RTÉ records net deficit of €9.1m amid plummeting licence fee revenues

RTÉ recorded a net deficit of €9.1 million last year, after plummeting licence fee revenues which followed the payments controversy which engulfed the station last year.
The broadcaster has published last year’s annual accounts which show that licence fee income dropped €17.3 million compared to the previous year. While this decline was partially offset by interim funding of €15 million, that additional money was already allocated in RTÉ’s plans. In total, the interim funding meant that TV licence revenue declined by €2.3 million.
Total revenue in the organisation, comprising TV licence and commercial income, decreased by €3.7 million. Commercial revenue fell €1.4 million, while other TV trading revenue, including sponsorship and product placement, decreased by 13.2 per cent as not all programmes that were sponsored in 2022 were sponsored in 2023.
Operating costs increased by €9.3 million year-on-year thanks to a pay agreement and higher inflation. Costs for “special events” increased by €0.7 million due to increased activity as the Fifa Women’s World Cup, Rugby World Cup, European Qualifiers and the visit of US president Joe Biden occurred in 2023.
Personnel-related costs increased by €9.8 million due to a 2022 pay agreement. In order to offset some of the licence fee decline, RTÉ announced a hiring freeze, a delay to strategic projects and a stop on discretionary spend. This was not enough to offset the other various declines, leaving RTÉ to report a deficit of €9.1 million for 2023.
Chair of the board of RTÉ Terence O’Rourke said that 2023 was “a difficult and damaging year for RTÉ”.
“Achievements on air, on screen and online, and elsewhere, were overshadowed by the revelations which emerged in June last year. All in all, it was an all-time low for the organisation.”
“While the publication of this report is an opportunity to reflect on the challenging year that 2023 was for RTÉ, we are very much focused on the important work now well under way to transform the organisation. With the support of the multiannual funding commitment announced by Government in July, RTÉ is moving forward with an ambitious new five-year strategy. The board is dedicated to ensuring that this work is underpinned by the highest standards of corporate governance and transparency.”
Director general of RTÉ Kevin Bakhurst said that as he reflected on 2023, and his first six months in the role, the “overriding sentiments are deep disappointment and sadness about the revelations which emerged in June and how the trust that is so important to RTÉ was severely damaged, but also gratitude to our employees who continued to deliver for audiences, despite everything, and a belief in the future of RTÉ, which still has an important role to play in life in Ireland.”
The annual report also warns that RTÉ’s cost base in 2024 will rise significantly due to inflationary pressures and due to “the investment required in digital projects to transform RTÉ for the changing media consumption landscape”.
The annual report also warns that while RTÉ has cash and liquid assets of €79 million, the debt of the group is €59.5 million with borrowings of €52.5 million repayable in January 2026.
RTÉ has, since last year, battled a crisis of public and political confidence set off by hidden payments to former star presenter Ryan Tubridy. The money was not reported in RTÉ statements on the pay of its 10 most highly-paid broadcasters.
The affair exposed a litany of lax RTÉ governance, prompting a collapse in TV licence sales and then a multimillion Euro Government bailout to avert threatened insolvency.