RTÉ's biggest earners 2004

Chamar said:

And they wonder why people don't pay their TV license.......

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Who wonders? Not me and many others. We know that people don't pay for their TV license because they're spongers who are happy to rip everybody else off.

ClubMan said:

Who wonders? Not me and many others. We know that people don't pay for their TV license because they're spongers who are happy to rip everybody else off.

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Mrs Murt buys a TV license every year. If it was up to me I wouldn't bother. I wouldn't feel like a sponger either. I don't agree with wasting money and paying way over the odds for something which I regard as very bad value. It wouldn't bother me if the whole station folded in the morning. With the exception of the News, Primetime, Podge and Rodge and the footie, I don't watch or listen to RTE.

Look at what TV3 can do without any state support. Okay, some of their stuff is bad, but it doesn't cost anything, and I'm not obliged to pay them to produce programmes that I don't want to watch, or to help them overpay their "stars".

Why should I be forced by the State to pay such a large licence fee so that the likes of Kenny and Co. can live the life that they have become accustomed to.

I would offer them a serious paycut the next time their contracts came up for renewal. If they don't like it then they are free to offer their services to the commercial stations. I very much doubt that they would earn anywhere near as much in the real world.

Having said that, Gay Byrne, who I couldn't stand, was value for money. People watched the show because he was very good at what he was doing. If they put a muppet (or a plank) doing the Late Late show they would still have nearly as many people watching it as do at present.

Why not get rid of your TV and the need to buy a license so?

Maybe someone in RTE is listening is listening after all.

From today's Indo

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1645069&issue_id=14298

Interesting that they had to bring in a dark stranger to wield the axe. Too much of a cosy club operates there for an insider to try and tackle. Newstalk must have RTE quaking in their boots. At least they had the sense to try and get their house in order before the listenership figures told them just how much ground they had lost

These rte "stars" wouldnt get as much in private sector in my opinion and rte overpays like most steate/semi state employers

I would despair if the only TV we were producing nationally was TV3/Channel 6 clones. Though I will watch those stations from time to time, there is a valid need for a public broadcasting service. Last year's Prime Time expose of Lees Cross nursing home was worth the licence fee on its own. Do you think TV3 would ever be able to do something of this nature.

I'm not sure that the RTE starts wouldn't be able to match these packages in the outside world. Do you think Ian Dempsey & Ray D'Arcy took pay cuts to move to the private sector? Wasn't Joe Duffy offered €600k by Newstalk recently?

RTE is far from perfect. Their news coverage can be frustratingly shallow. Pat the Plank really gets up my nose.

RainyDay said:

Wasn't Joe Duffy offered €600k by Newstalk recently?

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Hadn't heard that one. I wonder who put it about, Mr Duffy perhaps, when he was renegotiating his lucrative contract. If Newstalk are going to hire someone like that, I'm off. Talk about dumbing down.

Journalists complaining about about what our Taoiseach earns, relative to other European leaders, and the length of the Dail recess, always makes me smile, given their own salaries and holidays.

Seriously though, where would Joe fit in. Whose show would he take over. I know there is a vacancy coming up from 7.00 to 9.00 in the morning, but if Duffy took that slot, I would imagiine the present listeners would desert in droves. Back to RTE probably.

Remember Duffy doing MC in the Park welcoming the Irish team back. One of the few moments in my life when I was actually ashamed to be Irish. It goes down in my book as the most cringeworthy performance of all time. Worse still, Sky News also broadcast it live. Unforgettable, Unforgiveable.

Now that I think about it, why do we never hear about RTE being privatised and sold off to the Nation. Can you see the queue of people looking for a part of that action.

Likewise, RTE should have been a perfect candidate for decentralisation. Imagine what the property in Donnybrook it stands on, is worth. Maybe there would be a queue of people lining up to buy itt if it were sold. Dr Sir Anthony Tony O'Reilly would spring to mind as a perfect potential purchaser.