RTÉ recorded a loss of €13 million in 2018, with the State-owned public service broadcaster citing the cost of “special events”, such as the Papal visit, the presidential election and its coverage of the FIFA World Cup.
These three events combined cost €7.2 million, it said, bringing its total costs to €339.8 million for the year.
The broadcaster’s total revenue increased by €1.5 million to €339.1 million last year. Within this, licence fee funding rose €3 million to €189.1 million, while commercial revenues slipped 1 per cent, or by €1.5 million, to €150 million.
The broadcaster, which has bank debt of €50 million, has now recorded a deficit in seven of the last 10 years, with its surplus in 2017 only achieved as a result of the sale of land at its Montrose campus in Donnybrook, Dublin.
It took a depreciation and amortisation charge of €12.4 million last year, the same as in 2017.
RTÉ director-general Dee Forbes said licence fee payers “deserve more” from the organisation, but it had to “curtail” what it wanted to do in light of the challenging market.
“We want to do more,” Ms Forbes said. “We are full of programme ideas, but every day we have to curtail our own ambitions and the creative ambitions of the broader independent production sector due to our constrained resources.
“TV licence payers want us to do more and deserve more from us. However, it will not be possible for RTÉ to maintain and enhance what we do and fulfil our remit without action from Government and a solution to the funding of public service media in Ireland. ”
RTÉ cited the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) recommendation that the broadcaster receive an immediate €30 million increase in public funding.
It was awarded additional funding of €8.6 million in Budget 2019, however there is no sign of the licence fee reform it has lobbied for consistently over the past decade.
Losses of 13 million.
How much longer are we going to fund this lossmaker and its dogshit output?
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