RTE .... The best they can do right now !!

[Macy]

Actually ITV (Granada) don't even have a majority stake in TV3. I don't want to appear to stick up for TV3 too much - it was a disgrace that Agenda was dropped, and the Dunphy Show should never have been scheduled against the Late Late - but bottom line is TV3 aren't costing each house hold €155 a year, so so what if they produce crap?

[Aberdonian Stu]

Tend to agree with Macy on TV3. They're a private enterprise and run a cost-efficient operation which involves piggybacking a lot of ITV material. Ratings show that a lot of people opt for them over ITV as well, a majority in the case of most programmes. As it is ITV material it's generally rubbish.

RTE showing soaps, including Fair City might I add and even TG4 showing CollegetilIdie's beloved Ros na Rún, has always been tenuous with regards to the public service remit. High ratings they may get but they are still loss makers. I personally hate all soaps as they are the lowest form of drama, if you can even call them that, but don't think the axing of Fair City is necessary to satisfy the remit. Four days a week of it is excessive, two days would be more cost effective, freeing up funds for more 'worthy' projects. Admittedly drama out of this country has been bloody awful in recent years, Proof, DDU, Making the Cut, The Big Bow Wow, and Servants, are just some of the appalling creations we've had to endure and to be honest it's been that way for a long time.

There are some areas where Montrose fulfils its remit. Three 60 was a well produced, although overly stylised, programme for the disabled and Mono, which I never saw, was apparently fairly solid.

It's also a difficult act to balance. For example almost all sport is loss making (including the big three of GAA, International Football, and Rugby). But were RTE to cut back it would be abused from all quarters. Anyone who knows me outside of this forum knows I'm mad for most sports so a selfish part of me isn't looking for RTE to reduce its coverage but the more economically sound part says it should in some areas.

They aren't a commercial organisation so in theory many shows should make a loss but all shows that do so should uphold the remit in making such a loss. Those that don't shouldn't be produced or should be done so on a smaller scale.

This mini-diplomatic rant barely touches the surface of the argument and that's the problem in dealing with something as complex as a public service. The question is always where is the greater good?

[pineapple stu]

The question is always where is the greater good?

Sell the telly, save on the licence and read a book instead!

[Partizan]

I must say I quite liked Servants for its portrayal of mid 19th century life in a sprawling English country manor estate. I generally like the historical/costume dramas (Sharpes Rifles, Horatio Hornblower) above any of the Corrie/Eastenders/Fair City dross.

TV3 is seriously rubbish and offers absolutley nothing except the News, Weather and eL coverage (what little there is) Face it, without TV3 there woudl be no weekly coverage of the eL by anybody including RTE.

RTE overall are improving but slightly however a major overhaul of its programme structuring and celebreties is needed. New faces have to be brought in to replace the jaded old reliables like Gaybo, Plank, Gerry Ryan and spanner Mooney.

TG4 is a fresh of breath air and their programming on the whole has been excellent. Great documentaries (Fior Sceal), films (Scannain na Staire), the Westerns, fresh faces make it palpable. Their home grown Irish language programmes are extremely enjoyable and overall its a fantastic service for helping viewers like myself improve on their Irish. This station has been given our native tongue a badly needed shot in the arm and brought our native language kicking and screaming from the 19th into the 21st century. I find myself speaking Irish everyday to a native speaker from Kerry, something I would never have done a couple of years ago.

All in all TG4 is the best of our home grown channels. Ros na Run is excellent.
all we need now are the lads in Galway to start showing a bit of peil sacair eL and were fooking elected.

Portlairge Aontaithe all the way.

[pete]

I would only have a probelm with TV3 dross if there was another irish company looking to setup a terrestial station & tv3 were hogging the licence. Since no danger of that doesn't really matter...

[Colm]

New faces have to be brought in to replace the jaded old reliables like Gaybo, Plank, Gerry Ryan and spanner Mooney.

Why? The "jaded old reliables" are the people who bring in the ratings and the odd time a new face is brought in (Ryan Tubridy) people still give out about them. I actually think Gerry Ryan is excellent and Derek Mooney is good at what he does aswell.

Other than that I agree with nearly all the critisism of both RTE and TV3. However as Macy said no viewers are forced to pay for what TV3 show.

I think TV3 news is far more watchable than RTE. TV3 present it in a modern Sky news style format whereas RTE present it in an outdated boring way imo. However, I could just have this view because I like looking at Claire Byrne on TV3!

[M@ttitude]

Whats the story with Telly Bingo?