FAI Fans Forum Abbotstown, Saturday

[Sheridan]

Bhs, they're not infallible but they're pretty accurate. Broadcasters take tough decisions based on these ratings all the time. Major shows get cancelled if they're not cutting the mustard and unlikely hits are recognised and recommissioned.

[blackholesun]

Bhs, they're not infallible but they're pretty accurate. Broadcasters take tough decisions based on these ratings all the time. Major shows get cancelled if they're not cutting the mustard and unlikely hits are recognised and recommissioned.

Hhhhmmmm, I heard all this before but still have my suspicisions. The wikipedia page on tv ratings is interesting to read.

I read freakonomics this week, so am questioning alot of these "givens".

If a random sample is to be scientifically accurate then the sample size should be fairly large, so I find it a bit bizarre that I have NEVER come across a friend, neighbour, workmate, relation etc, or even friend of a friend who had one of these boxes at home!?

Has even here EVER seen one of these or know someone who had one!?

bhs

[finnpark]

Hhhhmmmm, I heard all this before but still have my suspicisions. The wikipedia page on tv ratings is interesting to read.

I read freakonomics this week, so am questioning alot of these "givens".

If a random sample is to be scientifically accurate then the sample size should be fairly large, so I find it a bit bizarre that I have NEVER come across a friend, neighbour, workmate, relation etc, or even friend of a friend who had one of these boxes at home!?

Has even here EVER seen one of these or know someone who had one!?

bhs

I don't know anyone either. You would think that you would come across someone at some stage. Maybe they don't exist

[Terry]

I knew a guy who had it in his house before when he was renting.

[blackholesun]

Maybe they don't exist

or are all located in houses in the Donnybrook area

bhs

[KianD]

Hhhhmmmm, I heard all this before but still have my suspicisions. The wikipedia page on tv ratings is interesting to read.

I read freakonomics this week, so am questioning alot of these "givens".

If a random sample is to be scientifically accurate then the sample size should be fairly large, so I find it a bit bizarre that I have NEVER come across a friend, neighbour, workmate, relation etc, or even friend of a friend who had one of these boxes at home!?

Has even here EVER seen one of these or know someone who had one!?

bhs

There's only a few hundred of them; and I have known of someone who had one - but currently not.

Having worked in TV, I don't trust them as far as I could throw them - or the company running them either (both here and the UK). Too many points of failure - too small an audience set; majority of homes are middle class, dual income, two kids setups; can't guarantee everyone in the house really bothers with the box, and so on. The UK ratings used to report 'zero or close to zero' ratings - e.g. no boxes - during shows when we knew we had thousands of viewers due to SMS volume...

[eamo1]

I thought every t.v bought in the last 10 yrs or so has one of them built into tthe t.v set,is this true??
Boy talk about going off topic,what were we talking about again????.

[finnpark]

The latest ratings figure i could get for "Premier Soccer Saturday" gives them only 102,000 viewers.

Take that RTÉ.

Thats shocking bad if true considering British football gets huge media coverage.

Ive noticed big time that people don't really care about any sport this year whether it be GAA, British football or Ireland Internationals. And its all down to money. The players are getting paid too much and are made out to be Gods for just kickign a football around. Too much money will eventually ruin any sport. Thank God half the clubs in Britain are going bust too.

In the case of GAA the ticket prices and rumours about players/managers getting paid as well as fraud rumours are destroying it.

[A face]

The email was sent out(there was a Cork address on the list) on the 8th of September. There were follow up emails sent after that as well.

What address was it sent to? PM me if you wouldn't mind

and the thing is that RTE has absolutely no idea how abnormal they are in doing this. In any other country in Europe regardless of the league size and profile it would almost certainly result in a sacking of those involved.

Could it be that certain individuals in power with RTE are being bribed by the British soccer industry?

Personally i have no problem with it. They made a 'Public' charter available to people to subscribe to a few years ago, but no one was able to do actually that. I dont know do they grasp the whole 'public', 'national broadcaster' and 'taxpayers money' thing.

I have been saying it for years. The complete hypocrisy during the Olympics with RTE Presenters and Commentators demanding to have the answer as to why we were doing so bad, and not one once of guilt for their neglect for the last four years for this campaign, and all the years before that.

I know they will harp on about ratings and they will make out that they have no obligation and can show where ever they deem fit but its complete bull. If you look at any other country in the run up to the Olympics, their teams were house hold names. RTE get away with murder. They haven't a leg to stand on.

[Angus]

Agree with initial post - attendance was terrible and while the FAI take a lot of heat, 4 of them took their entire saturday out to talk to fans - the fact that attendance was poor is disappointing.

Clearly, based on Saturday, there is a profesisonal approach being taken to the thing - based on what Padraig said (very impressive guy) we can have confidence that the whole thing is being approached properly.

Two key statements which sum the whole thing up:

He said that 80% of players are out of contract at the end of this season, so the clubs can dictate their financial health next year

The league is financially viable


I came away more confident that they are taking a professional approach to the league - yes they have and will make mistakes - who doesn't - but it was interesting

[A face]

Agree with initial post - attendance was terrible and while the FAI take a lot of heat, 4 of them took their entire saturday out to talk to fans - the fact that attendance was poor is disappointing.

Fran Gavin and Noel Mooney travelled to Cork after that and didn't finish up until after 10.00 or 11.00.

[Macy]

The reality of 60/70k viewers at 8pm on a Monday evening is a commercial failure.

Up against Eastenders and Corrie I would've thought that was pretty good going tbh. Whilst I appreciate the costs would be more for the football show, 8pm other week nights on RTE2 is brought in wildlife documentaries, so it obviously isn't that important a slot for them!

On the actual forum, I was under the impression it was invited, representative, fans rather than an open invite?

[dcfcsteve]

I find TG4's coverage amateur. Nothing to do with the language, i'd quite happily sit and watch it regardless, but the coverage is poor, not many camera angles covered, Charlie McGeever running from co-commentator to analyse before and after the game.

Setanta's coverage is probably the best, RTE's is good also. I just dont think TG4's is up to scratch, and McGeever laughing in commentary is cringeworthy, he does it all the time

I suspect their endless use of Charlie McKeever is due to a complete dearth of Irish-speaking individuals withe experience/knowledge of the league. As I raised previously in a thread on this matter, the contrast with Wales is astounding - where a large proportion of managers and players are interviewed in Welsh regularly.

If Roddy Collins learned a cupla focal he'd be on there regularly....

[OneRedArmy]

On the actual forum, I was under the impression it was invited, representative, fans rather than an open invite?

3 fans from each club, left up to fans of each club to work out who they sent.

Email list was from previous Forum before the season, which itself was drawn from the previous NLSA/Fans forum lists.

If anyone from a club that wasn't represented wants to get involved suggest they call or email Noel Mooney. If anyone from a club doesn't know who represented their club, then I'd say Noel will also provide that info.

The big positive for me was that all 4 attendees are passionate about the League. Obviously there's a lot going on at the minute, some good, some not so good, but that gave me a bit of comfort.

[Massop 10]

Yeah it is invite only but each club is asked to send a 3 people to it. The realy funny thing is that Pats and Rovers who say they are BIG clubs didn't send anyone but Dublin City, a club that went under still showed an intrest and went !!! I would have also expected Drogheda to have been there with the situation up there they would have seen why they are in the trouble they are in. I suppose for some it is easier to bang on here than face the people they slag off day in day out. The good thing is that for us that were there it was shown how open things are now and clubs have to be honest which makes for a level playing field in the future.

[dcfcsteve]

I dont trust any of those ratings for TV or Radio programmes.

Out of the 100s of people who will read my post, does anyone have one of those ratings boxes in their house or know anyone who has one or has ever have one?

Surely it is in any broadcasters interest to hype up / warp the viewing figures, so they can charge full whack for the adds!

How scientific are these figures really?

Or are the add agenices in cohoots with the broadcasters and the whole thing is a bit of a pull the wook job or wha?

bhs

Whilst there will never be a 100% precise way of measuring ratings, as someone who used to work in both advertising and marketing the current system is relatively reliable.

There is so much money tied-up in the advertising industry, and the current system has been around for so many decades, that you can be sure it would be dropped like a hot stone if it was deemed seriously flawed or if a better system existed.

Those who handle the advertising budgets in big commercial companies aren't idiots, and have a lot of influence. If a small number of them demanded change (or even if only one huge advertiser like Procter & Gamble did) it would happen...

[stann]

What address was it sent to? PM me if you wouldn't mind.

Maribor, you might PM me with what Waterford United address the invite was sent to as well, there's obviously a communications break there somewhere. Thanks.

[Dodge]

On the attendance/non attendance, can anyone tell me where the FAI got their mailling list? I read about it here.

Any thing else come of the meeting apart from the RTE thing?


(and thanks to Kev for the update)

[KianD]

I thought every t.v bought in the last 10 yrs or so has one of them built into tthe t.v set,is this true??
Boy talk about going off topic,what were we talking about again????.

Entirely untrue.

[Schumi]

On the actual forum, I was under the impression it was invited, representative, fans rather than an open invite?

I got an e-mail from Alan Kearins (not sure of exact spelling, sorry) about this as I was at the last meeting but I also got an email from UCD so the clubs must have been asked to get some supporters' representatives along.