[bkman1990]

I would imagine, even without the inevitable outcome of it's incoming punishment from the government, that the morale of people working in RTÉ right now is a very intense and stifling one nowadays. The response of this scandal from the public has been very profound. It has really rocked RTÉ's reputation to it's core. The main topic of the entire conversation among the public who would have paid the licence fee in the past are now thinking that a major change of culture now has to take place at the broadcaster.

However the question of whether the current reputation of RTÉ can be repaired in the future is another one to answer that has to be addressed in future. In one way; the whole manner in how the recruitment process for the new DG by the board of RTÉ has been a big indicator to me in how they wanted to move away from the eye of furthering commercial interests in the future. They hired someone in the form of Kevin Bakhurst who seemingly has the perfect credentials to run the broadcaster within a purely public service capacity.

Dee Forbes was someone who had that commercial background in the past. She was brought in as DG of RTÉ after she worked for Discovery Networks Inc which has now morphed into Warner Brothers Discovery run by David Zaslav.

When David McRedmond applied for the job of DG a few months ago. The RTÉ board didn't want him to take it because he was seen as too commercial for RTÉ's interests. That to me sounds like that RTÉ didn't want to go down the route of having more commercial interests becoming a bigger influence in the future. The RTÉ board had to work within the framework of the Broadcasting Act at the time of writing to ensure that no more talk of commercial interests were incoming for the broadcaster at that point.

If RTÉ had breached that part of the legislation while they were publicly advertising for this job. The government and the new media commission would have been on their backs like a ton of bricks. But the talk of having barter accounts to enhance Ryan Tubridy's pay packet behind their backs has given RTÉ the same or even a bigger level of punishment that has now put them into this mess.

Is it now the time that RTÉ has to become a smaller form of the BBC which has to be run without advertising in the near future? Or is it time to see RTÉ scrapped for good? These are some very important questions that has to be addressed by every Irish person who pays the TV licence to fund RTÉ's output in the here and now.

It really is a huge shame that RTÉ has gone down this road. We do need an Irish PSB that is both accountable to the people and for the people of Ireland as a whole. And it will take a lot of emotional soul searching to get that job done.

[AJB39]

Yes what happened was utterly wrong. Yes there needs to be full disclosure and accountability. Yes the way RTÉ is managed needs a complete overhaul.

However we absolutely need RTÉ and public service broadcasting in general. RTE’s News and current affairs output is consistently excellent including in their coverage of this story. They also produce plenty of other quality PSB programming. This should not be forgotten. I do accept that they do need to rationalise and slim down. Some of the difficult decisions that have been put off will need to be taken now.

But there does also needs to be licence fee reform not necessarily to make people pay more but to make everybody who consumes RTÉ content pay for it. It’s ridiculous that you can access the RTÉ Player without paying for it just because you don’t own a TV. The level of licence fee evasion is also damaging RTÉ and other beneficiaries of this funding. This was true before this scandal and it’s still true now.

The tragedy of this scandal is that this gives a government that never wanted to reform the licence fee the perfect excuse not too. The result will be cuts not only to the stuff RTÉ probably doesn’t need to do but also cuts to plenty of stuff it absolutely should be doing.

[Rdd]

Alas, if anything RTE is likely to have to become more commercial, any hopes of a license fee raise (or “reform”) are now dashed and the amount the license fee is worth to them will continue to dwindle year on year. There have been calls for Sound and Vision, the Media Commission’s license fee sharing scheme, to get a much bigger share of the license fee.

I fear their future isn’t the BBC, but becoming something more like TVNZ, a State-owned but otherwise fully commercial broadcaster, forced to bid for what share of the license fee it does ultimately end up with.

[JMT1985]

You are living in a dream world if you think RTE will be scrapped for good - it has too much heritage to be thrown into the trash can, just like the BBC, many right wingers want it to be closed down too. Not going to happen.

RTE, whether you like it or loathe it, is the national broadcaster of Ireland - in radio it still attracts a large and loyal listeners - yes, the Irish moan about the quality of programming, but if it were to all go off air, there would be massive uproar.

RTE and even the old Radio Eireann has always been a hybrid of funding, as Ireland is too small of a country to have a national broadcaster funded only by public money - so they have some commercials.

I would suggest that RTE television channels should be funded differently - with one channel only funded from commercial means.

RTE 1 - purely funded by the licence fee, and has all the public service obligations of a national broadcaster - news, current affairs, documentaries, big dramas, national occasions, culture programmes, political coverage etc and will carry no adverts or sponsorship

RTE 2 - the commercial channel, aimed at a catch all audience, providing the big entertainment shows, chat shows, sport, quiz shows, movies and all the content aimed at getting the best commercial return - the channel which has all the adverts and sponsorship. The Late Late Show for example would air on here

RTE News Channel - continues as is, the 24 hour news channel of RTE, with increased funding from the licence fee to boost the channel

RTE Jr and TRTE - continues as the kids TV channels of RTE, funded by the licence fee

On radio, I would make RTE Radio 1 commercial free, and like the BBC have no adverts and all funded from the licence fee, with RTE 2FM and Lyric FM the commercially funded stations.

RTE Radio Na Gael should be commercial free (I have no idea if it is now sorry)

In this way, RTE can both be a national broadcaster, publicly funded, but also be commercial, but those are clearly defined. RTE big earners who want the big salaries, must work for RTE 2, where the commercial money is.

Just an idea - I wait for the back lash and arguments that all that I said above is impossible.

[Brekkie]

I think like the This Morning situation a few weeks best nobody panics too much. There clearly is an issue which at best is questionable use of public (or arguably commercial) funds and at worse fraud. Seems to be one of their own making too through their own transparency as from what I gather they choose to public the salaries of top talent rather than being obliged to do so.

If the government is generally favourable to RTE I don't see why that would change, even if something needs to change. I suspect legislation specifically around such commercial payments will become stronger, and wouldn't surprise me if they're happening at RTE a can of worms may be open in terms of similar kickbacks elsewhere.

[bkman1990]

Sorry. I should have clarified that the option to close RTÉ is not really my preference at all. I do want to see RTÉ maintained at all cost for the public good.

The online comments about it's possible closure over recent years that was mooted by right wingers may have been an influence in me writing it as a possible option.

However; I do know that from reading the statement from Media Minister Catherine Martin over the weekend suggests that closing down RTÉ is not a credible option from the eyes of the government. Although reform of RTÉ is very much needed to happen now. And I'm happy with that with form of intervention to become a reality.

[Rdd]

I should clarify I don’t think RTE will be closed down either. What I have described above will happen precisely because absolutely nothing will ultimately be done. Increasing the license fee would be a hugely unpopular move right now. The license fee hasn’t been increased since 2008, and it could be another 15 years before one becomes palatable. And in Ireland, unlike the U.K., the license fee is linked to having an actual physical TV tuner, and you don’t need one to steam video on a device that doesn’t have one. And that now won’t change, either.

And both of those things, put together, will mean death by a thousand cuts for RTE as a PSB, as that €160 starts being paid by less and less as the streaming revolution takes hold, and as €160 becomes worth less and less in real terms due to inflation. And that won’t mean the end of RTE, but it will lead to one that’s more commercially focussed, and probably smaller with less services. And possibly one that’s more involved in pay TV, with GAAGO as the thin end of the wedge there.

[bkman1990]

The Irish Independent has been reporting that Ryan Tubridy was meant to do a travel series in Australia for RTÉ and a documentary about The Irish Famine for Netflix when he left The Late Late Show before his payment controversy arose with the broadcaster last week.

www.msn.com 

MSN

  Source: www.msn.com

[Newshound47]

I can’t imagine the Irish ad market is very strong particularly as some  of RTE’s programmes are simulcasts of the BBC and others are RTE produced coverage of the same sporting event that BBC are aIring.

[bkman1990]

Oh Jesus wept. I was looking at the interview by Sarah McInerney of Prime Time and the damage according to panel on the programme tonight is much more grim for RTÉ's point of view than what was expected already. Did anyone watch the interview at all and think the same thing?