RTE rejects TV3 collaboration offer on diaspora channel.

So, being reported by The Irish Times, and coming to my attention via the Media Boy Blog, is a report that TV3 has offered to collaborate with RTE on a best of Irish TV channel for the Irish diaspora.

Irish World then reported, and again brought to my attention by the Media Boy blog that RTE rejected the idea calling it speculative and premature.

Premature?  Remember, this is the company that part owned Tara TV between 1998 and 2002.

There hasn't been a TV channel aimed at the Irish abroad since then.  There hasn't been a true best of Ireland TV channel since then.

RTE has not only RTE 1 & RTE 2, but also RTE News Now and RTE Jr.  TV3 has of course TV3 and 3e, and UTV Ireland when that deal gets completed, and what ever that becomes.  Some have suggested it will get closed down, others think it will become 3u, and what a horrible name that is, but whatever happens there, the idea of RTE and TV3 teaming up for a channel is a great combination.

Think about this.  TV3 already have Ireland's only local breakfast TV show in Ireland AM, so they could start the ball rolling at 7am.  Have live news from TV3 at 12.30, 5.30 and 8.00, with live RTE News at 1.00, 6.01 and 9.00.  That already gives a collaborative channel a great structure of live news to work from.  Adding in Xpose, The Seven O'Clock Show, Midday and Tonight with Vincent Brown from TV3, and Today and The Late Late Show from  RTE, and you have the basics of a great channel that would showcase the best of Irish TV.

RTE should rethink the whole rejection of TV3's idea as it is a good one.  What's more, they should be looking to get RTE News Now onto Sky in the UK, Freest in the UK and Virgin Media in the UK as quickly as possible.  

RTE cancels Morning Edition, but two wrongs don’t make a right.

Two weeks ago, the Irish Examiner newspaper reported that RTE was axing it's morning news programme Morning Edition. It was one of those moves that came as a surprise, as it wasn't particularly signposted that such a move was about to happen. But frankly, the whole issue of Morning Edition, was a series of bad moves and mistakes from start to finish. RTE shouldn't be cancelling the programme, but it made a lot of mistakes in its creation too.

The whole situation dates back to the 1980s, when ITV and BBC created breakfast shows, TV-am and Breakfast Time. It was expected that RTE would follow their British neighbours lead and create their own breakfast television programme. But battles between RTE and the broadcasting unions in Ireland kept such a programme off the air for many many years.

Meanwhile, TV3, which itself got off to a slow start, getting licenced in 1989, and not launching until 1998 (and that's a long story in itself), launched its own breakfast show, Ireland AM, in 1999.  And since then, Ireland AM has become the default television choice for audiences at breakfast time.  On Radio, that honour goes to Morning Ireland, RTE Radio 1's equivalent of Radio 4's Today programme.

So, there you have the basic situation.  TV3 proud of Ireland AM, one of the few things they can be justifiably proud of, and RTE proud of Morning Ireland on RTE Radio 1.  In fact, they're so proud of it, they put cameras in the radio studio and stream the show on RTE News Now.  So, with Ireland AM airing from 7am to 10am, RTE wanted to compete, but not to detract from Morning Ireland, which airs between 7am and 9am.

So, they created "Morning Edition", which aired for 2 hours from 9am to 11am on both RTE 1 and RTE News Now.  It was announced back in October 2012, and launched on January 28th 2013.  Visually, and format wise, it looked and felt like a breakfast programme.  With news summaries at the top and bottom of each hour, and the newspaper review, and orange tint, and lighter general tone, it has more in common with breakfast programmes than with the daytime hours that the show occupied. 

So, why was it airing at 9am, instead of at 7am, as it should have been?  The only answer that made any sense, was fear.  Fear of failing against Ireland AM, and fear of cannibalising the Morning Ireland audience on RTE Radio 1.So, it was a good show, in the wrong slot.  Too late in the morning, airing after the audience was gone.  Gone to work, gone to school, and gone to TV3 for Ireland AM. 

It was the one time RTE truly needed to compete with TV3, and they didn't.  And then TV3 effectively stuck the knife in deeper, by extending Ireland AM To 10:45, although this was mostly in response to the cancellation of The Morning Show with Sybil & Martin, which had launched in 2009, airing live on weekdays at 11am.  It had been launched as part of an overhaul of daytime programming, and had lasted about 4 years, before being cancelled in 2013.  Ireland AM was extended out to 10.45am, and RTE's Morning Edition found itself in a hole. 

It had not wanted to compete with Ireland AM, and now it was being forced to compete, against its wishes.  And because it started two hours later than Ireland AM, Morning Edition had no chance.  The content was great, it was just two hours too late.  Moving it to 8am, would have helped a little bit, would have taken away some of Ireland AM's lead, and it would have been a proper breakfast show, albeit a slightly late one, but workable as a breakfast slot.  But 9am just isn't workable as a time for a breakfast show, which Morning Edition, really was.

So, RTE decide to cancel Morning Edition, rather than move it, and risk cannibalising Morning Ireland's audience.

Except, that based on everything we've seen here in the UK, TV doesn't cannibalise Radio's audiences at Breakfast time.  Radio's audience at breakfast has remained very strong.  In fact, breakfast is still radio's most listened to timeslot.  Breakfast television hasn't garnered anything like the kind of audience that breakfast radio has, but it has done well enough to make it profitable. 

So, RTE's reason for not moving Morning Edition, has no actual basis in fact, and makes their decision to cancel the show seem very short sighted.  What they are afraid of, doesn't happen.  Radio listeners don't suddenly switch to TV, just because RTE One has a new breakfast programme.  Today on Radio 4 didn't lose listeners because BBC One launched Breakfast Time in 1983.  That audience is pretty fixed, they like Today, they don't want anything else, the competition can do what it wants, they're not going to move.  A similar situation will apply to Morning Ireland.  Their audience likes what Morning Ireland does, and that audience isn't going to suddenly evaporate away to TV, because TV has launched a new breakfast programme. 

RTE needs to get its confidence back.  They need to realise that they are playing for the long haul, not like TV3, living quarter to quarter, worrying about making more profits each quarter.  Both companies feel under pressure with the arrival at the beginning of 2015 of UTV Ireland, which has taken a lot of programming from TV3.  This won't directly affect Ireland AM, which has a steady 50,000 viewers and is produced by TV3 rather than bought in from ITV, which a lot of TV3 programmes have been.  But, it could affect it indirectly, through increased cost of producing home-grown primetime programming, with less money potentially available for their breakfast programme.

No matter what happens with UTV Ireland and TV3, the cancelling of Morning Edition, has been one of the biggest mistakes that RTE has made, bigger than the mistake of putting it on at 9am.  I hope that in cancelling it, they are working to bring a proper breakfast programme, starting at 6am or 6.30am, to RTE One, or at least, a breakfast sequence with half hourly news summaries, or at least, hourly news summaries, rather than teleshopping, and a repeat of a previous weekday's edition of a magazine show.

If they are so concerned about cannibalising Morning Ireland's radio audience, then make Morning Ireland, a joint radio/TV simulcast.  Present it from the RTE News TV studio, studio 3 at Donnybrook, produce it in a very similar way to how Morning Edition has been produced, with the emphasis on guests and live material, rather than packages, and the programme would air on RTE One, RTE News Now (which is pretty standard for all RTE One News programmes), and RTE Radio 1. 

Putting Morning Edition at 9am was a bad idea, but cancelling it now, is even worse, and as the old saying goes, two wrongs don't make a right.

US Election Analysis and Coverage.

This election cycle in the US has been the most divided and one of the closest in recent memory, certainly the closest since 2000.  But an improving economy and the most unwelcome of October surprises in Hurricane Sandy, handled brilliantly by President Obama, may have swung the election away from Mitt Romney.  Obama had the easier path to 270 anyway this year, and Mitt Romney looks like he has had just too much to do to turn it round.

However, don't expect the declaration of the winner to be made by 11pm ET / 4am GMT.  This will be a lot closer than the 365 to 173 electoral college votes that we saw in 2008.  Indeed, it's quite possible that Mitt Romney may get more votes overall, but lose the election due to the particular quirks of the US election system.  I am fully expecting the declaration of the winner, to come after Midnight ET, maybe closer to 1am ET.

However, just as interesting as the final result, is just how many people will vote for the third party candidates, as two debates featuring only the 3rd party candidates have aired or are about to air on RT America, one of those debates was actually produced by online TV operation Ora TV with Larry King, former CNN host moderating.  RT America can be seen by over 50 million people in the US, which is still far less than CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, who can all be seen by at least 200 million people, but still means that candidates that have not been seen on more mainstream media outlets, have gotten more exposure this time around than in previous years.

Also, likely to possibly change things around a bit this year, is the Occupy movement, which the right wing media have done their best to downplay or ignore, calling it a spent force or a dead movement.  Now, by contrast, nobody has refered to the Tea Party movement on the Republican side as a spent force, which says to me that the Republicans are genuinely scared of how the Occupy movement could have a major impact on the political scene, especially after the movement changed the discussion framework of the debate on government spending in the US in 2011. 

Another factor that could be an issue is Roseanne Barr.  Whilst the actress and comedienne was unsuccessful in getting nominated for the Green Party, she has used her twitter feed to actively campaign on Green Party issues, to her over 174,000 followers.  It does mean that we are in for a much more interesting time in this election cycle, rather than just who's gonna win.  With Ron Paul backing Gary Johnson, the Libertarian party candidate, it will mean that there are more stories in this election than in 2008.  The only story in 2008, was how much Barack Obama would win by, it was that obvious. 

There will be a lot of coverage of course, on TV and radio, across the world, as this story has global impact.  In the UK, the BBC will have coverage on both radio and television.  Radio 5 Live will start the ball rolling at 10pm GMT / 5pm ET, with Richard Bacon hosting coverage for 8 hours, with 5 Live Breakfast taking over at 6am.  Radio 4 will also have coverage, anchored by James Naughtie and Bridget Kendall, until 6am when the Today programme will continue the coverage.  BBC1 and BBC News Channel will have coverage starting at 11.35pm, and continuing into Breakfast.  Outside of the BBC, ITV is anchoring its own coverage also starting at 11.35pm and going on into Daybreak.  Commercial radio however, doesn't seem to be covering it outside of news bulletins.  LBC, the UK's only news/talk station, has no speciall coverage planned as I write this, although I expect the overnight hosts will talk about it, with a full roundup expected in The Morning News with Susan Bookbinder at 6.30am.

Satellite viewers can expect to find a lot of coverage.  One of the more unexpected sources this time is PBS America, who are airing the live PBS NewsHour coverage from Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff, starting at 11pm GMT and going on until at least 5am.  Sky News are starting their coverage at 10.30pm, and going on until 9am.  Bloomberg's coverage starts at Midnight and runs until 5am.  CNBC is providing their own coverage after the live NBC Nightly News at 11.30pm, and the coverage goes on until 7am.  Al Jazeera's coverage runs from 9pm to 7am, whilst FOX News Channel's coverage starts at 11pm and goes on until 10am.  But CNN International take the award for the most coverage, starting off at 11am, including a special hour long edition of Amanpour at 8pm, switching to a simulcast of CNN USA at 9pm until 7am, when they resume coverage until 3pm, when they switch to a modified normal schedule, with an additional hour of International Desk at 5pm.  Although Piers Morgan Tonight is scheduled for 11pm, I expect that to be replaced with an edition of World Report from Hong Kong.

Over in Ireland, TV coverage is the order of the night, as radio seems to be giving live overnight coverage a wide berth.  Neither RTE Radio 1 nor NewsTalk have any scheduled coverage outside of daytime and news bulletins.  NewsTalk's George Hook is presenting his drivetime programme, The Right Hook, from America all week, but there is no overnight coverage scheduled.  On television RTE 1 has their own anchored coverage from 11.35pm until 3am, then they join CBS News for their coverage at 3am, switch to EuroNews at 7am, before RTE return to their own anchored coverage at 8am until 9.40am.

TV3 on the other hand, are doing something weird.  Undoubtedly, the story will feature in the regularly scheduled Tonight with Vincent Brown at 11pm.  TV3 will join CNN's live coverage at 2am until Ireland AM starts at 7am.  However, betweem Midnight and 2am, TV3 are showing Psychic Readings Live.  I don't need to be psychic to know that TV3 will basically have given RTE the ratings victory in that timeslot.  Also, Ireland AM is not known for its news coverage, so that could be an interesting programme.

As we get closer to Election Day in the US, I will be finding out more about how other broadcasters around the world will be covering the story, and I will update the blog with those details as I find them.  Also, if I get any word on internet streams of coverage, and I expect there to be such streams from Politico and Democracy Now amongst others, then I'll bring that information to you as well.  On the night, I myself will be live tweeting on @cityprod.  It should be a fascinating night.

Jean Byrne: RTE's Weather In Leather

I have previously posted about a UK weather presenter Joanna Rice who was nicknamed The Weather In Leather.

Well it seems that Joanna has some competition for that title. RTE has a weather presenter by the name of Jean Byrne, who seems to have taken up Joanna's mantle.

I present the following videos as evidence...







...and as further evidence that she enjoys dressing up, here she is in a silver lame dress...



Hmm, I wonder if she is single...

Suggestion for RTE: Put RTE News Now on satellite FTA.

Yes, you read that correctly.  I am actively suggesting that RTE puts their online news channel, RTE News Now, onto Astra 2 alongside their other channels, but with one notable difference.  Whilst RTE1 and RTE2 are on the Irish Bonus Pack, and not available to UK viewers, they should put RTE News Now free-to-air on both the Sky platform and the Freesat platform.

All this would be though is a precursor to the eventual launch of the long planned RTE International.  RTE said they hoped to launch it by the end of 2009, but that obviously hasn’t happened.  So far, no word on when RTE International will launch.

Also, a word of advice to RTE about RTE International.  Don’t immediately worry about creating a whole new news service for it, you don’t have to do a “BBC World News” straight off the bat.  Get the news bulletins that air on RTE1 and RTE2 onto the channel.  Get an RTE News: Breakfast programme to air between 7am and 9am.  The fact that RTE1 doesn’t have a breakfast news programme is shameful, and getting more shameful every week, that such a programme fails to launch. 

Viewpoint – John Terry’s sacking

Ratings Review: JNLR year ending Jun 07

The Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) figures for Jun 06-Jun 07 have been released by Ireland's media regulator, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI). These are the figures for radio stations in Ireland.

Of interest to me is the fact that little has changed in the past 6 months. RTE Radio 1 still holds a 23% national reach with RTE 2FM just behind on 18%. RTE Lyric FM also holds a consistent 3% reach.

Commercial music station Today FM is only just behind 2FM with 16% reach, whilst commercial talk station NewsTalk 106-108 struggles with just 5%.

It is very interesting to note that the local stations in Ireland tend to have much larger reach than the national stations. Highland Radio has a 64% reach in their listneing area. By contrast, the two local Dublin stations 98FM and FM104, both score 12.7% in their area, which is lower than RTE Radio 1's equivalent number in Dublin (31%).

It will be interesting to look at the next set of numbers, when they next come out.

Ireland Votes 2007: Coverage

Oh dear. RTE has pretty much been the sole provider of coverage, both in broadcast and online. BBC Parliament planned to relay coverage from 1900 to 2130. They didn't start properly until 1915, and finished at 2055, and just left a slide on screen for the whole duration of the RTE News: Nine O'Clock bulletin.

TV3 has no ability to provide online coverage, as it has no news section on it's website. And the only other Irish news provider is Independent Network News, which has no website of it's own.

Outside of Ireland, BBC News seems to be the only other news provider to have covered the election at all, and that is mainly online.

Sky News seems to have barely touched on it at all, and not so long ago, they would have had their own coverage anchored from Dublin on Sky News Ireland. Now, barely anything. It's disappointing.

Ireland Votes 2007: The Voting System

The voting system in Ireland is not the same one used in UK General Elections, which is First Past The Post. Ireland uses the Single Transferable Vote system, which is a little complicated for me to explain here, but there is a good guide at RTE's Election 2007 site, which explain it far better than I can.

However, to give you a real life example, in Dublin North, Fianna Fail candidate Michael Kennedy has been elected. Now, there are 4 seats available in Dublin North, and since so far only 1 candidate has been elected, the second preference votes for Michael Kennedy will now be counted and added to the totals for the other candidates, and this will go on until all 4 Dublin North seats are filled.

Watching the news on the net.

So, the recent trend for news channels to broadcast on the net continues. The most recent addition is BBC News 24, which can now be watched live on the net. My only concern is that the bandwidth stream being allocated for both video and audio is only 34kbps!

When we have broadband services that start at 2mbps, going up to around 16mbps, a 34kbps stream seems to be either a cost cutting measure, or just plain silly. 34kbps videos are not very watchable and the audio is pretty crappy. Give it at least 100kbps. The video would be better but certainly not special, but it would be at least watchable, and it would be possible to at least listen to it, if you happened to be doing something else.

At least RTE give their live news video at least 225kbps!

Biased News on NPR? I don't think so!

There is a blog which purports to monitor "...rightwing, pro-government and corporate bias..." on the programming of National Public Radio News, called NPR Check. The reality is that this is a blogger that is looking for a news service to be explicitly liberal, in the same way that Fox News Channel is explicitly conservative.

Thankfully, for people like me who are fed up with biased news, from any source, liberal or conservative, NPR News is not biased, but sticks very closely to just reporting the facts. I have listened regularly to NPR's top shows, Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and I find it to be very fair, airing reporting that is based exclusively on fact rather than even the slightest agenda.

Most blogs which attack the public service broadcasters (NPR, PBS, BBC, CBC, RTE, ABC Australia etc) are run by bloggers with a conservative political bent. This one is decidedly liberal, proving that the anti-public service broadcasting community comes from all sides and colours of the political spectrum.

For crying out loud, people STOP TRYING TO FORCE EVERY NEWS ORGANISATION TO MATCH YOUR POLITICAL BENT! If you want BIASED news, there are plenty of newspapers and websites out there with enough bias to fill the Pacific Ocean!!!

Let those of us who would actually PREFER some unbiased news, some sources like the BBC, NPR, RTE etc.

RTE broadcasting live news video from St Patrick's Day.

For years now, you have been able to listen to RTE's radio stations online, but the situation with live video webcasts has been very limited at best.

Special events is about all you've been able to watch on very infrequent occasions. Even the RTE News was a recorded video webcast and not all programmes and bulletins were available.

But from St Patrick's Day (March 17th) 2007, RTE News output, will be broadcast live online for all the world to see.

For me, this is a very positive development. The BBC have made their BBC1 News bulletins available online live for quite some time now, but News 24 is not available. The old ITN News Channel was available online from it's launch in 2000, til it became the ITV News Channel. In the US, some local stations air their newscasts live online too, such as WCBS TV in News York.

I like the fact that the late night News On Two is also being inlcuded in the live webcast schedule, as this has been the major bulletin that has been missing from the RTE News recorded webcasts.

I will probably be watching a lot of these webcasts.