TV licence funding model 'fundamentally broken', warns head of RTÉ board
Chair of RTÉ board Moya Doherty: 'The importance of public service media has become crystal clear during this period of unprecedented disruption over these last two years'. File picture: Mark Stedman/RollingNews.ie
The RTÉ TV licence fee funding model is “fundamentally broken”, the chair of the national broadcaster’s board has said.
Echoing sentiments she and other RTÉ chiefs have expressed in recent years, Moya Doherty said Ireland was unable to sustain quality and diverse media as a result.
In a statement to mark the broadcaster’s latest annual report, she said: “The importance of public service media has become crystal clear during this period of unprecedented disruption over these last two years.
“However, despite all this, support for public service media in Ireland remains under threat.
She added: “There is now, however, a consensus that the traditional licence fee model for funding public service media in Ireland is fundamentally broken.”
She said the present model was resulting in a loss to both public service media and the independent production sector of about €65m per year, amounting to over €500m in the last decade.
In the case of RTÉ, the current level of evasion is 15% and the number of no TV homes is also 15%, giving a combined leakage of 30%, she said.
According to the annual report, total TV licence and commercial revenue increased by €13.3m between 2020 and 2021, going from €331.1m to €344.4m.
TV licence sales were lower in 2021, with RTÉ’s licence fee revenue in 2021 coming in €500,000 lower than 2020, from €196.61.
Commercial revenue, on the other hand, increased by €13.8m to €148.3m from €134.5m.
Operating costs, excluding special events costs, increased by €10.3m compared to 2020, up to €315.5m, as content production resumed after severe disruption in 2020 due to the pandemic.
The cost of special events in 2021, including Euro 2020, Olympics and World Cup qualifiers, amounted to €15.8m
As a result of this, the net sSurplus after tax and exceptional items for the year was €2.4m, down from €7.9m in 2020.
The report also highlights RTÉ’s many achievements in 2021, including the fact that RTÉ broadcast 44 of the 50 most-watched TV programmes in Ireland last year.
The GAA All-Ireland Football Final on RTÉ 2 was the second most-watched programme with 944,600 viewers, while the was again the most-watched programme, with over 1.7m viewers.
