Revenue from TV licence sales has continued to decline in the wake of the payments controversy that has engulfed RTÉ.
New sales and renewals of the TV licence were down by more than €2.2 million, around one third, across the first three weeks of July when compared to the same period last year, according to the latest figures.
It continues a trend of falling sales which has been linked by some to the controversy over secret payments to former Late Late Show host Ryan Tubridy and separate spending on corporate hospitality.
In response to a query from the Irish Times, the Department of Media said updated figures show total TV licence sales of 9,279 in the third week of July, down from 14,836 for the same week last year. That is a drop of 5,557 sales or more than 37 per cent.
Across the first three weeks of July, a total of 13,807 fewer €160 TV licences were sold when compared to the same period last year, a drop of almost 32 per cent. Licence sales receipts for the first three weeks of July are down €2,209,120 year on year.
Revenue reduction
RTÉ will suffer the bulk of the reduction in revenue and it is set to be impacted in the coming weeks as TV licence fee receipts are received and disbursed by the Department of Media on a monthly basis.
Some 7 per cent of net receipts of the TV licence revenue goes to the Broadcasting Fund, administered by Coimisiúin na Meán (The Media Commission), and An Post is paid on the basis on the number of licences sold.
The department said: “Given that TV licence sales vary annually, it is not possible or appropriate to give a definitive percentage apportionment of gross receipts, however, on the basis of total 2022 receipts, the percentage of gross receipts provided to RTÉ was almost 89 per cent”.
It added: “It should also be noted that given the dual funding model in place, RTÉ also derives a significant element of its overall income from commercial activities.”
In response to the figures, RTÉ said: “RTÉ remains very grateful to those who have continued to buy a TV Licence and to RTÉ staff who have remained focused on delivering important programming and content to audiences across television, radio and online through a very difficult period.
“We are working hard to rebuild trust in RTÉ, and we will continue to do so. We are keeping both TV licence and commercial revenues under review.”
Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin said the latest sales figures “clearly demonstrate that a trend has now been established, where a significant proportion of the population are not renewing their licenses or getting new licenses”. He said if it continues “the accumulated loss of revenue will cause a further crisis for RTÉ”.
“The ordinary hard-working employees of RTÉ and the many independent workers in the sector need to know how this problem is going to be addressed,” the Kerry TD added.
Major crisis
RTÉ has been engulfed in a major crisis since it disclosed that €345,000 in undeclared payments were made to Tubridy over several years, saying it discovered the discrepancy during a “routine audit” of its accounts.
The RTÉ board on Tuesday disputed suggestions in the media that a report into Tubridy’s pay for the years 2017 to 2019 period had been finished. It said the second phase of the report it commissioned into the matter from consultancy firm Grant Thornton has not been completed.
During Oireachtas committee hearings earlier this month, Tubridy said that he did not take a €120,000 bonus due to him, but that the figure was later deducted from his published earnings - from amounts that had already been paid to him.
The issue of the treatment of the 2017-2019 earnings is separate to the main controversy over his pay, which relates to three payments of €75,000 to Tubridy stemming from a deal between him, Renault and RTÉ.
The payments were ultimately all funded by RTÉ, either by means of a credit note issued to Renault, which made the first €75,000 payment, or through its barter account, which made the other two €75,000 payments on the basis of invoices for “consultancy services”.
