National Forum

RTE - Change Of Direction

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Replying To Onion Breath:  "Jaysus ..."
Onion Breath (Carlow) me auld flower, you haven't misunderstood anything,its just that the measly four league matches live on a Saturday night which are already being shown live on Eirsport, well to me they are very welcome as I don't have Eiresport or sky or any other pay for view channel, just Saor view, I'm sure there are thousands more like me.
- - - - and for Jaysus sake don't take it too personal, I can handle it, I've had Saor view for years.

supersub15 (Carlow) - Posts: 2907 - 11/01/2019 20:16:31    2156660

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Replying To KingdomBoy1:  "What the hell are RTÉ doing with our money?"
Very little. Ridiculous that they get our licence fees, government money to prop them up and also takes in advertising revenue. People already paying enough to Sky/ Eir / Vodafone to watch television. They're a burden on the state, recently outsourced all their childrens TV content, losing money day after day. No way they will survive in current format with the growing number of broadcasting competition, most of it online and the way customers now watch TV. The sooner it's sold to a media company which can make it competitive, the better. And save a lot of us €160 per annum, which we currently have no say on how it's spent.

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 7336 - 11/01/2019 20:39:55    2156664

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Replying To KingdomBoy1:  "What the hell are RTÉ doing with our money?"
Dancing with the "stars"

TheHermit (Kerry) - Posts: 6354 - 11/01/2019 21:03:12    2156667

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What is in this for Eir Sport if it is no longer live and exclusive on their channel?

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 11/01/2019 23:24:12    2156684

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Replying To TheHermit:  "Dancing with the "stars""
And paying tubridy and co the guts of a half a million a piece

GAA coverage on RTE is poor quite frankly. I have sky and watch most of the bigger games on that the coverage and analysis is miles ahead of RTE unfortunately

GeniusGerry (Kerry) - Posts: 2105 - 12/01/2019 00:36:13    2156687

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Replying To GeniusGerry:  "And paying tubridy and co the guts of a half a million a piece

GAA coverage on RTE is poor quite frankly. I have sky and watch most of the bigger games on that the coverage and analysis is miles ahead of RTE unfortunately"
And TG4 is better too.. In my opinion at least. I hope RTÉ expanded coverage doesn't squeeze TG4. They have been brilliant these last 20 years or so. Compared to RTÉ punditry it wouldn't be hard

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 12/01/2019 10:09:22    2156699

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Replying To bennybunny:  "And TG4 is better too.. In my opinion at least. I hope RTÉ expanded coverage doesn't squeeze TG4. They have been brilliant these last 20 years or so. Compared to RTÉ punditry it wouldn't be hard"
Yes than god for TG4 they have carved out a nice niche for themselves I don't know how profitable it is for them but they are doing a great job. Their club coverage in particular is excellent.

I don't mind RTE's game coverage for the most part it's the analysis that annoys me we have been hearing the same old tired cliches and platitudes from O'Rourke, Brolly and Spillane for too long now. Switch over to Sky and you have Canavan and Horan (has) who would put them to shame. I'm surprised RTE haven't tried to up their game in that regard.

I would happily pay a subscription for a good quality GAA TV online product where you could watch live games and get highlights etc I am sure that will come in time.

GeniusGerry (Kerry) - Posts: 2105 - 12/01/2019 11:22:08    2156707

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Listen in the big bad real world, I've had a few dealings with RTE.
They are broke, in more ways than mere finances.
The place is the embodiment of everything wrong with State run institutions - it's even worse than the HSE.
You have a cohort of extremely well paid people both in front and behind the camera, on grotesquely lucrative terms of employment, whose salaries can only go one way. They can't be shifted due to said terms of employment negotiated back in the heady days of the Celtic Tiger (or long before) which are now set in stone.
In contrast then you have an array of people coming into the place in the last few years on poor salaries, temporary contracts etc.
People in there do everything to get on the first rung of money ladder and then there is no incentive for them to do anything only collect their pay cheques. You have career administrators who run their particular patch like a personal fiefdom.
They make endless noise and host endless meetings about how they are going to shake things up, or be bold and daring, but it's all just words and for show - things inevitably plod along as normal.
There was a classic case of this last summer when the factual department (in charge of things like documentaries) made a big song and dance about how they were going to approach the next few years of commemorations but nothing has changed and they'll produce the same bland, uninspiring docs and will take no risks at all and of course, rather than seeking to take a chance on new talent will get the usual crew to host or narrate things (Tubs, Miriam, Des etc etc).
On a rare occasion that they take a punt on some new or innovative show, invariably the funding to get it off the ground has to come from the BAI and other sources and RTE contribute as little as possible - often next to nothing.
That means, even if said programme is a hit and is popular, the funding model for it is so complicated its often not worth the effort to keep it going.
RTE are only interested in putting what little money they have into things that will attract the most audience and social media traffic for the least effort - hence Dancing with the Stars, Operation Transformation, Fair city, Rose of Tralee etc.

Sport is the same, it was run into the ground by the incompetence of it's previous (rugby loving) head and now it has a fraction of what content it used to televise.
I guarantee you getting access to these 4 League games cost them very little, that's the only way they would have decided so late in the day to go and televise them.
Come the summer, they are content to let the usual crew of Brolly etc (all on huge money of course) spout their BS because it gets social media attention and is click bait, and that's the only metric they really are interested in anymore as an organisaiton. They would never think of dispensing with these dinasuars and giving the newer generation, O'Se, Gooch, Whelan, Sheffflin etc the time and space to do proper anaylsis and commentary. That would require a bit of imagination and effort which those in charge of the place have limited supplies of.

In a nutshell if your idea for a programme was 'dogs that fart' - as long as you had a bag of money to throw at them RTE would green light it.
But asking RTE to invest in and actually produce anything worthwhile is like talking to a wall.

TheHermit (Kerry) - Posts: 6354 - 12/01/2019 12:40:00    2156712

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RTE's live punditry during football matches is terrible, its all political, with many pundits going off in rants that seem to have more to do with future individual plans to run for GAA presidency or other high positions, than actual matches in front of them..

Sky opted for more contemporary pundits, men who have managed teams in the last 5 years and who have a deeper understanding of the current systems, tactics and behind the scene efforts. They analyze the match in front of them, what teams are doing right or wrong and what they can do to changes things as the game goes on.

Commodore (Donegal) - Posts: 1106 - 12/01/2019 12:41:48    2156713

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I thought I read that Brolly, Spillane and O'Rourke only done 2 shows together last year. They have been bringing in a good number of new analysts for a while.

Soma (UK) - Posts: 2630 - 12/01/2019 15:02:27    2156725

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Just read details of the new tv deal with RTE and G.A.A

In laymans terms would i be right in saying RTE are just showing the saturday games that Eir Sport are showing already for the NFL??(says simulcast using EIRs cameras)

Okay that will help for those without Eir but hardly a great commitment,wold RTE not be better using own cameras and showing different games to eir,give maybe other teams more exposure. Bad enough their league highlights programme is just using TG and eirs coverage,seems similar thing again here

So tches be on two channels,we have same ludricious situation with BBC and Ulster championship,they can ony show games that Rte show,so game either ot on at all or on two channels!!

macca999 (Fermanagh) - Posts: 1097 - 12/01/2019 17:16:43    2156731

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Replying To BigJoe14:  "This is a fantastic move and should have been done long ago but however at least now it has happened. Nothing beats national league games under lights in the spring with teams like Dublin, Mayo and Kerry playing each other in either in Croker or down the country and it needed to be promoted more. RTE have a lot of potential to grow there GAA coverage and this is hopefully the start of it. Kevin McStay is also returning as a pundit which is great news."
Ahh now hang on a min. You had me in agreement until you said McStay is coming back and he is a good pundit. You lost it when you said that I'm afraid. McStay won nothing at national level apart from a club all ire. His analysis are pure and utter tripe

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 12/01/2019 18:36:44    2156742

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Replying To GreenandRed:  "Very little. Ridiculous that they get our licence fees, government money to prop them up and also takes in advertising revenue. People already paying enough to Sky/ Eir / Vodafone to watch television. They're a burden on the state, recently outsourced all their childrens TV content, losing money day after day. No way they will survive in current format with the growing number of broadcasting competition, most of it online and the way customers now watch TV. The sooner it's sold to a media company which can make it competitive, the better. And save a lot of us €160 per annum, which we currently have no say on how it's spent."
Agreed

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 12/01/2019 18:38:44    2156743

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Replying To bennybunny:  "And TG4 is better too.. In my opinion at least. I hope RTÉ expanded coverage doesn't squeeze TG4. They have been brilliant these last 20 years or so. Compared to RTÉ punditry it wouldn't be hard"
Not for the 80% plus of us who don't have a clue what they sayin.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 12/01/2019 18:43:38    2156745

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Replying To royaldunne:  "Not for the 80% plus of us who don't have a clue what they sayin."
Well, assuming you went through the Irish school system, you would have spent 13 years learning the language so not to 'have a clue' is worrying for you. To have no interest is another issue. That is fine obviously . I am no fáinne wearing, more-Irish-than-thou, Celtic Nationaist. I just think their coverage is good so I hope they keep doing what they do.

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 12/01/2019 20:23:45    2156754

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Replying To bennybunny:  "And TG4 is better too.. In my opinion at least. I hope RTÉ expanded coverage doesn't squeeze TG4. They have been brilliant these last 20 years or so. Compared to RTÉ punditry it wouldn't be hard"
Tg4 coverage has helped the growth in popularity of the club championship over the past two decades. It would be a shame indeed if RTE having lost the rights to other sports are allowed to muscle in and force Tg4 to reduce their coverage.

Curlew66 (Roscommon) - Posts: 504 - 12/01/2019 20:40:03    2156755

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Replying To royaldunne:  "Ahh now hang on a min. You had me in agreement until you said McStay is coming back and he is a good pundit. You lost it when you said that I'm afraid. McStay won nothing at national level apart from a club all ire. His analysis are pure and utter tripe"
Winning anything at any level is no qualification as a pundit and I wouldn't be McStay's greatest fan when he talks down to so-called weaker counties and talks about a senior and intermediate championship. He has won provincial medals, has an All Star, played and scored in an All Ireland Final and was a classy player in his pomp. Spillane, O'Rourke and Brolly with their All Irelands are dinosaurs in comparison because they have done very little, bar O'Rourke's time coaching Simonstown, on a club level compared to McStay. They have done pretty much nothing at underage or senio county level. McStay has won a provincial championship and brought Roscommon to the Super 8s and back to Division One. Do you want football pundits to bore you to tears and whinge about why things aren't like the good old days when they won All Irelands? Or listen to a pundit like McStay whose calendar says it's 2019?

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 7336 - 13/01/2019 00:28:39    2156796

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Replying To Curlew66:  "Tg4 coverage has helped the growth in popularity of the club championship over the past two decades. It would be a shame indeed if RTE having lost the rights to other sports are allowed to muscle in and force Tg4 to reduce their coverage."
TG4 have given good service over the years. The elephant in the room is the Irish commentary. Why is there not an English option available to us.? There's an English option on Scottish and Welsh commentary. It's outrageous really that 95% of people watching on tv are being excluded like this even though we pay for it.

bloodyban (Limerick) - Posts: 1710 - 13/01/2019 09:27:58    2156807

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Replying To bloodyban:  "TG4 have given good service over the years. The elephant in the room is the Irish commentary. Why is there not an English option available to us.? There's an English option on Scottish and Welsh commentary. It's outrageous really that 95% of people watching on tv are being excluded like this even though we pay for it."
That would defeat the purpose of TG4, the media and society in general trying to promote the Irish language. Although a lot of the media and society probably have an attitude of "I hope Irish never dies, I'm just too lazy to help keep it alive". As to the merits of having an English option while ignoring politics, is it really that hard to learn basic Irish sporting terminology and get the jist of the commentary and the analysis?

eoghan6688 (Galway) - Posts: 154 - 13/01/2019 14:25:01    2156858

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Why should I have to learn Irish phrases and terminology to suit a tiny minority of Irish speakers. It's crazy. The Welsh don't force their language on their people and look how successful that has become. They allow people a choice and that's fine by me. Just have a Hiberno English language option.

bloodyban (Limerick) - Posts: 1710 - 13/01/2019 15:31:26    2156868

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