[chinamug]

Has viewership fallen as the licence income has fallen, or are people just not paying yet still watching.  I'm guessing the consequences of not paying aren't that significant.

Viewership seems to be down about 25% year on year across the board. Obviously Sporting events and The Toy Show still bring in huge numbers but the everyday stuff is way down. They were supposed to move sport to RTE 1 but that seems to have been forgotten as without Sport RTE 2's share of the audience would be tiny.

A lot of people that didn't pay the licence fee were chancing their arm (and generally getting away with it) but there would be a large section of Irish society that don't watch RTE at all, there's noting on it of interest to them. If you're not into sports you'd never need it. They keep up to date with Irish news from online sources, Newspapers and Radio. The new licence Dodgers would be different as it's a real annoyance factor at RTE that's stopping them paying.

I think a big problem for RTE is the 35% or so that use Freesat and Saorview. On many TV's there's a separate EPG for Saorview and Sat. They watch something on Satellite and then forget to turn back to the Saorview EPG. There's always a reason in those household to turn over to Freesat, because the picture on Virgin Media is so bad. Not as much of a reason to switch back.

[JMT1985]

I wonder how many Irish use VPN to get access to more British content which otherwise would be blocked to them?

I have been speaking with someone who lives in Dublin, they have superfast 1,000MB broadband, they have Freesat and stream BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, My5 via VPN and never watch RTE content at all - they don't even listen to RTE Radio.

It seems to me the population, especially probably those under the age of 40 are abandoning RTE and doing this method

[Rdd]

Channel 4 (All4) doesn’t actually require a VPN at all, of course, except for live streaming. There are some blocked programmes (England football!) but they represent a minority.

I think it’s probably fewer than you think, I find those using those methods tend to be over represented on the net compared to in real life. Sky and cable (including cable-like IPTV such as eir TV and Vodafone TV) still represent a majority of homes, and a lot of the rest have free to air satellite.

Interestingly enough. Vodafone’s just launched a new version of its IPTV service, with a smaller box with no HDD, cloud recording, and apps. Like eir, they’ve dumped their wholesale deal with Sky in favour of a bundled arrangement for Now TV.

[JMT1985]

I still find it odd that Irish Virgin Media can offer ITV3 and ITV4 on their channel package, but Sky Ireland can not - what happened there? Why can't Sky Ireland offer those channels too?

[CCFG]

I still find it odd that Irish Virgin Media can offer ITV3 and ITV4 on their channel package, but Sky Ireland can not  - what happened there? Why can't Sky Ireland offer those channels too?

Believe it's due to the ITV deal with Virgin Media to provide their programming on the Irish VM (e.g VM1, VM2) channels.

[David]

Channel 4 (All4) doesn’t actually require a VPN at all, of course, except for live streaming. There are some blocked programmes (England football!) but they represent a minority.

I think it’s probably fewer than you think, I find those using those methods tend to be over represented on the net compared to in real life. Sky and cable (including cable-like IPTV such as eir TV and Vodafone TV) still represent a majority of homes, and a lot of the rest have free to air satellite.

Interestingly enough. Vodafone’s just launched a new version of its IPTV service, with a smaller box with no HDD, cloud recording, and apps. Like eir, they’ve dumped their wholesale deal with Sky in favour of a bundled arrangement for Now TV.

Interestingly, they're running billboard ads warning about the use of IPTV in Dublin (or 'Dodgy Boxes' as they've been become to be called). Might be more widespread than you think!

[Rdd]

Believe it's due to the ITV deal with Virgin Media to provide their programming on the Irish VM (e.g VM1, VM2) channels.

Essentially yes. ITV3 and ITV4 were on Sky in Ireland for a short period in the mid-2000s, but there’s some confusion as to whether they were ever meant to be there and it may have been a hangover from Granada Plus and Granada Men and Motors, both of which were available here.

ITV3 and ITV4 were briefly pulled from what was then still UPC for a while in 2010-11. They returned but with significant restrictions on sports content on ITV4. (There would be odd occasions in the 2011-2014 period, where matches from the same tournament were perfectly fine to show if they were on UTV but blocked if on ITV4). I think these restrictions aren’t quite as prominent now as they once were.

ITV2 was also available on UPC/VM for a period in the 2010s but was never on Sky. It was removed when VM realised that VM Two effectively showed virtually all its high profile programmes and I recall the excuse given was basically to save space rather than any rights issue.

[JMT1985]

Things are looking worse for RTE according to his article - on the brink of running out of money within the next six months

extra.ie .

Six Months To Save RTÉ As Bakhurst Issues Dire Warning
RTÉ can only survive for a few more months without a bailout from the Government…
  Source: extra.ie

[JMT1985]

I just went to check the RTE Player, to take a quick look at The Late Late Show, and I noticed the adverts are now unblocked to international audience - is this new? As a few weeks ago, adverts were always blocked, and a programming will resume soon sort of statement played on screen.

Is this RTE trying to get more money from their adverts, by having them play internationally - I live in the UK and this is the first time I have seen unblocked adverts on the RTE Player.

---

Just saw a nice little dig Patrick made at RTE - Brendan O'Carroll is on as a guest, and Patrick asked him how he was celebrating ten years touring the live show, and Brendan said he was just lodging money into the bank - Patrick responded by saying that doesn't happen now at RTE - the audience erupted in huge laughter

[Rdd]

They’ve released the name of one of the guests for tomorrow night’s Late Late, in contrast to how they’ve done the first few weeks, which is a pity if they’re going back to that (although I’m sure the social media team were probably demanding it!)