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90 thoughts on “Rope A Dope

    1. Mysterymeat

      Well apart from it showing poor overall managament, it also makes it likely that the final price paid would be higher for the winning bidder. And since it’s all public money, that’s not appropriate.

          1. rotide

            C is pointing out that RTE dropped out to avoid the very situation that mysterymeat described.

            Inane moronic comments deserve curt replies.

          2. Mysterymeat

            Thanks C. I’m sorry that I missed the nuance of what’s going on here. I assume now that it’s more particularly related to coverage of sports without balls rather than simply poor management from our PSBs. Nonetheless I’d like to think that my comment was neither inane nor moronic.

      1. Soundings

        So, take “War of the Worlds”, the Spielberg version which was about the only watchable thing on domestic TV last night. It was shown on TG4, which does tend to show decent movies (those with 80% positive ratings on Rotten Tomatoes). TG4 competes with RTE for movie rights. So, how much of a premium was paid by TG4 to Columbia or whoever owns the international TV rights, in excess of what would have been paid if RTE was the only show in town? Ditto with any acquired programme (which is the majority of TG4’s output).

        The sports rights for Katie Taylor’s fight are the tip of the iceberg. TG4 should be absorbed into RTE, so you have RTE1, RTE2 and RTEg, and there is overall management of acquisitions to avoid such expensive competition.

        1. rotide

          TG4 should be left exactly as they are. They are doing great work and the last thing they need is more oversight from RTE.

  1. thefatlad

    It’s not really stupid other than the fact that the national broadcaster has once again dropped the ball on this.

    1. rotide

      how exactly have they dropped the ball?

      People will get to see the fights on terristrial TV and the taxpayer doesnt pay anymore.

  2. delacaravanio

    TG4 has been showing most of the boxing on Irish TV over the last few years. It’s a niche its worked out for the channel’s sport department similar to its focus on rugby. Therefore it’s likely that TG4 was bidding on this anyway, with RTE showing up to the party late, on the back of Taylor’s success.

  3. medieval knievel

    if TG4 were more supportive of women’s boxing than RTE, they would have been right to be annoyed at RTE trying to eat into that niche – so it may have been RTE who decided to compete with TG4, rather than the converse.

  4. Parky Mark

    TG4 have a history of broadcasting the good stuff before RTE catch on to it. Why should they sit back and let RTE take over when they don’t have the proper management to spot these things when they should.

  5. Parky Mark

    In her own words:
    “I don’t know what I have to do to get the coverage. They seem to always be consumed by rugby and GAA but boxing is our most successful sport and you have to start giving the coverage to the boxers as well. The lack of coverage over the years is disrespectful.
    Last year when the lads [Paddy Barnes etc] World Championships and European Championships were on they did film the semi-finals of the fights but when mine came along they were nowhere to be seen.
    They always jump on the bandwagon when the Olympics come around every four years but that’s not good enough, we should be getting support from our national broadcaster. What more do I have to do to get that coverage?”

    1. ZeligIsJaded

      Whether it’s successful or not is surely irrelevant.

      Public interest should dictate whether or not it’s picked up.

  6. Welly

    She’s a professional boxer who has stayed in the amateur divisions. Would be like Robbie Keane joining a Leinster Senior League team and complaining that RTE never show his games.

      1. Welly

        So she has gone pro?? How many other amateur sports, apart from our national game, does RTE show?? She’s professional in every aspect of her career except the level she fights. Big fish in a small pond.

        1. ReproBertie

          You still don’t know what you’re talking about because in this case the professional game is the small pond.

          1. ReproBertie

            Really? Women’s professional boxing generates more interest than women’s amateur boxing? I call bullsht on that.

            Ask the next 5 people you see to name two female boxers and see how many name a professional.

          2. ZeligIsJaded

            Professional Boxing generates more interest than amateur boxing. Yes

            The glitz, the glammer, Vegas, million dollar advertising campaigns. That kind of thing.

            Interest

          3. Mikeyfex

            Nicoler Adams, Kay-ee Taylor and the (possibly justifiably) cranky Russian one. Et voila.

            Nicoler Adams went pro didn’t she?

          4. ReproBertie

            Well then Zelig I suggest you go back to the start of this conversation and see that we’re not talking about amateur V professional “in general” but very specifically about Katie Taylor’s right to be irritated by RTÉ’s bandwagon treatment of her sport and Welly’s Christmas sherry-driven ravings about how she shouldn’t complain because she’s only competeing at an amateur level.

          5. ZeligIsJaded

            “They seem to always be consumed by rugby and GAA but boxing is our most successful sport and you have to start giving the coverage to the boxers as well. The lack of coverage over the years is disrespectful.” K. Taylor. 2014

            Rightee so

          6. ReproBertie

            Boxing is our most successful Olympic sport.

            Ireland currently has a world champion in both professional and amateur boxing. In what other sport do we have a reigning world champion? I’ll tell you. The 50K race walk.

          7. ZeligIsJaded

            It may well be. But that doesn’t make people want to watch it. No more than they want to watch walking.

          8. ReproBertie

            The point being that RTÉ are happy to jump on board the bandwagon when she’s in the Olympics and show her off on chat shows when she comes home with a medal but have little or no interest in actually supporting the sport.

            Nobody is asking for a weekly boxing show but once every two years she has a major competition and it wouldn’t kill RTÉ to let people see her compete because for that there is an audience. TG4 already has the Irish amateur side well covered so there’s no need for RTÉ to get involved (thankfully) but I don’t believe TG4 have the resources to cover the world or European championships the way RTÉ do.

          9. bob

            Can’t believe the amount of coverage they give the amateur Olympics in general. It’s total BS. I for one will only have respect for Usain Bolt when he turns professional and competes with the big boys!

    1. Medium Sized C

      Sometimes I watch Nationwide and feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
      It helps me to feel something.

      Why don’t you want me to feel?

  7. Spaghetti Hoop

    Christ. Just tweets, cats and Harbo this week?
    No mention of the tragedy in Glasgow. We had something so similar in 2004.

    1. Tony

      We’re you looking for pictures or somber editorial? Both widely available everywhere. BS is not the place you want

        1. Mani

          To be fair ‘we’ didn’t have any tragedy in Glasgow. Being Irish and all. Unless your one of those what likes to appropriate others misery as your own in a bizarre munchausens by proxy in order to get attention?

          1. Caroline

            No but ‘we’ had the Wellington Quay bus crash, which was sort of similar I suppose.

            Terribly tragic and all but I personally have no interest in poring over the details of some horrific crash. I’d rather see a few more cornered bichon frises with all those brown gick stains they get around their eyes and a bit of tinsel shoved up their nose.

          2. Spaghetti Hoop

            I thought the bus rising onto the pavement and killing half a dozen people was a tad similar.
            No, I don’t look for attention.

          3. Spaghetti Hoop

            Caroline, you and your bichon frises and your brown skid marks are welcome – long may you dwell together.

          4. Caroline

            Thanks. I don’t own any dogs mainly because of their over-generous secretions, as I alluded to above. I’m also just not that into crashes or disasters, it’s a personal preference.

        2. rotide

          In fairness, there’s a whole lot of approriating others misogyny, homophobia and other pet causes around here.

          Having said that, I wouldn’t expect to see news items here.

  8. HappyDub

    RTE should be privatised, might get some decent tele then, subrcibe to package for €20 per month (replace license), but that will never happen. Wonder why.

  9. Clampers Outside!

    TG4 and RTE operate as separate entities.

    TG4 bids.

    RTE bids.

    TG4 says: “hang on a minute, *taps RTE on the shoulder*, are you really going to bid on that?”

    RTE says: “Oh, I didn’t see you there, no need for both of us to go for it, all yours mo chara, knock ’em dead!”

    TG4 says: “Try that again and I’ll clip yer ear”

    Everyone goes home happy.
    Hopefully Colette understands now.

    1. rotide

      It has actually taken this long in the comments for someone to succesfully point this out.

      *weeps into mulled wine*

  10. ReproBertie

    TG4 have been showing live coverage of the men’s and women’s national boxing championships from the National Stadium for some time now. Just over a fortnight ago they showed the National Intermediate finals. Hopefully they’ll have the national elite finals next month. They’ve also broadcast live professional boxing from Ireland.

    RTÉ have no real interest in boxing unless Katie or one of the men reaches a European or World final or if they have coverage as part of the Olympics.

    Dornálaíocht Beo Abú!

  11. bisted

    …Isn’t Katie Taylor a fluent Irish speaker…probably one our few sports people who could give an interview in Irish.

  12. Advertising On Police Cars

    RTE sports coverage is crap for a National Broadcaster, beyond GAA, rugby and one or two other events ( Galway races for example) , compared to other National Broadcasters BBC or CBC in Canada where more sports are covered…. RTE claim they dont have the budget to cover sports yet they work out half a million for Ray D’Arcy? I would like to see some boxing, gymnastics, motor sport etc for a change….
    TG4 are doing a great job in covering the rugby and I hope they expand coverage to capture other sports as well.

      1. Mani

        I know but if you watch it from behind the stands in your local youth club your a criminal for some reason!
        The worlds a hypocrite.

  13. Formerly known as @ireland.com

    There is a parallel in Australia. The ABC and SBS are both Government owned/funded. They both bid for the 2015 Asian Cup (soccer). ABC is more like RTE, SBS is more like TG4 – the rival bids means that tax payer has paid $700K more for the rights. SBS is the rightful home of soccer in OZ, so it is disappointing that the ABC have got involved.

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/abcsbs-asian-soccer-war-costs-public-extra-700000/story-fn59niix-1227101689576

  14. JimmytheHead

    Even tho Ive worked in TV for many years, it still baffles me how RTE are so terrible. BBC are funded (Like RTE) through TV license payments. They dont even use any advertising, just their own home made shows, including some amazing radio stations. Theyve produced the best comedies, nature documentaries and a whole bunch of other top standard programming – winning awards worldwide.

    We have Fair City, punctuated by an average of 4 mins of adverts at regular intervals.

    Someone please explain this to me :-(

    1. Corvo

      There’s millions more people paying tv licence fees in the UK and they charge more. Mo’ money, mo’ programs.

      1. Artemis

        145 pounds (49 pounds for black & white) U.K.
        160 Euro Ireland.

        Not much in the difference, but far superior service in the U.K.

        Yeah yeah, bigger population.. more money = better service.. but not always.

        1. ReproBertie

          While RTÉ struggle with Fair City (and to be fair also gave us Love/Hate) TG4 produce some excellent documentaries and dramas.

          Off the top of my head I can think of Gulainn le Gulainn – the history of Irish rugby, Seachtar Na Cásca – the seven signatories of the Proclamation, Corp + Anam, An Bronntanas (check it out as feature film on Stephen’s Day), Rasaí na Gaillimhe and Marú which tells the stories of Irish murders.

    2. JimmytheHead

      I agree on the bigger population but Ive lived there and paid the license, twas under 100 pounds sterling, TV license here is currently 160 euro… not much difference really! I guess if you take into account Wales and Scotland too its a much bigger population, although how much does RTE collect in advertising revenue? I would bet its a hell of alot more than the TV license fees

          1. Artemis

            In fairness this will probably be on RTE over the festive season, along with a few old Bond movies and the Wizard of Oz.

        1. JimmytheHead

          So by your logic we should have 18% of the budget BBC has (going on current population stats), on top of that add in the huge revenue generated from advertising (i’d hazard a guess at about 50 million per year at the very least) on top of the 25+ million the BAI pump into RTE productions annually… yet we still have absolute pants on tv?

          You must not be very good at common sense to see theres a problem here.

    3. cluster

      BBCs coverage of sports and current affairs is pretty shoddy given their budget (higher licence fee, many millions more people) although I agree that they make some excellent documentaries.

      RTE is also scared stiff ’cause they get absolutely hammered for the slightest misstep. You can’t make good programming if you aren’t allowed f*** up sometimes along the way. Even this thread is an example. RTE makes a smart decision and most of the comments here are criticizing them

    4. rotide

      What exactly do you do in TV?

      If you have worked in TV for many years, you should know that the single overriding factor when it comes to making any form of content is money. Money allows time, money allows for creative talent. There are always execptions but they tend to be on the smaller scale of things. Pretending otherwise means that you are either intentionally lying or just trolling.

      TG4 is a great example. They are a very good TV station, especially when you take their budget into consideration but they are on the smaller end of the TV station scale and are unencumbered by the public interest aspect that RTE are.

      1. Artemis

        Don’t forget talent.

        (Please don’t reply.. you have this draining effect. think superman with kryptonite around his neck.)

      2. JimmytheHead

        None of your business rotide. All you ever do is try and poke holes in other people comments. Acting like youre perfect and every decision you make is the right one. Typical keyboard warrior, try making some friends yea? Pathetic

  15. Artemis

    Maybe boxing is too rough for the Montrose posse.
    Granted, it’s basically pounding the head off your opponent, while prancing around till there’s a ding, ding, ding, but still.. there’s probably a market there for it.

    There wasn’t much on about Andy Lee either was there?

    1. ReproBertie

      Have you ever actually watched a boxing match or did you just have it described to you by someone who once heard one on a TV in the next room?

      Andy Lee was interviewed on the news on more than one occasion since his victory.

      1. andyourpointiswhatexactly

        Ah yeah. RTE had a nice interview with him after he’d arrived home to Limerick. He was HYPER. Seems like a very nice guy. Handsome, too.

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