Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and RTÉ
The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland recently completed a five-year funding review of RTÉ and TG4.
Further to this, the BAI has released a statement today stating…
“The BAI recommends, at a minimum, that RTÉ should receive an increase in its annual public funding of €30m per annum. Given the urgency of RTÉ’s current funding position, the increased level of public funding recommended should be available to the broadcaster immediately.
“As set out in the report, the BAI believes that there may well be a case for increased funding in excess of €30m per annum and remains open to receiving further detailed proposals from the broadcaster over the period of its 2018-2022 Strategic Plan, aligned with its statutory remit.
“The BAI recommends an increase of €6m per annum in public funding for TG4. It is the view of the BAI that this increase should have full effect from 2018 and onwards over the period of TG4’s strategy.
“The BAI believes that both funding increases are justified, as, in its view, the funding currently available is not sufficient to ensure the broadcaster’s sustainability.”
Broadcasting Authority of Ireland Statement on Five-Year Review of Public Funding (BAI)
Does anyone know what subsidised perks the staff enjoy? I’ve heard they get a subsidised canteen, free childcare on-site. They seem to have free parking. All great, but don’t happen in other companies that are loss-making.
Could an argument be made for downsizing to a smaller site in a more affordable area? I know they’ve sold off a lot of land, but that is a huge site, which I feel they are not making the best use of.
My point is there are probably numerous cost-saving options that could be considered before they look at increasing funding.
The cost-saving of moving to a new site would be complicated by the fact they are a highly specialised company. They can’t just move into an existing office block. They would need a green-field site, and build the various TV/Radio studios + ancillary stuff. Equally, the building on the existing site are useless for other uses and would need to be demolished.
The numbers would need to be run – but moving would not be cheap.
Saying that, if they are considering building new studios in Donnybrook that may make a move more efficient.
Yeah, that all makes sense. That could be the reason they didn’t sell it all in one go in the first place.
They don’t get free childcare. It is subsidised slightly and is cheaper than average but it is by no means free.
Or they could save some money. 500k a year on tubs for 5 hours of radio a week and what, 2 1/2 hours of tv on a Friday? 55k an episode on fair city. How much to run the rte player, which is probably the worst media player I’ve ever tried to use.
I will never pay the tv “license” because I never use rte services. I don’t pay for sky movies because I don’t watch it, just because I’m “capable of receiving the signal” does not mean I should be on the hook for paying for it
Tell that to the judge.
Arent all the licence inspectors ex Gardai and AnPost workers that have been sacked but still on the payroll because of the unions?
ooh. did not know that particular fascinating fact, do tell.
Aren’t you great renting/ living with parents.
so thats why RTE are so poor at what they do , I knew it couldnt be incompetence , Ill bet there is a morale problem that needs to be fixed too …
I will say however , I did my own five-year funding review , and the conclusions I came to was that RTE needs to be privatized, license fees abolished, the ‘market’ will fix RTE, Im sure of it …
What I found strange was FG who naturally want to privatize everything , have no interest in privatizing RTE …. weird ….
Weird, because it’s a propaganda machine.
RTE needs to be privatized
Have you seen TV3 lately?
I havent seen TV3 lately , and for that matter haven’t seen RTE in about 4 years , I still have a TV for the netflix and some work functions , so I have to pay the TV license. I would really rather not, my convictions are so strong Id be happy to pay twice the license fee to charity if I could be exempted from the license … buts thats just me I’m sure ….
I don’t believe you.
RTE pay Nicky Byrne €200K a year.
There’s absolutely no excuse for that.
Yeah!
RTE should just be one News and Documentary channel and two radio stations. Everything else should go. The private sector can do everything Montrose can and can’t.
Put simply, if you can’t swim… learn. If you sink, tough!
Vogue will still have a job so with her fine documentaries…
“The private sector can do everything Montrose can and can’t.”
TV3 /Virgin One would suggest otherwise.
If you don’t understand what public service broadcasting is supposed to do then maybe go read up on it before posting nonsense like that.
+RTE1
+RTE2
…and yet; amid all the dross you fine some gems:
I was cooking (and eating) the bitta dinner yesterday evening (Sun) and was able to enjoy two excellent hours of radio: The History Show, The Book Show and The Poetry Programme.
OK, pretty unimaginative titles eh – but an example of public-service broadcasting at its best.
And possibly some of the cheapest original content they create.
RTE Radio make some really excellent documentaries too
And still Broadsheet promotes RTE programmes for free. What’s the RTE payroll for PR, advertising, marketing, etc?
Thats just to chum the waters in the comment sections. Same way they do it with the leather jacket fellow.
Obviously the report is a waste of time as it hadn’t considered how far from it’s remit RTE has strayed nor did it consider shutting it down.
Give tg4 the 6 m and shut down RTE
Let RTE run the two main channels and go full HD (1920×1080i) shut down RTE News Now, RTE Jr and RTE1+1, get rid of some of the digital radio channels. TG4 should go HD if it is to get €6000000 extra.
You obviously have no kids. RTÉJr is brilliant.
+++
The kid loves rtejr. They collaborate a lot with cbbc in their programming and the quality of kids to these days is very noticeable.
Yep, RTE Jr is excellent.
Could you please explain to the class the savings that shutting down RTE1 +1 would incur Michael?
Why..
Think of what we could get for that €30m though
The Angelus every hour, live bonged by Tubs while RTE2 shows re-runs of Big Bang Theory 24 hours with a real live laugh track filled with the laughs of everyone in the subsidised canteen
Hi everyone, just wanted to drop this
https://www.broadsheet.ie/2018/06/28/station-to-station-2/ from June this year.
Since there are so many newcomers it might be no harm to read up on previous content mentioning RTE and in particular their Strategy, especially since most of the new faces happen to be very critical
V
Thanks Vanilly.
RTE’s 2017 annual report shows that “popular music” station 2FM is losing €7m a year on an underlying (i.e. pre-licence fee) basis. Shutting that down would be a fine start towards addressing funding issues.