RTE next season

Good to hear that it'll be mainly focused on LOI.

The Irish national team bit is fine, even if the players are based in England at least it's still Irish football.

But I'm less enthused at the prospect of the Champions League being thrown in... for instance, will it focus only on rounds involving Irish clubs? Will it be broad Champions League coverage, offering insight on games involving teams outside of England? Someone like Richie Sadlier would be well capable of providing decent insight, the likes of Ray Houghton I'd be less convinced of.

I have never heard Sadlier provide insight on anything other than the art of advanced whinging.

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Originally Posted by WeAreRovers

As for the timeslot, 7.00pm was a terrible slot - men simply don't watch TV at that time, hence the proliferation of soaps between 7 and 9 across all channels. Most of us are commuting, eating, putting the kids to bed, listening to Game On or Off The Ball, out training or bizarrely attending actual live Monday night LOI games - a situation that doesn't happen anywhere else, League games scheduled against the highlights programme.

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If you can provide 1 piece of evidence to prove that more men ( sexist anyway ) watch TV at 11 o clock at night than at 7 o clock in the evening I'll be happy to eat my words, but this is head in the sand posting. Its called Primetime for a reason. I'll probably watch anyway - most followers of the LOI will watch, but some that watched at 7 will not be able to watch at 11, and you can say with a fair degree of certainty that you won't introduce any new fans to the league with this new timeslot ( Although the number of new fans introduced at the 7 slot is debatable - the probabilty drops at 11pm )

This is a categoric downgrading in LOI coverage and in my opinion it will disappear in a year.

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Originally Posted by Real ale Madrid

If you can provide 1 piece of evidence to prove that more men ( sexist anyway ) watch TV at 11 o clock at night than at 7 o clock in the evening I'll be happy to eat my words, but this is head in the sand posting. Its called Primetime for a reason.

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7pm isn't primetime, and that hour is absolutely aimed at female demographics

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This is a categoric downgrading in LOI coverage and in my opinion it will disappear in a year.

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Why's that? There's zero pressure to produce ratings at 11pm, so it should be safe enough.

I think people are getting too hung up about the CL aspect. There's maybe 6 weeks left this season. It'll be 15 minutes or so previewing the games involving English teams (and maybe Barca/Real). That's it.

International weeks will focus on the national team.

Other than that the only football RTE can show is LOI. They won't be talking about any football they don't have the rights to

I'd tend to agree later is better than 7 even though it's very late. 10pm would have been a better time but beggars can't be choosers. For one reason or another I always found I had to record MNS and watch it later or online.

I used to miss it the majority of the time at 7pm. I should be able to watch it the majority of the time at 11pm. It won't clash with Monday games anymore. The question is will they include Monday games?

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Originally Posted by legendz

The question is will they include Monday games?

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Maybe if they're on in Dublin, beyond that I would doubt it. It may well be recorded earlier in the day too.

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Originally Posted by adamd164

Maybe if they're on in Dublin, beyond that I would doubt it. It may well be recorded earlier in the day too.

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That'll be the success or fail of the new time for me.

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Originally Posted by Dodge

7pm isn't primetime, and that hour is absolutely aimed at female demographics

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Ok not Primtime but the overall point is you get more viewers at 7 than 11 at night. Thus any shift like that is a downgrade. You don't see "Against the Head" going out at 11pm. If you can provide evidence to the contrary then I'll happily eat my words. Perhaps its tougher to compete with Emmerdale etc then whatever is on TV at 11 o clock at night I concede that may be a plus point but I cannot fathom how this can be percieved as anything other than a downgrading of the coverage.

Now I just hope that there is less chat and more highlights.

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Originally Posted by Real ale Madrid

Ok not Primtime but the overall point is you get more viewers at 7 than 11 at night. Thus any shift like that is a downgrade. You don't see "Against the Head" going out at 11pm. If you can provide evidence to the contrary then I'll happily eat my words.

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I think MNS, and this new version, are kinda specialised programming so will likely not lose too much, if any, of their core audience. By all accounts, the viewing figures were horrible for MNS so it seems unlikely that they got too many casual viewers. The timeslot won't matter to their hardcore audience, and that's all they had

TV viewing has changed dramatically in the last 5 years. More and more TV is watched through DVR and other playback platforms.

The bottom line for me is that the LOI games will continue to be covered and I'll get to see the goals. MNS was always more than LOI crowds deserved

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Originally Posted by Dodge

TV viewing has changed dramatically in the last 5 years. More and more TV is watched through DVR and other playback platforms.

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Different argument than the downgrading of existing coverage I think and I agree. - I think a LoI you tube channel with highlights / analysis up on the Saturday afternoon / evening would be much more worthwhile than the token gesture of a graveyard shift programme with a half arséd marketing effort ( Republic ) which goes out 3 days after the event. Just my two cents - as you say for the majority of us here - all we want to do is see the highlights / goals, doesn't matter really where.

Did Rte crack down on local radio length of updates on LoI games and some live coverage from Shamrock Rovers games?

Don't get the RTÉ apologetics. Seems to be the worst of both worlds; highlights shunted into a graveyard slot and LOI content watered down. In other words, after five years on the national broadcaster, we're getting a sub-eircom League Weekly product, designed to appeal to a casual, non-LOI fan who has no incentive to tune in at that hour anyway.

I think people fundamentally misunderstand the nature of broadcast media in Ireland; the popularity of Gaelic Games, rugby (which was kept alive by the Cogley clique until the Heineken Cup came along) and the Premier League is due, to a massive extent, to the relentless promotion of those competitions by RTÉ. Not t'toher way round.

The rugby coverage isn't great, against the head is only on during 6 nations. GAA fans are critical of how poor League Sunday is.

The hardcore rugby fans that follow AIL would say they get little to no coverage at all and in fairness their crowds aren't much worse than the LOI. I big local derby in limerick can easily pull between 3,000-4,000.

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Originally Posted by legendz

The rugby coverage isn't great, against the head is only on during 6 nations. GAA fans are critical of how poor League Sunday is.

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The highlights RTE show of the GAA on League Sunday, is the 2 games that TG4 show on a Sun afternoon and the 1 or 2 games Setanta show on a Sat night, They dont even bother sending their own cameras to any games

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Originally Posted by Jofspring

The hardcore rugby fans that follow AIL would say they get little to no coverage at all and in fairness their crowds aren't much worse than the LOI. I big local derby in limerick can easily pull between 3,000-4,000.

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What does that have to do with anything, though? The top level of domestic rugby is pushed fanatically across all platforms.

Yeah, every sport covered on RTE gets its complaints. I don't think there's a single panel I like for example.

I always watch the show on the Player, usually the day after, so this time swap means very little to me. And, as has been pointed out, the show is no position to be angling for a primetime slot. The numbers aren't there, and RTE won't take the financial risk of large scale promotion to try and make them exist for, what is, a niche product in this country.

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Originally Posted by Sheridan

What does that have to do with anything, though? The top level of domestic rugby is pushed fanatically across all platforms.

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Because the audience is there in a way it isn't for LOI or AIL.

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Originally Posted by NeverFeltBetter

Because the audience is there in a way it isn't for LOI or AIL.

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Support doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's there because it's fostered and promoted.