RTÉ get live Premiership rights

I have listened to all that is said and still say that on the few occasion, eircom League (not having the luxury of building a viewership or following, barr live games) has still beaten English footie hands down nearly every time.

All this on the five or less times we see it in a year ...... Beavis, you say can it do it consistently. I say it hasn't been given the chance and "the product" has never been top shelf in terms of quality (compared to Sky Sports razz-ah-ma-tazz).

IF eircom League footie was give the proper look in that it deserves, you would see heads raising all over the place and that exposure would directly effect the game, with money and sponsorship for the clubs etc.

To right it ..... saying "it would never take off" is one of the most stupid arguments i have ever heard and there is no fact to it at all.

Again ...... we pay a licence fee ............... WE SHOULD SEE WHAT WE PAY FOR.

I wonder will Sky be interested?

They gave more coverage to the league sides in Europe this year then any of our stations, bar RTE for Bohs last tie, with highlights, interviews and live score updates. I remember they had a special report on the league, three parter I think, on Sky Sports News and even had a half an hour highlights package of the cup final on the odd time on Sky Sports One aswell as News.

Considering that they're pretty much stuck for football during the summer, and considering that they even show Confrence stuff and that's winter season as well as a host of less popular sports, they might be interested in showing the odd Eircom League match during the summer at least?

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Originally posted by A face

To right it ..... saying "it would never take off" is one of the most stupid arguments i have ever heard and there is no fact to it at all.

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This was never my argument.Yous said as it stands the Eircom League brings in more viewers which I have disagreed with, as there is little in the line of facts to back it up.

If you read my posts,I have made it clear that decent exposer might give the El a chance to attract footie fans which aren't currently following the LoI.

Maybe in the future it may have more viership but at the moment it's simply not true.I acknowledge the Semi-Final replay had 200,000 but this is would only be the case for 2 or 3 games a year

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Originally posted by Beavis
Maybe in the future it may have more viership but at the moment it's simply not true.I acknowledge the Semi-Final replay had 200,000 but this is would only be the case for 2 or 3 games a year

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But we only get two or three games a year live and they consistently beat SPL/EPL coverage, that's the point. When RTE was forced to have the sunday evening highlights, that show consistently beat the Premiership for viewers...

The numbers watching would only go up with more coverage, not down...

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Originally posted by Beavis
Yous said as it stands the Eircom League brings in more viewers which I have disagreed with, as there is little in the line of facts to back it up.

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There are viewing figures to back them up. Just because you haven't seen them doesn't mean they don't exist. This is a couple of years ago now when RTÉ were doing the highlights show, but it was pulling in around 20,000 more viewers than The Premiership.

The following page shows that both Champions League and the Premiership are huge successes for RTE.This is the reason why RTE continue to show foreign matches,they rake in the viewers!!

www.sbpost.ie/web/DocumentView/did-3681886-pageUrl--2Fthe-newspaper-2FSundays-Paper-2FMedia-and-marketing.asp

If you aren't arsed reading it or it doesn't work,it basically says 405,000(28% of viewers) watched Champios League in this given week and 300,000 watched the Premiership.

It is quite possible that an Eircom League show beat the Premiership a couple of years back when it was on at the same time as the BBC equivilant.It has been given a rebirth by the English one now having a different time.

Look for the final time,I hope we will see El on our sceens more in the future but I just wanted to state RTE's reasoning behind showing foreign matches over it and there it is it just gets more viewing at the moment and they have to do what the majority want (after all we pay licences!)

I rest my case
;)

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Originally posted by A face
Again ...... we pay a licence fee ............... WE SHOULD SEE WHAT WE PAY FOR.

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You pay for Pat Kenny's €500,000 per year salary, that's what.

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Originally posted by Beavis
www.sbpost.ie/web/DocumentView/did-3681886-pageUrl--2Fthe-newspaper-2FSundays-Paper-2FMedia-and-marketing.asp

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Umm...that link doesn't work? Nor does typing it in the address bar?

If that's what the figures there show, then fair enough, but it still doesn't absolve them of their appalling treatment of the eL when their highlights show was beating The Premiership. Maybe they do show English football to get in more viewers, but the bottom line is that their treatment of the eL is nothing shrt of disgraceful.

I'd say figures for The Premiership will drop as well once the much better Match of the Day comes back next season too. Hope so anyway...

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Originally posted by Colm
That's the key for me aswell. This will only serve to create another generation of kids supporting Manchester, Liverpool, Chelsea etc. These kids should be encouraged to go to el games and be real football fans, they would love the el if they were only given the chance to experience it instead of being brainwashed into watching a foreign product on tv.

As Dodge pointed out, RTE can show el games. The question we must all ask is why won't they?

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Don't agree. More soccer on tv is good for soccer. As i recall, when rte used to show these live games every saturday on sports stadium years ago, the crowds going to national league games were quiet healthy and interest in soccer was quiet high. Whats important in the bigger scheme of things is that youngfellas will be out playing soccer copying their idols, rather than looking up to other sports or playing playstation.

What Fran Rooney must do now is market the league properly by sharing the rights between Rte, TG4 and TV3. If they all did 5 games a season, it would equal the 15 premiership ones. But Rte are committed to the GAA, so........

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Originally posted by pineapple stu
their treatment of the eL is nothing shrt of disgraceful.

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Hear hear .... that is the bottom line .... i dont care how many people watch British football because it is rammed down their throats at every available opportunity. I dont care that the media are spoon feeding the masses with SPL and Premeirship football.

What i want is our National League .... The League of Ireland ...... Top flight football in this country (Ireland) for Irish players.

Sorry .... they is no way to justify the treatment that this league gets.

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Originally posted by pineapple stu
Umm...that link doesn't work? Nor does typing it in the address bar?

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Sorry,it was so long I was bound to leave something out.

http://www.sbpost.ie/web/DocumentVie...-Marketing.asp

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Originally posted by A face
The figures are there for eL games .... It has been proved time and time again so there is no debate there. eL porgramming wipe the floor in some cases as opposed to English product.


We pay a licence fee ..... We ARE entitled to have our say in the programming that RTÉ show, eL being the majoity. Hense the charter etc.


RTÉ ignore both these points. To what end i dont know.

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You have changed your tune slightly,A Face,since you earlier said this.It turns out it's not true and now you have no argument but to say they should show El over other things even though it is not being watched as much.

Do you think as Eircom League fans you have more rights than others and they should show what yous want,despite the fact that more people want to watch something else??

The quality of RTEs home made programming is pathetic. Until RTE are held to greater accountability where they have to outline what is & what isn't public service broadcasting the eL will continue to be treated badly & RTE will continue to decline.

RTE seem to produce very little of their own sports show now as most are foreign events they buy in or get on the cheap from BBC. There is virtaully no public service broadcasting on Network 2.

Nobody in RTE is worth anything close to 500k a year. Aside from a few current affairs shows (some would be the cheapest to make) the rest of the RTE schedule is being eaten up by "reality tv" where they make cash from viewer votes.

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Originally posted by pete
The quality of RTEs home made programming is pathetic. Until RTE are held to greater accountability where they have to outline what is & what isn't public service broadcasting the eL will continue to be treated badly & RTE will continue to decline.

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Can't agree pete, I mean who can argue with their new show "House of Love" - Quality show, quality presenters and the chance to win a "dream" house in a westmeath sh!thole.... Even give you the chance to watch a FF politician talk more sh!t everyweek...... Who can argue with how they spend their money after that....

Okay - it was Chelsea v. Lazio which got fewer viewers than the Cup semi. Which is still fairly commendable for a league which apparently no-one wants to watch.

I agree with Beavis' points, although there are still a couple of points which in my opinion justify the annoyance of eL fans at RTÉ -

1) Two years ago, the eL highlights were getting more viewers than The Premiership. Evidently, it seems that RTÉ have since been working at building up their share for The Premiership. And yet the show with more viewers they screwed around with, showed no desier for it and eventually lost it by trying to force clubs to do what RTÉ told them to do at very short notice. That is surely evidence of a very poor attitude towards the eL within RTÉ?

2) RTÉ's news coverage of the eL continues to be very poor. First Division games are completely ignored on the news, while Premier games just have the result and no more is rarely said. Premiership highlights are bought to show.

3) Aertel. I rest my case on that subject! :rolleyes:

I still think that -

a) If RTÉ wanted to, they could have promoted the eL and it would be getting comparable (not necessarily better) figures to what they get now. It must be cheaper to bring two cameras to Longford for two hours than to fly two people out to Germany for two days?
b) Their attitude towards Irish football is unquestionable derisory and is unquestionably harming the game here. Irish people are sports fans, so I reckon there's a huge return to be made for someone who invests in the promotion of the league and drives it on.
c) Ratings for The Premiership will drop once Match of the Day comes back on.
d) (and I think the most important point) - There's still no reason why they can't make a decent attempt at both English and European football and at domestic football.

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Originally posted by pineapple stu
Okay - it was Chelsea v. Lazio which got fewer viewers than the Cup semi. Which is still fairly commendable for a league which apparently no-one wants to watch.

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It was Man U vs. Stuttgart on the 2nd of October. http://www.soccercentral.ie/viewstor...&viewstory=yes

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Originally posted by pineapple stu

c) Ratings for The Premiership will drop once Match of the Day comes back on.

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Don't think it was because of the Premiership being on ITV or BBC but that they are shown at different times now (RTE 7.00,ITV 10.30).RTE couldn't compete for irish viewers when they were on at the same time.People just used say 'ah the irish commentary is cr@p'

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Originally posted by pineapple stu
d) (and I think the most important point) - There's still no reason why they can't make a decent attempt at both English and European football and at domestic football.

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This is it,satisfy those who want to want British football but they don't have to show 5 hours of it like they do on a wednesday.There is plenty of time when they could give El coverage when they have other sh!te on that no-body could be watching (eg SVU Crime Department or Miami Cops who talk cool and solve crime,or some other cr@pology on at peak times)

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Originally posted by Macy
Can't agree pete, I mean who can argue with their new show "House of Love" - Quality show, quality presenters and the chance to win a "dream" house in a westmeath sh!thole.... Even give you the chance to watch a FF politician talk more sh!t everyweek...... Who can argue with how they spend their money after that....

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Aha i've noticed it now - "House of Love" was a condition of RTEs new licence fee increase so FF could claim to be doing something to people their own home + with Mary O in there they can be directly associated with it.

I must admit had to tune in to that show last night out of curiousity. How RTE get away with such drivel as that amazes me. I tuned off when they started asking those questions of the couples & 45mins later they still asking them. If was on tv3 i;d laught but can only cry when we pay RTE to show that.

Seen few minutes of RTE new drama 'The Clinic' & looked like something now be allowed on tv later than 12 noon in the UK.

Even TG4 buy better foreign shows these days.

I think there's general agreement that RTE and TV3 are justified in showing the Premiership, Scottish and Champions League football. Obviously, the advertising money follows the audience these shows generate.

I also we can all agree that what the EL presents is a product that neither RTE nor TV3 are pushing, despite the audience (regardless of whether it's greater than other football audiences or not) being there.

Early on in this debate, someone made the point that Friday night is all about market share and that the stations launch their flagship shows on this night (Kenny and Dunphy particularly). This is true but last Friday on Network 2 the lin-up from 8.0pm was

Alias - has at best a 'cult' following (ie one that will watch it at any time given it's nomadic existence in scheduling).
Nigella Lawson cooking - anyone interested in this was watching eastenders on RTE 1 anyway.
Risk Stein cooking - as above but insert Fair City for Eastenders
Friends and The osbournes - both reruns.

anyone want to try and convince me that Shels -v- Pats or City -v- Rovers wouldn't have done better, especially including a decent halftime roundup of the games from tuesday night???

You've got it there Tiktok,I'd agree with all said.