RTE

First time ever in the recording studios of a tv show. A great experience seeing how the shows are recorded and being a part of the audience. The show was Ray Darcy’s Saturday Night Show and I was surprised at the fun you can have at these shows. They are really good fun and the audience is entertained by the studio manager before and during show breaks. Mostly by hm giving away white or red wine which seems to play a big part in the audiences excitement and laughter lol

The Irish National Broadcaster, something to be proud of? not even a little.
Content wise they raised their game recently but sadly that does not make up for the seemingly endless flow of low-​brow programming, shockingly overpaid presenters and the fact that as a commercial operation it still takes the guts of 200Euro from nearly every household in the country in the form of an annual licencing fee.
Who, me, bitter?
damn straight!!!

one star??? Gerrup to f*. Don’t know what your one is on about. Our state broadcaster is a very, very fine free tv station. The news, informative cookery shows, reeling in the years? It’s all gold, particularly when compared with the main state broadcasters in other english speaking countries. Mad respect to frames of reference.

Ah here we go, as I speak, (I am waiting to see ‘Reeling in the Years’, which is factbased, at least, and the archive footage is excellent. Let me be grateful for small mercies.
Meanwhile, the wha? 6 o’clock ‘news’ — big drug bust in West Dublin — RTE ‘news’ take on that — lovely shoes going up steps? Wha da? whose shoes are they? Lovely combat trousers? Who dey belong to? Vast expanse of waste land in West Dublin. I would say better than their ubiquitous pics of the Four Courts over our picturesque Liffey, but not convinced.
I would give no star, but my review will not ‘post’ unless I give something — so one star for a spectacular national broadcaster, unique I think, in their incompetence — they strive for it, and achieve it. Difficult to be so consistently incompetent, but gee, Radio Telefis Eireann has it to a T … and what’s with Sharon’s new accent? I really do not want to know.
Maria A
Maria A

For some of the Australian Drama that RTE has on in the early hours of the morning.
Packed to the Rafters:

Bed of Roses:
Shown early Monday morning *** the timing is dreadful so remember to Sky+ the following programme.
If RTE ever show a series ‘Rainshadow’ it is another excellent drama.
Some of the Australian drama is excellent and much better quality story line than some of the American drama which can be generic and boring.

All the other reviews here seem to be writing about the actual TV station but nobody mentioned its location or what RTE the building/​site looks like.
As your driving up the N11 nearing donnybrook you will see the huge mast and satellite dishes that sit just inside the grounds of RTE. I have been inside the gates of this place lots of times.
one of my first visits to RTE was when i was in school, i was coming back from something in the RDS with about 4 friends, we were in our school uniforms and decided to take a short cut through the grounds of RTE. the first thing we came across on the Donnybrook side was the set for Fair City, this looks like a normal street until you notice that the shop faces are just that, there is nothing behind them at all, if you look at the other side, they look like huge big billboards propped up with sticks. you can actually see this without going inside the grounds, how? you ask? well sit upstairs on the 46A as it drives past and look over the wall of RTE and youll see it! its kind of interesting!
After our walk through carrickstown (the fair city set) we managed to walk in behind some of the studios and other sets. this is where i got to spin the wheel from winning streak! yes i did! it was just sitting there in a corridor behind a studio. we were actually approached at this stage and asked what we were doing there, we told them we were on a school tour and our uniforms kind of helped with that lie! we decided that our adventure had come to an end though so we left, walking past all the radio trucks and the RTE canteen with all the TV people having lunch inside.
I have been an audience member inside RTE aswell and i can confirm that they do this better than TV3, you get booze before you go in and the whole set up is very professional. It is definitely worth applying for tickets to go see some show being filmed, its something different to do and its interesting getting to see what goes on behind the camera!

Some people in Ireland spent years only having two channels — RTE One and RTE Two. Therefore, they have a curious attachment to RTE! It’s the national TV station and while it shows its fair share of imported programmes, it also has a lot of homemade ones, some of which make for dodgy viewing. The national soap — Fair City — gets a lot of affectionate abuse among the natives, however it has improved over the years. Other home-​produced shows such as Prime Time, The Clinic and Would You Believe are of a lot better quality.

Yep RTE isn’t out for profits, but they do seem to be out for paying certain people exorbitant salaries without cause. Sorry sorry but Pat Kenny, Gerry Ryan and Gay Byrne have been annoying me for years! I wouldn’t pay them minimum wage let alone the pile they’ve both been getting for years. And they’re not alone!
OK RTE does what it can. Thankfully we’ve stopped winning the Eurovision so now they have money in their budget to buy home grown stuff and the best from abroad. They do make particularly good documentaries and particularly bad comedies. And while they do buy in my favourite shows (like the West Wing and Entourage) they seem to subject them to random fluctuations in scheduling in favour of whatever other dirge they have on their hands. Sunday mornings are particularly bad with mass on one channel and sport on the other. I always turn into Dougal «oh no, not Maaasss!»
They’re funded by both advertising and the ever-​increasing license fee, which they use to pay exorbitant salaries to people who should just not be on TV… (repeating while fading out)

I am a fan of RTE… I have had a good few trips tot he studios themselves through personal connections. and have no doubt that this place is a seriously active and efficient Television Station.
OK perhaps it is no BBC. but when you look at the content of RTE 1 and 2 compared to the tripe on TV3 and 3e you quickly realise the quality of the national broadcaster.
Non profit station that depends on Public Money and Advertising they do quite well with what they have i think.
Now that they have sorted out The Late Late Show with Tubridy who is doing a great job and put Pat back to politics and current affairs where he belongs (that show was quite good too the first night i saw it) things are looking a bit better for RTE what with their quality sports panels and childrens television… however the loss of the Den was a huge blow to me personally.
Their more fancy shows such as desperate housewives, ER and the like are usually well ahead of their British counterparts and you can also watch it all again now on the webplayer!

RTE is the best Irish television channel and it’s a non-​profit organisation, meaning that it is owned by the city. The content, in my opinion, is more intelligent than TV3’s or 3e’s.
RTE has the right mix of local, national and international shows that are interesting to a wide audience. The channel covers different topics like news, sport, lifestyle and entertainment.
One of my favourite things about RTE is Reeling in the Years. For a news junkie like me, this show is the best way to learn about Irish affairs. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the show, I’ll explain it. The half-​hour episode picks a year, say 1983, and uses TV clips from that year to show what was happening back then. The show also plays music from that year to reel in the year. It explores the headlines that had people talking.