RTÉ get live Premiership rights

[Enda M]

druggydrog wat you said is ****e. we are irish and rte claim they are irish a=so if they had any sense of irish ness in them theyd show el stuff.i hour a week is all we ask.how many countries around europe ignore their national league like irish stations do.

[Colm]

Originally posted by pineapple stu
Didn't realise when I first posted this that it was going to be Saturday afternoons only. That's okay from the point that it won't be clashing with eL games, but it's more exposure to the English game for youngesters who we should be trying to get to eL games.

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?

[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.


Some one said they wont have advertising power etc. ......... surely it doesn't make a difference what the punters are actually watching just as long as there are more people watching the ads. ..... so that point goes out the window.


Any time RTÉ try and defend there position, their argument gets toren to bits. They just choose not to listen.

[tiktok]

Remember we have summer soccer now, and both RTE and TV3 look during the summer to replace their big ratings earners with other programming during the summer break. The point that friday is a big telly night doesn't hole the same water over the summer.

If there's one thing we can learn from the SKY experience it's that regardless of the product, if it's properly packaged and presented then the audience will have a look.

[Éanna]

Originally posted by Conor74
With respect a face, farmers get shafted again and again and again by successive governments and most particularly by European legislation. For most they are forced to take a job outside their farms to make ends meet. You know the old adage "get a job"?

That old adage is perfect. Let them get jobs. If I didn't make enough money from my job, I'd quit and look for another one. Farmers are born whingers. It's genetic. All they do is moan and leech off the taxpayer. If I could get an EU grant to not mow my lawn I wouldn't be moaning about it. And if, just by some bizarre fluke, you're right and its only a small number of farmers who are making the money- who's fault is it? Fianna Fáil? Backing yourself into a corner there Conor my man

[Macy]

It's totally ridiculous that RTE pay this amount of money for these games - it's bad enough that they pay for the highlights.... If they're a commercial station they shouldn't get the license fee - put the license fee into a pool for them, TV3 and TG4 for public service programmes that they have to bid for the funds....

btw It looks like the knight in shining armour may be the IFA - they're talking of appealing the decision to Europe as 3pm Saturday clashes with the Irish League. Delighted for the Montrose Muppets....

[Éanna]

Originally posted by Macy
It's totally ridiculous that RTE pay this amount of money for these games - it's bad enough that they pay for the highlights.... If they're a commercial station they shouldn't get the license fee - put the license fee into a pool for them, TV3 and TG4 for public service programmes that they have to bid for the funds....

btw It looks like the knight in shining armour may be the IFA - they're talking of appealing the decision to Europe as 3pm Saturday clashes with the Irish League. Delighted for the Montrose Muppets....

absolutely spot on there macy. RTÉ are really stretching the definition of poublic service to the max.....

[Beavis]

Originally posted by Enda M
we are irish and rte claim they are irish a=so if they had any sense of irish ness in them theyd show el stuff

RTE haven't turned there back on national sport.They give great support to our national games(football and hurling),and rightfully so.But I don't for one second think that it's because they feel it's right to support it,it's because they know it gets the best ratings.Handball is a national sport but you don't see that on cos nobody wants it.That's the way stations have to operate,it's what the majority of viewers want to see.

The argument that El games bring in more revenue than British games is obviously false.There's no logic in saying that RTE choose to make less money in favour of showing British matches.Get real

Basically people prefer to watch top level football than a poorer game.I for one watch the Premiership and English First Divison because I like to see Ireland's best players in action and sadly they happen to play in another country.

PS I EXPECT TO GET CRUCIFIED FOR THIS POST

[Éanna]

Originally posted by Beavis
RTE haven't turned there back on national sport.They give great support to our national games(football and hurling),and rightfully so.But I don't for one second think that it's because they feel it's right to support it,it's because they know it gets the best ratings.Handball is a national sport but you don't see that on cos nobody wants it.That's the way stations have to operate,it's what the majority of viewers want to see.

The argument that El games bring in more revenue than British games is obviously false.There's no logic in saying that RTE choose to make less money in favour of showing British matches.Get real

Basically people prefer to watch top level football than a poorer game.I for one watch the Premiership and English First Divison because I like to see Ireland's best players in action and sadly they happen to play in another country.

PS I EXPECT TO GET CRUCIFIED FOR THIS POST

No intention of crucifying you, but that attitude is exactly the reason Irish soccer is stuck in a rut. The fact is that RTÉ have got better viewing figures for eircom League/FAI Cup games than for the champions league or for the Premiership. Whether they make more money or not, I don't know. The point really is: if RTÉ are a public service broadcaster, they should be showing what the public wants (hence, viewing figures, hence doemstic soccer) but if they are a commercial station, they are under no obligation and can just show whatever gets the best advertising revenue- however, if the latter is the case they are not entitled to ANY licence fee. The problem I, and I imagine many others feel the same, is that RTÉ seem to want to have their cake and eat it.

[Beavis]

Originally posted by Éanna
The point really is: if RTÉ are a public service broadcaster, they should be showing what the public wants (hence, viewing figures, hence doemstic soccer) but if they are a commercial station, they are under no obligation and can just show whatever gets the best advertising revenue- however, if the latter is the case they are not entitled to ANY licence fee.

Fair point there.I suppose it does then all come down to actual viewing figures.However if El matches were getting larger audiences,as yous say, wouldn't advertising follow??Corporations just want as many people to see their logo as possible.That's why I find it hard to believe El matches attract better audiences,if it was the case these games would get as much if not more sponsorship than the supposidly less watched British games.

[Slash/ED]

Originally posted by Beavis
Fair point there.I suppose it does then all come down to actual viewing figures.However if El matches were getting larger audiences,as yous say, wouldn't advertising follow??Corporations just want as many people to see their logo as possible.That's why I find it hard to believe El matches attract better audiences,if it was the case these games would get as much if not more sponsorship than the supposidly less watched British games.

Well soccercental said the FAI cup semi final replay got 200,000 viewers which beat the viewers for RTEs premiership coverage and champions league coverage and I think they got their figures from RTE themselves.

[Beavis]

Alright then,if LoI matches are getting ratings as good as foreign matches then it would of course be much more economical for the RTE to show home matches.Sadly though I don't think we would see this week in week out.The cup semi-final,having had an exciting first game[the second half anyway] and involving two top teams is always likely to draw a good amount of viewers but could it be reproduced on a regular basis?

The fact is that the Premiership gets around 200,000 viewers every week .Don't think I'm trying to knock the LoI,I would like to see a El game on RTE or TV3 each week but I'm afraid that saying these games bring better audiences is not normally true and as I said before RTE have to go with what the majority want.

It does seem a good idea though to show El games during the summer when the British leagues are in close season.They could show the Sunday afternoon game and maybe after some good exposer,interest might grow in the public.

[pineapple stu]

Originally posted by Beavis
The fact is that the Premiership gets around 200,000 viewers every week .Don't think I'm trying to knock the LoI,I would like to see a El game on RTE or TV3 each week but I'm afraid that saying these games bring better audiences is not normally true and as I said before RTE have to go with what the majority want.

The last figures I heard (admittedly nearly two years ago) were that The Premiership got 150,000 viewers. At the same time, RTÉ were doing (being forced to do) an eL highlights show. This beat The Premiership on ratings almost every week (getting around 170,000 I think).

I don't know if it's assumed that the 150,000 Premiership viewers includes more pub viewers (in which case advertising may earn more as there's far more than one person watching the programme), although even then I know the Pat's-Bohs match was on in a few pubs.

[gspain]

When it comes to revenue it is not simply a case of viewing figures. Two points against this are

1) Cost of an OB unit to cover a live game is expensive. Relatively speaking the premiership and live English footbal lwill be cheaper.

2) Types of viewers can be different and more attractive to advertisers. I don't know any of the facts here but it would be interesting to compare the cost of an advert furing the premiership with the cost during the Cup Semi final. The big ones for RTE are normally the Rose of tralee (I'm serious) and the national team competitive games where adverts can cost over €20,000 for 30 seconds.

Now the reason I feel RTE should be forced to cover live football is public service broadcasting - that's why we pay a licence fee.

They should be forced to show more domestic football. Before the Sky deal the F.A.I. tied in the rights to the national team with domestic coverage hence live games. Now after taking the 7.5 million and losing it we ar ein a far wors eposition as RTE have the national team for a song and don't have to show any domestic football.

I've no issue with them showing live premiershiip football or hours and hours of live GAA or live badminton once they also cover domestic football.

[pineapple stu]

Originally posted by gspain
1) Cost of an OB unit to cover a live game is expensive. Relatively speaking the premiership and live English footbal lwill be cheaper.

I think that must be what it comes down to. I remember reading a book which explained how US programmes were taking over the world - they make their profit in America, and then if they can dump then on any other country, any bit of revenue is 100% profit. So basically, the Premier League makes its money from Sky, ITV and BBC, and can then afford to cut the price if anyone else is looking for rights. They then gain from increased exposure by fawning more couch potatos who buy jerseys at E80 a pop. This is also why there are so many US programmes on RTÉ (particularly those appalling family films...)

The only way around this seems to be to take a strong line on it, like the BBC consciously restricting the number of US programmes they show so as not to drown out their own culture. So it seems the only hope for the eL on RTÉ is if the muppets in the Montrose adopt a principled line of culture and Irishness over money. And I think it's fair to say we'll be waiting a while...

[Éanna]

Originally posted by Conor74
No no, as noted above successive governments, and the EU witht they sea of legislation that seems designed to upset small businesses, but particularly small farms...

successive governments? How many of the last 3 or even 5 governments has FF been in?! Did FF object to us joining the EU because it wanted to protect small farmers? My arse

[Éanna]

Originally posted by gspain
1) Cost of an OB unit to cover a live game is expensive. Relatively speaking the premiership and live English footbal lwill be cheaper.

Does anyone think that the best thing the FAI could do would be to buy one of these units and then make it available to RTÉ/TV3 on a weekly basis as part of a contract to show matches. Surely it would be do-able?

[crc]

chorus manage to get camera's to city's and cobh's home games - it can't be that difficult

[gspain]

Originally posted by crc
chorus manage to get camera's to city's and cobh's home games - it can't be that difficult

Live games are far more exensive to do than recording and showing again. And as the Americans say if you're not live you're dead.....

Quality of coverage varies here- RTE have high standards (Aertel is an exception ) and probably union rules too on the numbers involved etc.

The cost includes manpower etc not just the cost of the units. I believe TV3 don't even have an OB unit - RTE do have a couple but these are expensive to operate.

[pineapple stu]

Originally posted by gspain
Live games are far more exensive to do than recording and showing again. And as the Americans say if you're not live you're dead.....

The yanks also said they'd be out of Iraq in a couple of months!

Still think that the eL needs a decent (and accessible) highlights show more than loads of live matches. Which brings us back to the question - why not???