RTÉ has suffered another steep decline in its licence fee income, with over 5,000 fewer people paying this week than in the same period last year – equating to a drop of almost another €1 million in a week.
As the new director general, Kevin Bakhurst, updated staff on ongoing investigations into controversies at the broadcaster, the Department of Arts and Media said in a statement on Wednesday evening that TV licence sales in the first week of August were 9,361 – the comparable figure for the same period in 2022 was 15,030, amounting to a drop of 5,669.
Multiplied by the annual licence fee of €160, this means the broadcaster has lost another €907,040 this week when compared to the same week in 2022, with mounting political concern over the impact of the loss of revenue. Some of this revenue goes to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and An Post, which collects the fee on behalf of RTÉ. However, the broadcaster will suffer the bulk of the reduction in revenue.
In a note to staff sent on Wednesday, Mr Bakhurst said he had appointed corporate governance expert Bob Semple to advise interim leadership executives on best practice in the area and to “guide us in achieving the reforms and revisions that will be essential if we are to ensure recent failures are not repeated”. Workers at the broadcaster are also to be surveyed on their views in September, he told staff via email.
Mr Bakhurst also gave an update into the various reviews and investigations into the broadcaster. Once the second Grant Thornton report looking at Ryan Tubridy’s pay is complete, the firm will examine Toy Show The Musical, while details of the review of RTÉ's voluntary exit schemes will be announced “as soon as possible”.
Work on a new register of interests is “at an advanced stage”, he said, with establishment “expected later in the autumn” while engagement with the data protection officers in RTÉ is ongoing regarding publication of the register.
The new figures bring the cumulative loss in recent weeks to €3.6 million when compared with 2022, as figures dwindle following weeks of controversy earlier this summer after a scandal erupted around misreported payments to presenter Ryan Tubridy.
The station 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.
[ TV licence revenue drops €2.7m in JulyOpens in new window ]
Mr Bakhurst has said he is “very grateful to those who have continued to buy a TV licence during a period when events have cast such a dark shadow over RTÉ”.
Mr Tubridy has said his reputation has been “desperately sullied” by the controversy, while he also categorically denied he was aware at any time that RTÉ had concealed payments made to him.
During Oireachtas committee hearings last month Mr Tubridy said 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.
RTÉ's board is expected to receive the findings of a report by Grant Thornton into the treatment of the €120,000 shortly, although it has said it has not received the findings yet.
