BHG has a formula, RTE does something, he writes about it (coz he cares) add in a BTW RTE could be FTA and finish with a point of politics.
I am now on to my 5th plea for RTE to be FREE. to see how we could redirect massive funds from the shareholders of BskyB to hospital beds in ireland read plea 2 here … For plea 4 not posted to this blog but to eirepreneur’s, read it here
“Dont press red – SEE RED – change the system from within, I have €153 riding on it every year” … and to see how sky viewers are triple “taxed” to see RTE read on here
SO I can blow hot and cold about RTE, so why defend a broadcaster that pays 3 euro for every listener a top broadcaster can attract? this is a major gripe among the listening public, the talent are paid too much, the RTE stations chase numbers too much, and the overall quality is down. But the conclusion many people make is that PK JD & MF are paid too much so they will sponge on the licence!. Perhaps if these people put a little effort into changing the system that feels it can spend the licence fee that way they could stop these gross payments and get back more control for the audience at the same time.
On Sky, they have 427,000 subs in ireland, 10-20% of these are multi room & Sky+, our state broadcaster & government are giving a foreign company it can’t[1] tax or regulate a leg up by
1. having no local DTT alternative
2. allowing RTE to be encrypted on Sky where a Public Service Broadcasting FTA pack of bbc itv and four is growing
3. regulating advertising for Irish broadcasters that has no bearing on services beamed in to Ireland give the Sky stations a further advantage.
[1] the govt. can tax the mini dish, but this would be hugely unpopular, they can tax the birds in geostationary orbit and see the tax passed on to the channels using the birds, and see the tax passed to Irish subscribers? or they could take the Ryder cup, but after careful consideration Noel Dempsey decided Golf in Ireland was not like soccer in Ireland even thought 25% of the European team is Irish.
But soccer & the Ryder Cup are red herrings, 24x7x3 RTE services on SKY are not FTA, and the Minister in charge is allowing RTE this cozy deal that reflects well on the balance sheet of BskyB shareholder investor relations propaganda. Wake up Minister Dempsey, similar to the gift you gave mobile phone companies when you were minister for the environment, you continue to gift sky, while irish subs to foreign TV services have an ARPU of €570 exceeding 240 million euro per annum. There were 194,000 subscribers to Sky in Ireland in 2002 prior to the addition of the 4 irish channels, this figure is now heading for 450,000. The UK market for sky has only seen modest growth while Ireland has had over 110% growth in 4 years.
when RTE joined Sky Bob Collins, RTÉ Director General, said that “the priority for RTÉ was to maximise choice for viewers”. The audience council says “High quality schedules available to all (i.e. free to air)“.
ask the question to the TDs on the doors, why is RTE not free to see?
I object to paying the license fee in an area which can not receive a reasonable terrestial signal and where satellite is the only alternative and after paying the license and buying all the kit I discover that RTE is not FTA….
Is anyone intrested in taking on a testcase in the court of human rights as this is essentially a tax as I cannot get the service I am paying for!
How can we best pressurise RTÉ to start broadcasting FTA on satellite? I fear that RTÉ are sitting tight and waiting for the long promised funding from the government for an RTÉ overseas channel on Sky.
All a bit rich considering that RTÉ made a great deal of effort to kill off Tara Television before the Sky deal was signed.
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In complete agreement with you and just started a blog along same lines this am.
Would love to hear from you the percentages being thrown about are vague is it 2% of the population spread over 30% of the land mass or 2 % of the land mass ???
The bottom line is that constitutionally there is an argument for an amendment based on the licencing authority legally enforcing a television owner to purchase a licence yet they may not be in receipt of terrestrial Irish broadcasts. If there was a clever solicitor/barrister out there would a group of 100 viewers not in receipt of terrestrial Irish broadcasts through an aerial be entitled to take a class action to amend the wording that entitles RTE to automatic receipt of a fee from each and every member of this group?? This would either throw a spanner in their €200,000,000 fee income per annum or lead to an improvement in their service levels.