RTÉ this week will seek to increase TV license fees – days after the British government announced a two-year freeze before a possible fee cancellation there.
The Irish TV license fee is €160 and was last increased in 2008.
The UK licensing fee is £159 a year, or about €190.
RTÉ wants an additional €30 million per year and a move towards implementing home broadcasting fees.
In a report that will be heard at the Public Accounts Committee tomorrow, RTÉ Managing Director Dee Forbes said: “If no action is taken, RTÉ will not be able to return to a stable financial position, nor will it be able to reinvent itself in future generations.”
The station – which has been hit by a decline in advertising linked to the pandemic – «will not be able to fulfill our missions or sustain much of what we do today».
Although RTÉ generated a surplus of €7 million in its last calculated year (2020), revenue «was well below expectations».
The government announced an additional €9 million in public funding in December 2019, but the decline in license fee sales was «fully absorbed».
RT . saidthat it, which also indicates that 15 percent of households no longer own TVs but are still not legally required to pay for RTÉ content they stream on their devices.
Even with that obligation in place, 13 per cent of people are evading license fees – nearly double the UK’s 7 per cent evasion rate – while the pandemic has eroded TV inspectors’ ability to do their job.
RTÉ says it is sticking to its side of the deal and remains «resolute» in its quest to remove €60 million from the operating cost base by 2023. But the direct impact of Covid-19 restrictions means challenges in operating costs.
Broadcaster TDs and senators will tell that licensing fee income in 2020 was only €400,000 higher than in 2019, despite a €10 million increase in the amount received from the government to offset “free” TV licenses for pensioners.
“Unfortunately, the benefit of this funding was wiped out by the decline in license fee sales in the year due to the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on the activity of the license fee inspector,” the Forbes report will inform the committee.
Detailed financial information shows that €223.6 million in license fees were collected in 2020, with nearly 90% transferred to RTÉ (€196.6 million – 88%), with €27 million used to pay for mail collection and provide funding for BAI Sound & Vision money.
But RTÉ also increased its headcount to a new level of 1,866, an increase of 35 employees per year.
Despite the station’s financial woes, the latest figures reveal how RTÉ’s ten highest-paid presenters earned €9.5 million over three years, with late late show Host Ryan Tubridy earned €495,000 alone in 2019.
Ms. Forbes will tell the commission how recent levels of license fee evasion have been set in 13% of local homes and commercial buildings.
“Levels of evasion in Ireland are much higher than in the UK and other European countries,” says Forbes, with figures showing that the level of evasion in Germany is just 2%.
Collection costs are also said to be «more than double» the cost of other European public broadcasters.
Total operating costs amounted to 307.7 million euros – Reduction of €30.1 million in 12 months.
But RTÉ has also benefited from the interim government’s wage subsidy plan.