RTÉ posts €7.9m surplus as nation tunes in during pandemic

David McCullagh and Caitriona Perry who  present Six One News. some 90% of people chose RTÉ as their primary source of information as the Covid-19 threat grew.

The nation switched on to RTÉ last year with the pandemic also meaning fewer special events and lower running costs, contributing to a net surplus for the national broadcaster of €7.9m.

The 2020 RTÉ annual report showed a fall in revenue of €11m, but a drop in operating costs of €28.5m.

RTÉ chiefs said the situation was still volatile, but the report also highlighted how much of the country turned to the broadcaster for news and entertainment during the pandemic.

Almost 4m people or 90% of the Irish TV population tuned in to RTÉ’s television services in the early stages of the pandemic, from early March through to mid-May, with 90% of Irish people choosing RTÉ as their primary source of information as the Covid-19 threat grew.

RTÉ also grew its total weekly radio listeners to more than 2m last year, representing 51% of the adult 15+ population.

Programme making was hit, but according to RTÉ director general Dee Forbes: "It is remarkable, in retrospect, that RTÉ maintained full schedules across all services in 2020, and where necessary augmented planned coverage with additional live broadcasts and new programmes. 

"While certain productions had to be suspended or stepped down due to public health restrictions, other dedicated programming was commissioned with exceptionally tight deadlines."

The report refers to programmes such as Ireland on Call and Home School Hub as among those to make an impact with viewers during the course of 2020.

On the financial side, according to the report: "Commercial revenue declined by €11.3m as Covid uncertainty curtailed advertising spend, although there was an improvement in the second half of the year and particularly the final quarter," it said. 

"Licence fee income remained flat, but this was due to the increase of €9.2m from the [Department of Social Protection] announced in Budget 2019, which was a further part reversal of public funding cuts made since 2010."

RTÉ said in the report that licence fee evasion still stood at 12.6% and was considerably higher than in a range of other European countries.

According to the report: "As was the case in 2020, the restrictions impose difficulties on programme-making and have curtailed sports events in the early part of 2021. While the loss of income is currently being offset by cost savings, the situation remains very volatile and it is very difficult to forecast."

However, in a world turned upside down, there was one constant: the most-watched programme of the year was the Late Late Toy Show, which had a 77% audience share, ahead of the broadcast by then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in March 2020, when almost two-thirds of the population tuned in.