Melbourne Cup

Makybe Diva made history by becoming the only horse to win three in a row. The licence fee does not fund 2FM, RTÉ Aertel, RTÉ Guide or the website rte.ie. The 2005 Melbourne Cup was held before a crowd of 106,479. These two sources are approximately split in a 50:50 ratio. In 2004 Makybe Diva became the first mare to win consecutive cups, and also the first horse to win twice with different trainers, after David Hall moved to Hong Kong and transfered her to the Lee Freedman stables. RTÉ receives income from two main sources:. She also won the Caulfield Cup, a 2400 metre race also held in Melbourne, and therefore has won the "Cups Double". The Director-General heads the Executive Board of RTÉ, which comprises the companies top management and includes the Chief Financial Officer, the Director of Communications and the Managing Directors of the Television, Radio, and News IBD's.

The 2001 the Melbourne Cup was won by New Zealand mare Ethereal, trained by Sheila Laxon, the first woman to formally train a Melbourne Cup winner. The RTÉ Authority appoints the Director General of RTÉ who in effect fulfils the dual role of Chief Executive and of Editor in Chief. The attraction for foreigners to compete, however, was the far less visible change to the new "quality handicap" weighting system. The RTÉ Irish language channel, TG4, is operated as an subsidiary of RTÉ (Serbhisí Telefis na Gaelige Teoranta) prior to its intended ultimate separation from RTÉ. Most have failed to cope with the conditions, with only Irish trainer Dermott Weld successful in 1993 with Vintage Crop and 2002 with Media Puzzle. The RTÉ organisation is divided into six integrated business divisions (IBD's): RTÉ Television, RTÉ Radio, RTÉ News, RTÉ Network, RTÉ Publishing & RTÉ Performing Groups) together with Central Shared Services (People Payments, Procurement, Treasury, IT Infrastructure, Audience Research, FOI, and Property & Site Facilities)and a Group HQ. The race has undergone several alterations over the past decade, the most visible being the arrival of many foreign horses to contest the race in the last decade (notwithstanding the many winners from New Zealand including the famous Phar Lap. The RTÉ Authority is both the custodian of RTÉ and its regulator.

Many sympathetic owners boycotted the race which started with only seven horses, the smallest number in the history of the cup. The members of the RTÉ Authority are appointed by the Cabinet upon the recommendation of the Minister for Communications, Marine & Natural Resources. Archer won again the following year, but because the owner's nomination form arrived late the next year, Archer was unable to contest a third cup. RTÉ operates as a statutory corporation.Its board is known as the RTÉ Authority. A crowd of 4000 watched the race, although it has been suggested this was less than expected because of news reaching Melbourne of the death of explorers Burke and Wills. RTÉ Network (branded as "RTÉNL") is operated through a wholly owned subsidiary company, RTÉ Network Transmission Limited,and provides transmission services for all of RTÉ's own channels and also for competing stations such as TV3 Ireland and Today FM. It has been said that the winner, Archer, walked 800km to the course from Nowra, New South Wales, but it is possible he travelled by ship. RTÉ Music's slogan is RTÉ - Supporting the Arts.

Seventeen horses contested the first Melbourne Cup in 1861, racing for a gold watch and 170 pounds cash. These groups perform regularly in the National Concert Hall and The Helix in Dublin. In 2005 a total of 383,784 race fans attended the Melbourne Cup Carnival annual event [1]. RTÉ Performing Groups supports two full-time orchestras - the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra - as well as the RTÉ Vanbergh String Quartet, RTÉ Philharmonic Choir, and RTÉ Cór na nÓg. The event is one of the most popular spectator events in Australia, with over 110,000 people, some dressed in traditional formal raceday wear and others in all manner of exotic and amusing costumes, attending the race. Its commercial telecoms business provides both SMS and IVR telecoms services to all of RTÉ's broadcast services and channels. . In addition RTÉ Publishing operates a teletext service on both RTÉ One and RTÉ Two, called RTÉ Aertel, which has news, sport, and programme support information.

The present record holder is the 1990 winner Kingston Rule with a time of 3min 16.3sec. Live streams of all of RTÉ's national radio networks are available online. This reduced the distance by 61ft 6in, and Rain Lover's 1968 race record of 3min.19.1sec was accordingly adjusted to 3min.17.9sec. It operates all of RTÉ's many websites - branded as rte.ie,and providing online news, sport, and entertainment services. The race was originally held over two miles, about 3,218 metres, but following Australia's adoption of the metric system in 1972 the current distance of 3200 metres was adopted. RTÉ Publishing has four main constituent parts: Print Publishing, E-Publishing (both WEB & Teletext), Commercial Telecoms & Digital Consumer Technology Incubation.The division publishes the RTÉ Guide and sells DVDs and VHS videos of RTÉ Television programmes, and audio tapes and compact discs of RTÉ radio programmes. It is generally regarded as the most prestigious "two-mile" handicap in the world. Each genre operates broadly under a Commissioning Editor, except for RTÉ News and Current Affairs which are separately structured and controlled.

The event has been held on the first Tuesday in November since 1861 by the Victoria Racing Club, on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne. Since 2003, RTÉ has branded its television programmes under a number of a number of different genres. Billed as The race that stops a nation, it is for three-year-olds and over, and covers a distance of 3200 metres. A DAB version of at least Radio 1 will begin along the east coast of Ireland on 1 January 2006. The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major annual thoroughbred horse race. The main difference between this and the main FM feed is the inclusion of several RTÉ Radio na Gaeltachta programmes. A slightly adapted version of Radio One is broadcast on longwave, Sky Digital and Hotbird as RTÉ Europe.

Formerly RTE operated RTÉ Radio Cork (previously Cork 89FM), a local radio service in Cork, but this closed down in the early 2000s. RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, an exclusively Irish language service, first began broadcasting in 1972. RTÉ 2FM is a popular music and chat channel, while RTÉ Lyric FM serves the interests of classical music and the arts. Broadcasting on Radio 1 provides comprehensive coverage of news, current affairs, music, drama and variety features, agriculture, education, religion and sport, mostly in English but also some Irish.

Now, RTÉ has a nation-wide communications network with an increasing emphasis on regional news-gathering and input. Radio Éireann and Telefís Éireann were both renamed Radio Telefís Éireann in 1966. Radio Athlone became known as "Radio Éireann" in 1938. 2RN, 6CK and Athlone became known as "Radio Athlone" or "Raidio Áth Luain".

A high power station was established in Athlone in 1932 to co-incide with the staging of the Eucharistic Congress. 6CK was established in Cork in 1927, however 6CK was mostly a relay of 2RN. Regular Irish radio broadcasting began on January 1, 1926. The first voice broadcast of 2RN, the original radio callsign for Radio 1, took place on November 14, 1925 when Seamus Clandillon, the 2RN station director said, "Seo Raidió 2RN, Baile Átha Cliath ag tástáil", meaning "This is Radio 2RN, Dublin testing".

See also: List of RTÉ television programming. RTÉ introduced on-screen logos (or 'bugs') for RTÉ One and RTÉ Two in 2004. RTÉ carried the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games opening and closing ceremonies live for the first time in the history of the games together with extensive radio and television coverage of the events. In the 1990s, more competition came from satellite television, especially from Sky based in the UK.

RTÉ's approach was pragmatic, as it introduced cable television in the 1970s, initially known as RTÉ Relays, and subsequently as Cablelink, although it later sold its stake in the company, which is now known as NTL Ireland. From the outset, RTÉ had faced competition from British TV channels such as those of the BBC and UTV, broadcasting from Northern Ireland, whose signal spilt over into the Republic. RTÉ's TV channels are not available to Sky subscribers in Great Britain, although between 1997 and 2002, Tara Television carried a mix of RTÉ One and Two programmes before disputes with RTÉ over payment led to its closure.[3] Owing to rights issues, it would be difficult and costly for RTÉ to broadcast its channels in the whole of the UK, but it continues to express an interest in providing a similar channel to Tara. The channels are also available via satellite on Sky Digital, although these are encrypted and anyone wishing to view the channels needs to obtain a Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland subscription (they are part of the Variety Mix under the new pricing system, or the Family Pack in the pre-2005 system).

RTÉ One, RTÉ Two and TG4 are also available in Northern Ireland via terrestrial overspill or on cable (coverage and inclusion on cable systems varies). Most of the broadcasts are in English, including programming imported from the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand. Presently, both RTÉ One and RTÉ Two provide round-the-clock broadcasts seven days a week, providing comprehensive coverage of news, current affairs, sport, music, drama and entertainment. Although Irish language programmes, such as Nuacht (the news) and Léargas (insight) have been an integral part of the schedule, in 1996 a new Irish-language TV service, Teilifís na Gaeilge, since renamed TG4, began broadcasting for the first time.

The few Irish language programmes provided by RTÉ were now broadcast on Network 2, although RTÉ One now broadcasts Irish language programmes. All sports coverage was transferred to the newly renamed channel, along with all children's programmes. In the early 1980s RTÉ 2 became Network 2. The opening night featured a gala variety show from the Cork Opera House.

The new television channel went on the air on November 2, 1978. As a consequence, the original RTE 2 schedule had many live relays of British programmes, however, there were also some original RTE2 programming. RTÉ 2's remit was to provide alternative television. In 1977 a new Fianna Fáil government came to power and as one of its many promises, the government quickly authorised a second channel to be run by RTÉ.

All of RTÉ's studios at Nutley Lane, Donnybrook were equipped for colour broadcasts by 1976. The next phase was colour outside broadcasts, and the first was the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest, the first of many such productions by RTÉ. The first programme made in colour by RTÉ was a 7 Days documentary special called "John Hume's Derry". RTÉ made its first colour transmissions in 1969.

The Late Late Show, which began in July 1962 and is still running as of 2006, and its original host, Gay Byrne, pioneered many of these discussions and has been credited with being a major influence in the changing social structure of Ireland. Topics which were hitherto not discussed in Ireland, such as abortion, contraception and various other controversial topics, were now openly being discussed in television studios. Television opened up a completely new world to the Irish people. The show, which was a countdown to the New Year, was hosted by the Chairman of the Radio Eireann Authority, Eamonn Andrews, with appearances by Patrick O'Hagan, the Artane Boys Band and Micheál Ó Hehir.

Following this a live concert was broadcast from the Gresham Hotel in Dublin. Lemass. There were other messages from Cardinal d'Alton and An Taoiseach, Seán F. He went on to say that "Like atomic energy, it can be used for incalculable good but it can also do irreparable harm".

The opening address by President of Ireland Eamon de Valera described the benefits and disadvantages of the new medium. Telefís Éireann began broadcasting at 7:00pm on December 31, 1961. .
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General management of the organisation is in the hands of the Executive Board headed by the Director-General. RTÉ is a statutory body run by an authority appointed by the Irish Government. The radio service began on January 1, 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961. It both produces programmes and broadcasts on television, radio and the Internet.

Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ; Irish for "Radio [and] Television [of] Ireland") is the national publicly-funded broadcaster of the Republic of Ireland. Commercial Revenue including the sale of advertising and sponsorship. This money is collected by An Post on behalf of the Minister for Communications, Marine, and Natural Resources. All owners of television sets in the State must pay a fee of €155 in order to legally possess any piece of equipment capable of receiving television signals (not necessarily RTÉ).

The television licence fee. RTÉ Young Peoples Programmes mainly on RTÉ Two, including The Den. RTÉ Sport covering the Irish sport and such foreign events as the FA Premier League and Six Nations Rugby. RTÉ News & Current Affairs see RTÉ News.

RTÉ Music all types of music, including Classical, traditional Irish and pop/rock. RTÉ History documentaries on Eamon de Valera and the Irish Press, Lord Haw-Haw, Kevin O'Higgins, Women of the Goldrush and Secret Sights; and The Colony, a reality show where an Irish family will live as early 19th century colonists in New South Wales. RTÉ Factual documentaries Legal Eagles looking at the Law Library, Maybe Baby, which follows couples as they try to conceive through IVF and Desperately Seeking Surgery about cosmetic surgery. RTÉ Entertainment chatshows The Late Late Show and Tubridy Tonight, and gameshows You're A Star and Winning Streak.

RTÉ Education programmes aimed at students and adults, including Read Write Now, an adult literacy aid. RTÉ Drama the flagship of which is the soap opera Fair City. RTÉ Diversity religion, disability, Irish language and minority programming. RTÉ Arts producing documentaries on such Irish arts figures as Seán O'Casey, John McGahern, Patrick Kavanagh, Eileen Gray, Spike Milligan and Rory Gallagher, and a weekly magazine show, The View, presented by John Kelly.

RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta (the Irish language station targeted at the gaeltacht, the Irish language speaking community of Ireland). RTÉ Lyric FM (classical music plus jazz, world music and arts). 2FM (formerly Radio 2, the RTÉ rock and pop music station). RTÉ Radio 1 (music and speech based broadcasting).

TG4 (formerly called Teilifís na Gaeilge, "Irish language Television".TG4 is operated separately from the rest of RTÉ and its management reports directly to the Director General rather than as part of RTÉ Television.). RTÉ Two (known from 1988 to 2004 as Network 2). RTÉ One (launched in 1961 as Telefís Éireann, or simply RTÉ when there was just one station).