RTÉ’s director general to tell TDs of dire finances
Wide-ranging budget adjustments are required to stabilise RTÉ’s finances, while the TV licence system is now “completely untenable”, director general Dee Forbes will tell TDs today.
Ms Forbes will also say it is not possible for RTÉ to continue to operate from a position of deficit.
“We need to reduce projected costs by €60m over the next three years,” she will say. “This is in addition to the cost reductions of 23% of operating costs, achieved between 2008 and 2018.”
An RTÉ delegation will appear before the Oireachtas Communications Committee to discuss the broadcaster’s dire financial position and will make demands of the politicians to change the licence fee.
In her opening address, which has been seen by the Irish Examiner, Ms Forbes will hit out strongly at the failure of the Government to move on the licence fee for up to five years.
“The remedy proposed was that the licence fee collection would be put out to tender, and that the term of contract would be for a five- year period,” she will tell the committee.
“Given that the collecting agent would likely be contracted from 2021 onward, this would, in effect, delay the transition to a media charge for close to seven years from the point of announcement.
That is completely untenable. Evasion is now almost 13%, resulting in the loss of €25m per year.
Ms Forbes will say that she and her team want to ensure increased investment to deliver the type of service and content that she knows their audiences want.
She will tell TDs: “That means creating greater efficiencies within the operating costs, new work practices, more efficient use of the regional studios, and other pay cost-related measures.”
By virtue of outdated legislation, 11% of households do not pay the TV licence and yet can consume public service programming on online devices — and this figure is increasing, the committee will be told. Ireland’s TV licence system is irrevocably broken and is no longer capable of properly sustaining public service broadcasting or Ireland’s broader audio- visual and creative sector, Ms Forbes will say.
“By way of example, for the recent Ireland versus Russia rugby match, we had near equivalent viewership on the Player live streaming as we had watching the match on RTÉ2. This lag in legislation is resulting in a further loss of €20m in public funding annually,” she will say.
“Licence fee receipts are down against forecast for this year, and have been for the past number of months, making a difficult financial situation, ever more acute.
“To be clear, many of these changes need to happen, and will happen, irrespective of licence fee reform.
“There is no doubt that national media services are struggling with the haemorrhaging of commercial income in particular to the large-scale digital players. That should be a matter of concern for all of us.”
