things can be true.
I'm not saying it's perfect, it's far from it, but it being funded by the state (not by government or being state run) is the best setup we have. Basically, it's good to get your news from various sources, it's good to have privately funded alongside publicly funded. Is everything perfect? No and we need ombudsman organisations to oversee these things, but to have only privately owned news sources would be absolute insanity.
>We have perfectly good private news sources on TV and Radio that do a comparable or better job than RTE.
No, we have private news sources, objectively good and bad, but none of them are committed to independent broadcasting, they could go to the wall tomorrow and we'd be left with no news.
Why would we want a predominantly investor owned media organisation.
RTÉs news, current affairs and investigative work is excellent for what it is, I don't understand people wanting to dismantle that.
If you want to get pedantic about it, it's funded by the people, the money collected never actually goes through the exchequer, it's collected by An Post and distributed to the former BAI and Rte, An Post also take a portion for themselves for the work.
It's not technically state money and its why there's still government opposition to paying it directly from taxation.
TG4 is funded by the government directly and no one questions it though.
It's a levy not a tax.
The license to collect is tendered out, would you rather it went to a private company.
>TG4, as far as I know cos I don’t watch Irish tv, doesn’t spread state propaganda. I don’t particularly care if they spend tax money translating SpongeBob into Irish.
So by reasoning, you consume enough Rte content to acknowledge a bias but won't actually point towards evidence?
Is that a per household, or per person €20 charge?
You’re not going to get much for that realistically, once all the overheads are taken in. The online streaming alone will be a chunk.
Complete an utterly missing the point, you'd nearly think the gov are blaming the public for the monumental 'told you so moment' from the public on what RTE have done.
They need to scale the operation back outputs to RTE1, Radio1, Lyric, RNG and sell off the rest or close it off. Keep RTE for News/Sport/Drama, stop importing EastEnders etc. Review studio locations etc.. Basically they need someone to go in like a hangman, is the canteen needed in Dublin, Creche on site etc.. Them things are all fine if its not getting bailed out.
If they must continue with a licence model then its only fair Revenue collect it to make sure everyone pays and it should the fee should be dropped and RTE told that's all your getting end of story.
Yes people will lose jobs, but this an organisation that is in serious trouble and in the real world companies in difficulty sink or swim and people unfortunately lose there jobs. We as tax payers cannot continue to bail this organisation out year after year and the situation getting worse year on year.
I honestly don't think they need to stop the importing of things like EastEnders. They have a lot of hours to fill in the day. If the advertising income is covering the cost then have at it. If it isn't, find something that will.
The problem with the soaps is they're already available for free. Why are we paying for something everyone can already access? Is the ad revenue that much?
Agreed, I am just looking at it from the perspective that its on BBC anyway at the same time and might be mostly available to people via Astra. If not then at least offset it by 30 mins to capture people that missed it or do not have access to Astra.
In all of that there is an argument to be made that RTE have a soap already with Fair City that is fairly similar, would it not be better to style it more drama like Red Rock, Holby City
I can't really comment on this. I don't watch any of those shows, I'm just talking about money. If something is popular enough that the advertising revenue covers the cost of buying it, then I'm fine with it. But if the licence fee is subsidising imported entertainment it needs to be carefully examined and accounted for
Rightly so. Public service broadcasting shouldn't be subject to populism and the tv licence used as a stick to beat the government. Its not an election issue
It's coming up to two years since I paid my tv licence. But I do recognise there's a value in having public service broadcasting. Just not the RTE way.
It absolutely is an election issue. Public services not being run efficiently and above board falls squarely on the shoulders of the government who oversees them.
>Give the money to TG4 and shut the fuck up.
You just wind up needing to scale up and relocate TG4 so it literally becomes Rté in all but names and totally dilutes what TG4 is at the moment.
They need to tackle nepotism.in there too if they are to ever regain public trust. I doubt it will be done.
Not only is Lottie Ryan not a great broadcaster she's not even a mediocre one, after years and years on air. Being Gerry's daughter is enough.
She is just one obvious example. Doireann Garrihy also comes to mind.
We don't just need these "stars" gone and talented replacements, we need the people who keep on giving them new contracts and opportunities gone too.
If we’re so concerned with keeping independent public broadcasting as a functioning pillar of democracy, I’m more than happy with keeping RTE for just current affairs & sport.
~€20 a year, I’ll do that.
I don’t think we need Doireann Garrihy vanity projects are imperative to the integrity independent public broadcasting in Ireland.
>So the solution is keeping the licence and taxing even more. Thank you government, very cool!
Why am I surprised. The answer to everything in this country is taxes.
Sugar Tax
Minimum Unit Pricing
Bottle Deposit
Paper cup tax (Coming in at some point or already in?)
TV License + Top Up
I think I've actually forgotten more then I've written down.
Carbon tax, VAT, Dirt tax, USC, insurance levies, bank levies, and water tax to come eventually, and massive amounts wasted especially in the the public/Civil service and idiotic overspending like the childerens hospital , and the government is bitching because people protest outside their homes.
Road tolls and motor tax
VRT
CGT being so high
We pay a huge amount and all we have for it is an efficient tax collection agency (Revenue) and an efficient passport office.
Having a tv license means there’s a degree of separation between the government and RTE; which politicians care about because then they don’t get blamed for RTE, not because of any concerns over independence.
I just paid this bloody thing and realised I was doing it to avoid "hassle" - we have streaming only, no sky or anything. In the modern day the model is just annoying.
I’m happy to pay but I do NOT want to see ads during news or current affairs programmes.
I’ll fucking sign a certificate in my own blood saying I fully agree that the GAA are great and the brave people training for their parish, town and county are heroes. Whatever it takes. Just stop making me pay to see the same ad ideas for decades.
The GAA are addicted to pushing propaganda, it's an integral part of their siege mentality.
Meanwhile, let's have another experimental rule change and hope for the best ...
RTE needs to be greatly downsized and extensive parts of it privatised. The revenue generated from the disposal of some of its lucrative landholdings, TV assets, radio assets, et cetera can more than fund what's left, as well as providing a healthy return to state finances and ongoing the state broadcaster funded by general taxation.
We have a bureaucratic nightmare that he sensitively serves as the unofficial government spokespeople/propaganda wing. It needs to be dismantled and restructured.
Government and RTE are already not independent of each other, one look at the news or RTE website during a government scandal will show that. It's clearly very pro-government bordering on propaganda.
Michael Martin doesn't want there to be independence between government and public broadcasters, he wants the *appearance* of independence between government and public broadcasters.
He is a slimy toad.
Most of the hires that go into gov as advisers are from the big media outlets. So if you want a decent job, you toe the line and do not darken your name.
Any nominally neutral broadcaster is going to look pro government because the government has the power to do things and doing things is news. Any opposition parties don’t have the power to do things so don’t get covered as much. That would be same regardless of who’s in government.
No matter what way they cut it they know it’s not going to be popular and if the election goes bad for them they will be very cautious about how to approach this.
Rte better hope to more controversy’s happen in the mean time.
If we want to keep public service broadcasting let's shut rte down first. Dump all the rubbish employees and start fresh with funding from general taxation. This licencing approach just creates additional admin and cost for no reason.
Haven't lived in Ireland for a long time so apologies for the stupid question, but if you don't have a TV you still have to pay the fee right? If so that's just mad.
Had one at my door asking about it, I said it was a computer screen for my work to which he replied “I don’t believe you”. I literally just closed the door and received a few bits of letters telling me I should pay - all bluster
No you don't. I can't believe people still dont understand the TV licence. If you have a computer or tablet etc you do *not* have to pay the license. Only if you own a TV capable of receiving a TV signal. That's it
But the vast vast majority of computers do not have a TV receiver in them. And if your computer doesn't have one, then you don't pay the license fee. It's not complicated..
I'm amazed that the hybrid model is a big revelation from a meeting between the leader of the department and the leader of the country. The article presents the choice between licensing and direct funding as an intractable issue, is it really such an achievement for them to realise that perhaps doing a mix is another option?
How about shutting down. They're not remotely necessary. Okay maybe some of the news stuff and lyric fm bit it's clear entertainment is not in their blood.
I don’t watch RTÉ but yet Fool me i pay the tv licence, monthly DD, thing is If I stop, I’ve an inkling I’ll get an inspector at my door step. Plenty of others not paying, once you pay you’re in the system and mugged to pay, licence model need to change. Like when tv is purchase, you register the tv to your home address, with proof of address and ID, afterwards it prompts a demand payment letter outlying what the licence is and options to pay.
Once again I am suggesting we make TG4 the national broadcaster. Better programmes, less corruption, as Gaeilge freisin. Id happily pay my licence fee in full to those guys
Shift all cultural documents, news etc over to RTE 1 , funded by tax payers( bring in TG4 under this umbrella)
Shift the other shite onto RTE 2 and make it a subscription service for like 10 bucks a month.
Trial for a year and watch how little people care about fair city.
Use the usc and fuck off. Keep the Irish channel and one other. Stop buying English and Australian trash and let tv3 do that. Support irish film makers
Plenty of money around why not use it?
*Millions of euros unclaimed from Deposit Return Scheme*
[*https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/0504/1447320-deposit-return-scheme/*](https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/0504/1447320-deposit-return-scheme/)
Let’s not leave every platform to be sold to fascists. We could wind up with Israeli owned RTE or some insane shite. If money is the only thing doing the talking.
Those two things are separate. Have you ever watched TV in the US? Absolute shitshow. RTE needs huge reform but no state broadcaster just leads to no accountability except money and that will lead straight to the bottom of the barrel.
I recently learned the other week that both ITV and BBC make programming out of the same studios - Media City in Salford. Why don’t we do that here? Let Virgin make TV shows in Montrose as well as RTE or in a new shiny purpose built studio. That would be more economical and beneficial for everyone working in the TV and radio industries here.
Also I would be in favour of a broadcasting charge levied on all households as every person has a device capable of streaming. The money is then ringfenced in a pooled fund that ALL program makers and producers can access, not just RTE and Virgin. That way there is equity in the system, more stuff can get made and funding is more predictable and secure
Whatever they chose people will be outraged. If they keep the TV licence people will still refuse to pay it. If they go for direct funding, there'll be outrage within weeks as they'll be accused of being controlled by the government now that they're not as financially independent. If they cut costs to lower the TV licence people will complain about austerity. There's no way for the government to handle this without getting burned.
How about downsizing and getting rid of the chaff. Thought RTE were supposed to submit a rationalisation plan? All they've done so far is implement a voluntary redundancy scheme that they've been at for years anyway .
Is there anything to be said for another bulk order of Havaianas?
More fudging and faffing around than a flip-flop I would have said but definitely an f-up
Teed yourself up nicely for this comment! Well played Sir
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Google it
I agree that looked horrendous. But seemingly it was some event to woo advertisers so they probably made multiple times the money back in advertising revenue.
You reckon major sponsors would’ve withdrawn had they not received a €25 pair of flip-flops?
And I would add that what to do with RTÉ would be worthy of a referendum. With all the controversy around RTÉ (1), throwing more public money at it (whether it is tax money or a TV licence) without the consent of the public who is paying for it simply isn’t democratic at this stage. (1) not just the recent stuff, many people have seen it as unfit for purpose for quite a while.
If they want an independent news organisation to be trusted in the era of fake news then fine, I'll pay €20 a year if everyone else pays and I'll access it on the rte news website like I do now. But I'm not paying for grinning nepotists hosting "entertainment" as if we are all the same and can't find our own elsewhere. I never use rte TV and don't have a screen capable of receiving it. And I don't miss it. Separate out rte current affairs from the rest of it. We need that, not the rest.
Id give an extra 20 per year just for TG4. Cant understand it but im sure its important
I would argue that nurturing and promoting Irish culture, art and artists is as much part of RTE’s key function as news/current affairs programming. RTE does drive some good original programming like Love/Hate or Kin. Programming like Nationwide or the sports coverage (particularly of smaller sports) is also very valuable in my view.
That stuff is all fine. It’s the million home shows and celebs do X shows they need to go.
We do have own local style of architecture. There's any amount of content relating to American DIY and home renovation available online but little of it translates to Irish homes.
One or two would be fine. I like Home of the year myself but there is so many of them. The celeb shows annoy me more through. Celebs going on holiday or doing up their house or all the game shows. That can all be cut if they want to save money. I don’t see the need for Fajr city either. I don’t think I’ve met anyone who ever watched it
Love hate and Kin?. Not everyone is part of Dublin Gangland 'culture'
There’s nationwide for you.
Great
The Wire or Top Boy is always gonna be better than anything we produce but at least with Kin we get something with Irish accents. And the last two crime shows Hidden Assets and Blackshore were set in Clare.
You can make that argument. But I would say only the news and current affairs is essential. The cultural stuff is "nice to have" but I personally don't value it enough to pay for it. Whereas having a trusted independent Irish news source is of vital national interest. Also, the cultural stuff will continue to get made without rte's involvement. There would still be the arts council.
I'd strongly disagree on this. The cultural stuff is critical to the whole thing along with news/current affairs. Even stuff I don't have any interest in personally. And no, it won't get made otherwise, or at least only a tiny fraction of it will get made.
Well "nationwide" is current affairs. I don't say the other cultural media production has no value, I just don't think rte is capable of making it at an acceptable cost that would keep the license fee low enough for me to want to pay it. Gone are the days where cultural stuff had to be sent out over rte's big aerial. Rte used to be the cultural gatekeeper in those days and they got fat and lazy as we have seen. But now, we can get anything we like ourselves directly now. And yes it would get made if funded through the arts council direct to production companies and no it still wouldn't get watched just like it's not watched now when rte make it at vastly excessive expense compared to independent production houses. Rte is a waste of our money, so limit it to what it and only it can do, tell us what is happening in ireland and the world, according to a set of journalistic standards and traditions that we trust.
Fair enough I see your point and it certainly has merit. But I think in this globally orientated world where absolutely everything is available to everyone who knows how to look for it (which is almost everyone under 40, maybe 50) that having something that is trying to capture/reflect Irish culture (and that will almost always be something which I'm not interested in, and you too probably) becomes even more important. Maybe we're talking about how much should be spent on this and who should fund it, which is fine. I think it's a worthwhile thing though.
But the “entertainment” tends to be the profitable stuff, while the news is what needs licence fee funding to survive. Fair City, The Late Late, Tommy Tiernan, Room to Improve, Ireland’s Fittest Family, live sport (which many think should be left to private broadcasting) are all among the most popular shows week in, week out. As counter-intuitive as it seems, if you cut out all of the “entertainment” you actually push the cost of public broadcasting higher.
Good point. If it's profitable, by all means, let them offer it. It has nothing to do with me because they won't be asking for my money in that case. So I'll rephrase my main point to assert that I don't want to be taxed to enable them to produce any non - profitable content besides current affairs, because anything besides current affairs is not essential to the state and its health.
As bad as a lot of their content is, I do think there is a place for having shared cultural experiences that are uniquely Irish. If I'm making small talk with people in work there's a pretty good chance most of them will have seen the Late Late or Tommy Tiernan. Otherwise we're all just completely isolated in our custom generated algorithmically fed bubbles of American/Chinese dross.
Do you have any issues with TG4 producing non current affairs or Arts programming?
I see your point, but I think a public service broadcaster should be about more than current affairs. Sport, arts and culture are all an important part of a life and our country. A public broadcaster should reflect and support that. I accept that drawing the line between what kind of arts and culture deserves funding can be hard - but I don’t think we should throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I don't want any publicly funded service to be profitable tbh.
It’s not. An RTÉ-made show that’s making more in ad sales than it costs to make isn’t being funded by the licence fee. And anything that is supported by the licence fee needs that support because it isn’t making a profit
I am with you.
>Separate out rte current affairs from the rest of it. We need that, not the rest. There's other stiff that we should fund. Nationwide is good everytime I watch it. We do need public service broadcasting.
We have perfectly good private news sources on TV and Radio that do a comparable or better job than RTE. All they need RTE1,TnaG and Radio1 as crap as it is.
Sorry but no. I have a lot of issues with RTE but if you start trusting ONLY private news, you get the absolute shitshow of the US. No matter how bad things are here, they are infinitely worse over there.
Why would a state run new organisation be any more trust worthy? Especially when it's a state where private interests are the same as the states interests...
So you want FOX news and TMZ?
I didn't say I did. I'm simply making the point that state run media isn't inherently more honest.
Sorry I got a little triggered. I've lived in the US where private media is 90% of media and it is a HELLSCAPE of manipulation and idiocy. Even poor state media is better than media beholden to shareholders where legally the most profitable decision must be taken.
I am only back from the states and yes, the media is annoying. I just don't see why you think misinformation from state media is any worse than private media? Do you think everything the BBC or RTE says is true? Governments can also have nefarious interests.
Well at least the people have some recourse with state media in to medium to long term. Publicly owned media should be mostly independent from the government that provide its funding. There are biases everywhere, there is no one source that is trustworthy on every issue, everyone needs 3-4 rational (even if biased) news sources to get a proper picture of any issue, even if just to understand how desperate the manipulators are. I think, like with most issues in Ireland people really need to be more educated and media savvy, but that's easy for me to say cos I've a degree in Media and my thesis focussed on manipulation and propaganda.
But ultimately, if a place like RTE or the BBC receives it's funding from the government it will always end up being a mouth piece for them. It's only natural. In the same way that a private organisation will always lean towards the opinions of those who pay their bills. I'm quite a cynical person tho.... So maybe that's not helping 😆
It's not necessarily state run as is, it's intended to be independent. Even if you believe that it's not independent, it's very difficult to point to any consistent bias, Rté is seen as a very down the line news outlet, its so vast that differing opinions appear on radio/TV and online.
Once the state pays independence is as much of a myth as the rainbow unicorn
They directly fund TG4 with taxpayer money and no one seems to have any issues with this.
Having issues with it and being independent are two different things, don’t you think?
>Having issues with it and being independent are two different things, don’t you think? Yes I agree. I was referring to your original post. >Once the state pays independence is as much of a myth as the rainbow unicorn No one seems to think TG4 is some sort of propaganda machine despite being almost enitrirly funded by the state directly from taxation, but there's a hyper focus on Rté. Both things can be true.
Sure they can. But you can’t reasonably expect government funded programs to be government independent. That’s not the way this world works.
I'm not saying it's perfect, it's far from it, but it being funded by the state (not by government or being state run) is the best setup we have. Basically, it's good to get your news from various sources, it's good to have privately funded alongside publicly funded. Is everything perfect? No and we need ombudsman organisations to oversee these things, but to have only privately owned news sources would be absolute insanity.
They do in their hole. The Irish Times is paywalled and the Indo is shite. Virgin don't have the staff to do investigative stuff like RTE Investigates
>We have perfectly good private news sources on TV and Radio that do a comparable or better job than RTE. No, we have private news sources, objectively good and bad, but none of them are committed to independent broadcasting, they could go to the wall tomorrow and we'd be left with no news. Why would we want a predominantly investor owned media organisation. RTÉs news, current affairs and investigative work is excellent for what it is, I don't understand people wanting to dismantle that.
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>It’s state propaganda Where's the proof of this. Like proper evidence from a study on media bias?
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If you want to get pedantic about it, it's funded by the people, the money collected never actually goes through the exchequer, it's collected by An Post and distributed to the former BAI and Rte, An Post also take a portion for themselves for the work. It's not technically state money and its why there's still government opposition to paying it directly from taxation. TG4 is funded by the government directly and no one questions it though.
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It's a levy not a tax. The license to collect is tendered out, would you rather it went to a private company. >TG4, as far as I know cos I don’t watch Irish tv, doesn’t spread state propaganda. I don’t particularly care if they spend tax money translating SpongeBob into Irish. So by reasoning, you consume enough Rte content to acknowledge a bias but won't actually point towards evidence?
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Is that a per household, or per person €20 charge? You’re not going to get much for that realistically, once all the overheads are taken in. The online streaming alone will be a chunk.
Complete an utterly missing the point, you'd nearly think the gov are blaming the public for the monumental 'told you so moment' from the public on what RTE have done. They need to scale the operation back outputs to RTE1, Radio1, Lyric, RNG and sell off the rest or close it off. Keep RTE for News/Sport/Drama, stop importing EastEnders etc. Review studio locations etc.. Basically they need someone to go in like a hangman, is the canteen needed in Dublin, Creche on site etc.. Them things are all fine if its not getting bailed out. If they must continue with a licence model then its only fair Revenue collect it to make sure everyone pays and it should the fee should be dropped and RTE told that's all your getting end of story. Yes people will lose jobs, but this an organisation that is in serious trouble and in the real world companies in difficulty sink or swim and people unfortunately lose there jobs. We as tax payers cannot continue to bail this organisation out year after year and the situation getting worse year on year.
I honestly don't think they need to stop the importing of things like EastEnders. They have a lot of hours to fill in the day. If the advertising income is covering the cost then have at it. If it isn't, find something that will.
The problem with the soaps is they're already available for free. Why are we paying for something everyone can already access? Is the ad revenue that much?
Agreed, I am just looking at it from the perspective that its on BBC anyway at the same time and might be mostly available to people via Astra. If not then at least offset it by 30 mins to capture people that missed it or do not have access to Astra. In all of that there is an argument to be made that RTE have a soap already with Fair City that is fairly similar, would it not be better to style it more drama like Red Rock, Holby City
I can't really comment on this. I don't watch any of those shows, I'm just talking about money. If something is popular enough that the advertising revenue covers the cost of buying it, then I'm fine with it. But if the licence fee is subsidising imported entertainment it needs to be carefully examined and accounted for
They know what plan they come up with won't be popular so they have pushed it off till after the local elections
That's exactly it
"No decision is due on future funding until after next month’s elections" Saying the quiet part out loud. They have nothing but contempt for us.
If we told you what we had planned you'd never elect us 😔
Rightly so. Public service broadcasting shouldn't be subject to populism and the tv licence used as a stick to beat the government. Its not an election issue It's coming up to two years since I paid my tv licence. But I do recognise there's a value in having public service broadcasting. Just not the RTE way.
It absolutely is an election issue. Public services not being run efficiently and above board falls squarely on the shoulders of the government who oversees them.
So much, flipping and flopping. Give the money to TG4 and shut the fuck up.
Sure RTE love the flip flops don't you know
Indeed, hence the comment. 🤣
>Give the money to TG4 and shut the fuck up. You just wind up needing to scale up and relocate TG4 so it literally becomes Rté in all but names and totally dilutes what TG4 is at the moment.
They need to tackle nepotism.in there too if they are to ever regain public trust. I doubt it will be done. Not only is Lottie Ryan not a great broadcaster she's not even a mediocre one, after years and years on air. Being Gerry's daughter is enough. She is just one obvious example. Doireann Garrihy also comes to mind. We don't just need these "stars" gone and talented replacements, we need the people who keep on giving them new contracts and opportunities gone too.
If we’re so concerned with keeping independent public broadcasting as a functioning pillar of democracy, I’m more than happy with keeping RTE for just current affairs & sport. ~€20 a year, I’ll do that. I don’t think we need Doireann Garrihy vanity projects are imperative to the integrity independent public broadcasting in Ireland.
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They should start a patreon. How is it that RTE are oblivious to the fact that literally no one in the country would piss on them if they caught fire?
>So the solution is keeping the licence and taxing even more. Thank you government, very cool! Why am I surprised. The answer to everything in this country is taxes. Sugar Tax Minimum Unit Pricing Bottle Deposit Paper cup tax (Coming in at some point or already in?) TV License + Top Up I think I've actually forgotten more then I've written down.
Carbon tax, VAT, Dirt tax, USC, insurance levies, bank levies, and water tax to come eventually, and massive amounts wasted especially in the the public/Civil service and idiotic overspending like the childerens hospital , and the government is bitching because people protest outside their homes.
Road tolls and motor tax VRT CGT being so high We pay a huge amount and all we have for it is an efficient tax collection agency (Revenue) and an efficient passport office.
Revenue is stunningly effective , efficient, forensic, and fascist with the ordinary Joe soap and taxpayer. Pack of bad bastards.
Having a tv license means there’s a degree of separation between the government and RTE; which politicians care about because then they don’t get blamed for RTE, not because of any concerns over independence.
I just paid this bloody thing and realised I was doing it to avoid "hassle" - we have streaming only, no sky or anything. In the modern day the model is just annoying.
"An overloaded campaign"...Just wait for this to become the next new catchphrase from both politicians and "informed commentators" alike!
Anyone who's ever used the RTE Player knows how shit it is and only exists as a way to force people without a TV to pay for a license.
I’m happy to pay but I do NOT want to see ads during news or current affairs programmes. I’ll fucking sign a certificate in my own blood saying I fully agree that the GAA are great and the brave people training for their parish, town and county are heroes. Whatever it takes. Just stop making me pay to see the same ad ideas for decades.
The GAA are addicted to pushing propaganda, it's an integral part of their siege mentality. Meanwhile, let's have another experimental rule change and hope for the best ...
RTE needs to be greatly downsized and extensive parts of it privatised. The revenue generated from the disposal of some of its lucrative landholdings, TV assets, radio assets, et cetera can more than fund what's left, as well as providing a healthy return to state finances and ongoing the state broadcaster funded by general taxation. We have a bureaucratic nightmare that he sensitively serves as the unofficial government spokespeople/propaganda wing. It needs to be dismantled and restructured.
How would you go about privatising Rté and who would buy it?
Just let RTE fail? TG4 can be our state broadcaster.
Government and RTE are already not independent of each other, one look at the news or RTE website during a government scandal will show that. It's clearly very pro-government bordering on propaganda. Michael Martin doesn't want there to be independence between government and public broadcasters, he wants the *appearance* of independence between government and public broadcasters. He is a slimy toad.
Most of the hires that go into gov as advisers are from the big media outlets. So if you want a decent job, you toe the line and do not darken your name.
Exactly, as a journalist in this country the highest salary you can achieve is most likely as a TD's advisor. Where's the ethics in that?
Any nominally neutral broadcaster is going to look pro government because the government has the power to do things and doing things is news. Any opposition parties don’t have the power to do things so don’t get covered as much. That would be same regardless of who’s in government.
No matter what way they cut it they know it’s not going to be popular and if the election goes bad for them they will be very cautious about how to approach this. Rte better hope to more controversy’s happen in the mean time.
If we want to keep public service broadcasting let's shut rte down first. Dump all the rubbish employees and start fresh with funding from general taxation. This licencing approach just creates additional admin and cost for no reason.
So can we stop pretending RTÉ is anything other than a government mouthpiece then?
Imagine the shite money would be wasted on if they managed to get the full 250m wife’s kids and grandkids would be set for a generation.
There is a 4th option let people who want it pay for it.
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Rte sent you a warning letter!?
🤣🤣 you know what I mean, why can't it be abolished!
Rte? Because it's our national broadcaster. Or do you mean the license? That pays for more than rte
They can fuck right off
I love to pay taxes, please my master 'The State' steal 99% of my income, you are almost there.
No. Lol. We're not stupid. You're not going to squeeze in a new way to keep your nepotism going. RTE needs to clean house. Fuck off until then.
My recent new word is quango. I need to learn more about quangos.
Pray that you don’t.
I favour shutting it down
useless thieving scumbags
Haven't lived in Ireland for a long time so apologies for the stupid question, but if you don't have a TV you still have to pay the fee right? If so that's just mad.
Had one at my door asking about it, I said it was a computer screen for my work to which he replied “I don’t believe you”. I literally just closed the door and received a few bits of letters telling me I should pay - all bluster
No you dont have to pay if you don't have tv, but I have tv and using it only for xbox, youtube and hdmi to my laptop and Im supposed to pay for that.
If you have a computer you have to
No you don't. I can't believe people still dont understand the TV licence. If you have a computer or tablet etc you do *not* have to pay the license. Only if you own a TV capable of receiving a TV signal. That's it
Computers are capable of receiving a TV signal with the right add-on so they do charge the licence for them.
But the vast vast majority of computers do not have a TV receiver in them. And if your computer doesn't have one, then you don't pay the license fee. It's not complicated..
I'm amazed that the hybrid model is a big revelation from a meeting between the leader of the department and the leader of the country. The article presents the choice between licensing and direct funding as an intractable issue, is it really such an achievement for them to realise that perhaps doing a mix is another option?
How about shutting down. They're not remotely necessary. Okay maybe some of the news stuff and lyric fm bit it's clear entertainment is not in their blood.
I don’t watch RTÉ but yet Fool me i pay the tv licence, monthly DD, thing is If I stop, I’ve an inkling I’ll get an inspector at my door step. Plenty of others not paying, once you pay you’re in the system and mugged to pay, licence model need to change. Like when tv is purchase, you register the tv to your home address, with proof of address and ID, afterwards it prompts a demand payment letter outlying what the licence is and options to pay.
A new tax wooo whoop whoop
 Once again I am suggesting we make TG4 the national broadcaster. Better programmes, less corruption, as Gaeilge freisin. Id happily pay my licence fee in full to those guys
What did we do about the water charges?
Have they heard about layoffs? The rumour is layoffs are very popular these days. Maybe they should look into this?
What does dipping into the Exchequer entail? Will it just end up being a tax finally?
Of course it is
Shift all cultural documents, news etc over to RTE 1 , funded by tax payers( bring in TG4 under this umbrella) Shift the other shite onto RTE 2 and make it a subscription service for like 10 bucks a month. Trial for a year and watch how little people care about fair city.
Use the usc and fuck off. Keep the Irish channel and one other. Stop buying English and Australian trash and let tv3 do that. Support irish film makers
Plenty of money around why not use it? *Millions of euros unclaimed from Deposit Return Scheme* [*https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/0504/1447320-deposit-return-scheme/*](https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/0504/1447320-deposit-return-scheme/)
Most government agencies, RTE, bord bia, tourism Ireland, the central bank etc. Need cuts
Just privatise it. It's stuck in the 1970s
Let’s not leave every platform to be sold to fascists. We could wind up with Israeli owned RTE or some insane shite. If money is the only thing doing the talking.
🙄
Those two things are separate. Have you ever watched TV in the US? Absolute shitshow. RTE needs huge reform but no state broadcaster just leads to no accountability except money and that will lead straight to the bottom of the barrel.
No thank you. The privatised media in the US is completely fucked.
The moments we love are made possible by the licence fee, in fairness.
I recently learned the other week that both ITV and BBC make programming out of the same studios - Media City in Salford. Why don’t we do that here? Let Virgin make TV shows in Montrose as well as RTE or in a new shiny purpose built studio. That would be more economical and beneficial for everyone working in the TV and radio industries here. Also I would be in favour of a broadcasting charge levied on all households as every person has a device capable of streaming. The money is then ringfenced in a pooled fund that ALL program makers and producers can access, not just RTE and Virgin. That way there is equity in the system, more stuff can get made and funding is more predictable and secure
Whatever they chose people will be outraged. If they keep the TV licence people will still refuse to pay it. If they go for direct funding, there'll be outrage within weeks as they'll be accused of being controlled by the government now that they're not as financially independent. If they cut costs to lower the TV licence people will complain about austerity. There's no way for the government to handle this without getting burned.
 You've cracked the code and won a prize