The RTE News Thread

RTE this evening have announced the appointment of Fran McNulty to the post of Agriculture & Consumer affairs replacing George Lee after 5 years in the posting. Fran returns back to the newsroom after a stent of reporting at Prime Time.

Following a review of correspondent roles in RTE, several posting have been reconfigured with Agriculture & Consumer Affairs and Environment and Science roles. The latter role according to RTE will be filled shortly.

It been reported George Lee will remain working in the newsroom but his role remains unclear. I suspect George could be heading back to his old role of Economics Correspondent. This follows Sean Whelan departure from this role as he takes up the position of London Correspondent in August.

When does the summer cut backs in RTE News begin? The One O'Clock News is usually reduced to 15 minutes and the Six-One to a 30 minute bulletin. Does it happen at the end of this month?

I know RTE have totally abandoned the concept of morning news on RTE One now, and relegated it to the 10.00am and 11.00am updates on RTE News Now, but the summer cut backs always seem to be a bit draconian at RTE.

The bulletin time duration for the one and six-one bulletins is usually shortened after the August bank holiday. So for the month of August. A few years back I think it use to be a for a longer period, taking effect in mid July.

Sean Whelan was speaking as London Correspondent on RTÉ Six-One News from Westminster this evening.

It looks like Monday 22nd July 2019 will be the start of the reduced news service over the summer on RTE One. I see in the preliminary schedules, the One O'Clock News will be cut back to 15 minutes and the Six-One to 30 minutes as per usual, but am I wrong in saying this is a bit early for the summer reduction, I thought it was just August they did it?

In recent years it has been just August. Longer ago - back in the 1990s - it went on for way longer, most of the summer at one stage. The rationale is that both Parliament and the courts are off on the Long Vacation - the so called “silly season” as it is known.

22nd of July is early. At least there's still a bulletin at 1, it disappeared entirely the first year or two it was on (if my memory is correct) Back in the 80's the bulletins were shortened for 3 months and more, Newsnight used to disappear off of RTE 2 for months as well. After all, there was no international news between June and August.

RTE One must love "Reeling in the Years" programme they made. The programme is their go to filler for the Six-One News every day during the summer cut back season.


6.30pm - You can nearly 100% guarantee Reeling in the Years will air throughout August. So instead of world news and national news, we get archive RTE clips of events edited together for a specific year, with no narrator, just on screen captions.

Interesting they don't cut back Morning Ireland on RTE Radio 1 during the summer or their News at One. Someone once said radio still takes precedence over television in terms of news coverage on RTE, and to be honest, I think they are right.

Also, do Virgin Media One and Two cut back their news programming over the same summer season?

Brendan Grace's funeral has live coverage today on RTÉ News Now.

It was me who said that radio is more viewed as more important here in Ireland, and the numbers don’t argue with that being honest. Morning Ireland wipes the floor with everyone. Radio is also cheaper and easier to produce than tv - a telephone interview is simple.

You’ve got to remember a number of things:

1) RTÉ News budget is constantly under pressure and they need to save money

2) The Dáil is now in recess and the courts will rose shortly

3) RTÉ doesn’t have the numbers of correspondents that the BBC does and that does impact on them in terms of cover during the main annual leave period and they certainly don’t have the range of international corespondents to provide stories.

Realistically you’re losing the longer interview, the regional roundup and probably two full reports in the 6:01.

Virgin Media only do half-hour evening bulletins - that’s still doable.

To me, it does feel RTE have remained in a time warp from their older era, where news bulletins would be drastically scaled back during the summer, and it seems they have not lost the habit.


If they can provide a one hour news format at 6.01 for the rest of the year and not damaging their budget, then why six weeks off over the summer? Surely the budget is set for the whole year and not just for the September to mid-July season?

Virgin Media Ireland seem to be able to continue with their news service with no cutbacks during the summer, and their budget is even more tighter than RTE. If a shoestring channel like Virgin Media can do it, then why not the juggernaut of RTE?

It just seems that RTE has remained in a late 20th century attitude to news in some areas, in other areas they are excellent. Morning Ireland is a great programme, I have listened to it on a few occasions here on Freesat some mornings. But, they did have a chance to do a morning news on RTE 1 called Morning Edition, and the lack lustre scheduling of 9.00am to 11.00am meant RTE knew it would fail from the start, which gives the impression RTE care more about their radio news division.

Just an opinion okay, don't go off on one because you disagree, I am just giving a view point from this side.

Genuinely I think that with staff leave commitments and all of the politicians off, the ability to deliver the full six:one bulletin is an issue during the high summer.

BBC can fill out bulletins with international stories with their range of correspondents which is an option RTÉ don’t have.

Virgin Media are basically delivering the same 30 minute bulletin several times - that’s hardly comparable to the 6:01.

I’ve said it before - I really don’t see the market for a BBC Breakfast style tv programme here - radio is king and that’s something quite Irish to be honest.