Before I begin, I apologise in advance to any sensitive little soul who may be offended by anything I write here. It is not my intention to cause offense, just to inflict my opinions on all and sundry 
As I came to work on the Arrow this morning I noticed an advertisement for television licenses mounted over the luggage rail. It pictured a nice LCD television (you know, the kind you’d love to have at home but can’t afford because you have to pay for things like the television license, for example), displaying the words “Last of the TV Spongers”, beside text threatening a €635 fine if you haven’t paid for your television license.
It strikes me as ironic that the only state-funded television network in Ireland is accusing others of being spongers. I rarely watch television. I never watch RTE. Why am I paying €150 per annum to support them? I’m already paying Chorus €25.99 per month for the privilege of getting television reception, and I’m informed that Chorus are paying RTE for the right to rebroadcast.
Now, it’s not that I refuse to watch RTE on principle. I’d love to find something on RTE that I couldn’t get better elsewhere. I don’t even watch RTE news anymore as I find TV3 far more impartial.
It’s not as though RTE are incapable of being self-funding. Look at TV3/UTV for example. Or Channel 4. Or the BBC. All of these networks are producing dramas/comedies/news programs of sufficient interest and quality to be syndicated. Ireland is known for it’s artists… writers, actors, singers and dancers all abound in this country. RTE has a vast pool of talent to draw on, and it chooses for the most part to ignore this, unless of course the artist in question has achieved fame or notoriety in his/her own right abroad.
So I say to RTE … people living in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones!
Regarding the license, i totally agree. All of us are paying for a sevice we hardly ever receive literally ( poor quality signals that is. We are effectively held hostage by this monopoly.