I don't have any of these paid channels, but I do have a cool story.
Finnish TV is currently undergoing a transformation since Perussuomalaiset came into power: they're showing mainly Finnish produced material and the largest percentage of their listings don't have any translations on-screen unless you use their menu services at a fee. I think it's a great thing, fewer American and British trash daytime television shows, movies, or documentaries, and lots more vintage TV from over the last fifty years or so.
I said many times that RTE and the national archives could be put to better use quite simply by stopping showing trash and cartoons all through the night into the wee hours by repeating the likes of Amuigh Faoin Spéir and To The Waters And The Wild instead. Irish people would love it, as would your many immigrants. They could learn a lot about Ireland watching Hall's Pictorial Weekly and The Minister For Hardship. This is the kind of thing Finland's doing right now. If the non-Finnish speaking sorts don't like it, then they can pay for their own choices with any number of subscription channels. But the national broadcaster here in Helsinki is delving deep into the historical materials and is transferring them from analog to digital for later use too.
This is how quickly change can be effected in the Nordic model. The True Finns got a sizeable vote last year and in the short few months they're had power, they're using it to promote Finland, Finnish things, the Finnish way of life, things the kids can learn from, the oldies too. Makes me wonder why RTE have such free reign to do what they like with your historical materials made from your tax euros but locked away where you can't ever see them. Only the privileged few get to see any of it.
But if it gets to the point that there's fuck all in English, Russian, Swedish, or even Estonian language programs on the TV, I most certainly wouldn't be complaining. Finnish ads for example have a massive turnover for persons employed in film, stage, etc. Because we speak Finnish, our ads are in Finnish, we don't import many ads, rather we make our own (even McDonald's have Finnish made ads) because it's a better way to sell to Finns. Those in the production end of things have endless amounts of work right across the year: set designers, lighting techs, sound engineers, locations managers, catering staff, the list goes on and on. Musicians writing jingles on the side (
Stig Dogg for example makes a small fortune doing jingles and voice-overs for TV and radio) or like me doing voice-over work on the side can coin in extra cash by doing a few gigs a year for TV, cinema ads, private productions doing all sorts of learning/instruction videos and DVDs.
Stig Dogg is the equivalent of Finland's Richie Kavanagh. He takes the piss out of Finnish culture and you have to laugh at his accuracy, he doesn't mince his words. But even with his music gigs he needs videos, photo shoots, wardrobe staff, etc. Finnish music uses Finnish staff to make their visuals. The fact that we have this obscure language might look weird to you lot looking in, but for us it's at the core of our working lives. You never hear me on the Irish radio or TV because I haven't made any material in Ireland in ten years or more. But up here I play/feature on all manner of stuff from golfing instructions to dog training. Voice-over work pays really well, and there are multiple agencies offering their clients lists of suitable people in all areas of media.
Try to imagine Ireland speaking only Gaelic?
What would the outcome be?
Would you have as many incoming
welfare tourists immigrants if everyone spoke Irish?
Would there be more or less work for Irish production staff?
Dramas in Gaelic. Documentaries in Gaelic. All of your news and weather, gossip and strife?
Would it employ more people or less people?
See?
That's where Ireland keeps fucking herself up. She's in such a hurry to LIKED by everyone abroad she spits her own children in the eye for butting in while she's licking ass. There's no sense of anything unique about modern Irish culture: it looks more and more like England and America to me from this perspective. If the Irish nationalist parties got in, what are the chances they'd make a directive to the national broadcaster to show more Irish made and Irish language shows and less foreign crap they can watch on another channel anyway?
See?
Again, Ireland and her people would go ape-shit. They'd complain that their license fee entitles them to watch Eastenders and having their kids learn more about the cockney accent than the Donegal or Kerry lilt? I'll again say that Ireland needs to wake the fuck up and smell the coffee. This grand unified theory of us all being happy EU
members drones speaking English and French and German together isn't really working out. Finland's turning to her history to show the next generation how this country and all its wonder was actually built. The efforts of the generations since the first world war into the civil war and on to the winter war and the second world war built this for us. This didn't happen by itself, and neither will the next moves deeper into the unique Finnish culture happen with baby steps. Leaps and bounds, more like.
It feels great to look at the TV listings and see that there's fuck all English material throughout the morning into daytime into the evening. After 2100 you can get an American or British movie, yeah - but throughout the day it's all about Finland. This is what keeps the broadcast industry staff in work all the time. More Finnish shows, more Finnish ads, more Finnish language and symbolism. It feeds itself by its very nature.
Now consider Ireland and the content RTE fling at you for your €185.00 license fee?
Ever get the feeling you're being taken for a ride?