‘Love-Hate’ DVD sales boost RTÉ pre-tax profits
According to new figures from RTÉ Commercial Enterprises Ltd, the company last year increased its revenues by 2.5% — from €23.13m to €23.69m.
Pre-tax profits at the firm increased by €90,000 to €4.504m and the profits were also given a boost from DVD sales from The Fall starring Jamie Dornan and Gillian Anderson.
In a report attached to the accounts, the directors state that “RTÉ merchandise delivered a strong performance in 2014, driven by releases includinsg Love/Hate and The Fall.”
The directors state that the strong performance was achieved despite the value of the overall DVD sales market here declining by 3% on 2013.
The public could not get enough of Nidge’s attempts to stay alive in the final series of the Love/Hate phenomenon and the directors state that Love/Hate Series 5 and Love/Hate Series 1-4 ranked as numbers one and two in the top 100 TV DVD releases respectively in Ireland in 2014.
The report also states that the popularity of Love/Hate series 4 resulted in the RTÉ Player delivering more than 900,000 streams of the series in 2014 compared to 1m streams for The Late Late Show and 2m streams for the World Cup.
RTÉ does not disclose the revenues generated from the sale of the Love/Hate DVDs though the sales of the DVDs will have gone some way towards funding the series which cost about €600,000 per episode to produce.
The commercial firm operates the RTÉ Player, sells RTÉ TV shows overseas, and produces the RTÉ Guide along with other commercial activities.
The directors’ report also records that RTÉ Digital commercial revenues saw a year-on-year increase of 20% driven by the continuing growth and promotion of award-winning new rich media formats across all platforms.
The directors state that RTÉ’s News Now App has been downloaded 1.4m times with more than 17% of adults in Ireland using it.
