Do you pay the tv licence?

To be honest I kind of see public service broadcasting as like a bus not all stops are for me but the ones are I find very useful.  People think it only pays for the stars big wages but they actually are financed by the revenue that is brought in from advertising due to their shows.  

The licence fee pays for so much more like community radio stations, documentaries funded by the BAI, the various radio stations, (lurkers and trapped's favourite Lyric FM) 

Shows from our point of view like MNS do not wash their own face so they need the licence fee to pay for them.  In my view 13 euro a month is good value and if I had to cut expenses my sky etc would go long before my RTE would.  In my view having our own channels in this country is one of the aspects of being a nation state. If we entirely rely on British media for informing our view of the world we may as well take down the flags and start supporting English football teams (oh wait a minute ? :) ) 

Of course it pays for the big stars wages! The likes of Tubridy, Kenny, Finucane etc would be replaced in a flash by the next rising star. (Gerry Ryan anyone?) RTE should learn from the likes of SKY, who move them on as soon as they start looking for bigger loot. The football panel wages on RTE are triple TV3's.

Because the big stars are on big wages this permeates all the way down, so the entire operation is grossly overpaid. I know people in there on 70k doing ordinary jobs.

There's gimps in RTE producing workmanlike radio shows on 200k that would earn 50k elsewhere.

It gets on my wick bigtime, that these f**kers are on this kind of loot off the back of our licence fees. Incidently, I do think it's a worthwhile exercise, but salaries should be capped and benchmarked to the real world of radio and TV.

I pay for two licences, which is an even bigger waste of my hard earned dosh.

RTE had such a captive audience for years, it was painful and comical how much they were paying their stars who have nowhere else to go. Maybe, just maybe, the odd one or two might hit it big in Britain, but the vast vast majority are ten a penny jocks that could easily be replaced.

There are others who will watch RTE for Rep of Telly and Tallafornia or whatever stuff like that.  

That is the nature of these things we dip in for the stuff we like and think the rest of it is nonsense.  Hence why I think its like a bus rather than a taxi.  It caters for you, but not you specifically.  

Also people always concentrate on the TV shows they do not like. What about the Documentary on One which is fantastic.  John Creedons show is excellent,  The RTE Orchestra is fantastic. John Kelly's show is brilliant. Not to mention loads of radio and TV Documentaries that are mad for non RTE bodies across the country that get BAI funding.  

How many people get to enjoy them? This is another savage waste of licence fee payers dosh.

If the nobs over in Earlsfort Terrace want a high falootin' orchestra, let them feckin' pay proper admission fees for the privilege.

Jesus, Baldie, you do talk some awful pony by times, 

This is the very definition of public service broadcasting.  Funding stuff that the market will not support.  The market supports things like Friends etc.  Now I am sure we do not want to live in a world of Friends and Friends repeats.  Niche programmes and events needed to be funded to keep them alive.  MNS falls into that category but because we are on a football site people won't see that. I am sure on the ybig equivalent of orchestra Ireland are probably giving out about MNS being funded and scrotes in Tallaght and Phibsboro being funded and drawing the dole etc.  Both comments are equally as ignorant. Many people are interested in classical music sure isnt there a Coolock Classical Musical Society.  

The likes of the BBC and RTE exist to administrate the non commercial sector and also deal in commercial shows which is why you have Graham Norton and Rep of telly and others which add very little cultural value to the nation but are commercially successful.  

By the way I am not say I watch or like all of these shows but RTE is not designed for me it is an attempt to have a station that in some ways deals for everybody in some little way and not at the same time.   

In relation to Fair City there is some people who go to the Ireland trips who sky plus it and watch it when they return.  They will not be named here but they do.  So should the station only cater for FW and Stoked up. If YBIG was to believed Sinn Fein would have an overall majority in this country. That shows how much this site is not reflective of the general view of Irish people and I include myself in that.  

Also to add the fee also funds shows on community radio stations which deal with drug addiction emmigrant issues, legal advice for those who cannot afford it and not to mention TG4 and other Irish language shows across the board.  The market would not support these either.  I do not think your idea of the market being the ruler of our cultural output is the right approach for a modern European documentary and I respectfully disagree with you on this.  

Stoked up I respect your opinion.  I wish you would respect mine please.   

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