Big swing against RTE 2

In a special opinion poll conducted for Magill a huge majority in the 26 counties expressed themselves in favour of the re-broadcasting of BBC I on a second channel rather than RTE 2. By TOM O'DEA

54% of the total population said they favoured BBC 1 as compared to 32% who favoured R TE 2. Among adults in households with television sets the difference was even more dramatic. 57% said they favoured BBC I and 32% RTE 2.

The poll differs sharply from one commissioned by the RTE authority in 1975 which showed nearly 66% of the population in favour of RTE 2. However there were allegations at the time that this poll was biased in the phrasing of the questionnaire in that It stated that RTE 2 would consist of selected extracts from BBC I, BBC 2 and the ITV channels. '

The survey was commissioned exclusively by Magill publications Ltd. and was conducted by MRBI Ltd. on a national basis on September 22 and 23, 1977. The statistical sample of 623 representative of the adult population of the Republic aged 18 and upwards (1.89 million) in terms of area, community, sex, age, marital status and class. Inter-locking controls, using in-home interviews, based on sixty randomly drawn sampling points, were applied.

Tom O'Dea writes on the background to the RTE ~ controversy and on the significance of the Magill poll.

Why the public changed its mind

In May 1973, Conor Cruise 0 'Brien, who had then been a Minister for only a few months, shared with the public his vision of an open braodcasting area for this island, He visualised an ideal arrangement whereby RTF: would he available in Northern Ireland and the programmes broadcast in the North would be re-transmitted throughout the Republic. It was a vision to which he clung tenaciously for two and a half years, until it was dispelled by an opinion poll in the autumn of 1975.

Before Dr. O'Brien took up office, a highly audible lobby in Cork had.been campaigning for a television progfiunme 'choice for a number of years, using the letters columns of the national newsspapers and being affo~ded much assisttance by The Cork Examiner, whose proprietors were reputed to be interrested in' the possibility of a commercial channel.

Other lobbies were formed in the larger towns uf the south and west Waterford, Limerick, Galway. The lobbyists did not seem to make much of an impression on Gerry Collins, the previous Minister, whose broadcasting interests tended mainly in the direction of making the existing service work and pay its way. Dr. 0 'Brien saw the demand for a second channel as someething that could be legitimately used by him in the promulgation of his multiicultural analysis of the Irish consciousness,

In July 1973, Dr. 0'Brien announced that discussions had begun with British broadcasting interests on the matter of open broadcasting. In October of that year he confirmed that the Governnment had authorised the provision of a transmitter and microwave link network which would serve either for reebroadcasting one Northern Ireland channel or for a second RTE channel.

In January, 1974, the Minister inndicated his preference for recasting the entire output of BBC I; if this failed, he said, the question of a second RTE channel would become a live issue. All through that y'ear, the debate continued, with the Minister, and the lobbies in the south and west on one side and hanna Fail, the Irish language organisations and RTE on the other. Speaking in the Senate, at the end of that year, the Minister said the demand from the single-channel area was undoubtedly for the right to receive one or more services from overrseas, not filtered and not censored in Dublin.

Alarm spread throughout RTE, at the level of the Authority and all the way through to the unions. RTE made it clear that it wanted the second channel, though it was "not actuated by any protectionist attitude but by a desire to achieve in a practical way a genius expansion in the awareness and the range of experience of the public through television, and to assist in the development of a greater appreciation and understanding of the political, economic, social and cultural problems of the whole country." The Broaddcasting Review Committee weighed in on the side of RTE, as did Ruairi Brugha, the Fianna Fail spokesman on Posts and Telegraphs.

Half way through the following year - 1975 - Dr. O'Brien threw down a challenge to RTE by suggesting that it might engage in an experiment: the transmission of a programme or proogrammes describing how RTE would use a second television channel, if it were given it. The challenge was taken up and a programme was transmitted describing "the treasure-house of proogrammes" that could be provided by RTE 2. Broadcasters were sent hurrying off to the country, commissioned to sell RTE 2 to the public.

In the autumn of that year, a poll was taken. Out of 1,828 persons quesstioned, roughly two-thirds voted for RTE 2. The single-channel lobyists claimed that the questions had been loaded in favour of RTE. I do not think this charge can be substantiated.

Now, the poll conducted on behalf of this journal shows a pronounced swing in the other direction. One wonders why opinions appear to have changed in two years. It could be that the public considers that RTE has been performing less well than it might. The po~erty of the recent summer schedule could have had an influence. It may be that the public mind perceives a dissorderliness in RTE which it dislikes. The purges that took place a year ago Xnever convincingly explained by RTE ~ may have had an effect on the vote. The public may be uneasy at the politiccisation of the organisation in recent years.

Anyway, this latest survey puts the cat among the pigeons. It will be sweet music in the ears of the lobbies of the south and west. It could lead to a headdache for the present Minister. It will certainly shatter the complacency of senior RTE executives. And it will be further food for thought for those RTE employees who question the capacity of the organisation to create a real choice on two channels.

****
(see pdf of this issue for better representation of the statistics below)

WHICH WOULD YOU PREFER AS A SECOND RTE CHANNEL -- BBC 1 OR RTE2?

  TABLE ONE (TOTAL POPULATION)    
    Prefer   Prefer   No  
    BBC 1   RTE 2   opinion  
Total   623   %   %   %  
  100%   54   32   14  
Area          
County Dublin   190   55   35   10  
Rest of I rei and   433   53   31   16  
Community          
Urban   325   59   ·29   12  
Rural   298   48   35   17  
Sex          
Male   302   57   31   12  
Female   321   51   33   16  
Age          
18 - 24   118   67   27   6  
25 - 34   119   59   35   6  
35 - 54   197   58   27   15  
55+   189   39   39   22  
S/E Class          
ABCl   175   59   30   11  
C2DE   268   56   30   14  
Fl/F2   180   45   36   19  
T,V. Household          
Single Channel   305   55   33   12  
Multi-Channel   243   59   31   10  
No.T.V.   75   29   27   44  
Sample: 623 Adults aged 18 upwards: Republic of Ireland.    

TABLE TWO (ADULTS IN T.V. HOUSEHOLDS)      
      Prefer   Prefer   No    
      BBC 1   RTE 2   opinion    
Total     548   %   %   %    
    100%   57   32   11    
Area              
County Dublin   179   57   36   7    
Rest of Ireland   369   57   31   12    
Community              
Urban     300   60   30   10    
Rural     248   53   35   12    
Sex              
Male     264   59   31   10   "t'  
  •..  
Female     284   54   34   12   ..J  
Age             e  
          0  
18 - 24     106   70   27   3   ';:  
  '"  
25 - 34     111   61   33   6   .!:!  
35- 54     172   61   28   11   jj  
  :l  
55+     159   40   40   20   e,  
S/E Class             'ij,  
ABCl     165   60   31   9   '"  
  ~  
C2DE     237   60   29   11    
F 1/F2     146   47   39   14   •..  
  or:  
T.V. Household         

Single Channel   306   55   33   12   c.  
    0  
Multi Channel   242   59   31   10   U  
Sub-Sample:   548 Adults in T. V. Households: Republic of Ireland.   @  
  (88% of all)          
 

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