Crisis deepens in RTE as €119m losses feared

Broadcaster facing tough time despite €30m savings due to Covid

RTÉ has saved around €30million during the pandemic because of show cancellations but is still haemorrhaging money as a result of sharp declines in advertising and licence fee sales.

The cancellation of Dancing With The Stars saved RTÉ €5million; Fair City not being in production amounts to savings of nearly €1million per month, while EastEnders being off air is saving the State broadcaster a further €4million, according to well-placed sources.

Industry insiders told the Irish Daily Mail that the beleaguered

State broadcaster has managed to ‘save a fortune’ with the cancellation of shows and postponement of major sporting events including Euro 2020 and the Olympics.

The postponement of the two major sporting spectacles of the summer has resulted in a combined saving of almost €15million, it is understood.

The rights for both events were due to cost €5million each. Production savings for both amount to an estimated €3million. In addition, RTÉ would have sent around 40 staff to both, resulting in costs of about €1.5million.

Hosting the three Euro matches scheduled for the Aviva Stadium would have set RTÉ back some €150,000 per game.

Separately, the cancellation of GAA fixtures, saves RTÉ €100,000 a week during summer months, as it has no outside broadcast costs.

All of these Covid-19 savings amount to €30 million for the State broadcaster.

In addition, RTÉ participated in the Wage Subsidy Scheme, which would have saved it around €7million, sources say.

In the region of 1,000 employees on salaries of less than €75,000 have been subsidised for 20 weeks, at a rate of €350 per person per week.

When contacted by the Irish Daily Mail with these figures, a spokesman said: ‘Details regarding costs and savings have not been finalised. RTÉ has responded to the Covid-19 crisis and to our audiences by providing vital news, information and entertainment across our television, radio and online services in what is a hugely complex and demanding production environment.

‘While a number of productions have been stood down temporarily,

RTÉ has produced a range of new programming during this period.’

The Mail also asked RTÉ what the projected losses in advertising revenue would be by the end of the year due to the pandemic and how income from the licence fee has been affected.

However, the State broadcaster said it had ‘no comment on projections at this time’. ‘A fall-off in the earlier part of the year may or may not be made up later in the year. What is clear, however, is that Covid-19 has provided further evidence of the need to reform the TV licence system, a system that has for many years been consistently losing in excess of €50 million per year through evasion and avoidance, and which no longer reflects how people consume public service content,’ a spokesperson said. ‘RTÉ has been on a significant programme of cost reduction and reform since the beginning of the year as part of its Revised Strategy 2020-2024, which included a pay freeze across the organisation; a 10% reduction in executive board pay; a 15% reduction in top talent fees. In late June, a submission from the broadcaster to the Oireachtas Covid19 committee stated RTÉ’s projected income is expected to fall by up to 35% due to the cpandemic – around €119million. In the submission on June 29, RTÉ director-general Dee Forbes said that since the crisis took hold, the licence fee take had ‘fallen sharply,’ adding: ‘Given that national evasion levels were already at almost 13% prior to the Covid emergency, this current situation has intensified an existing problem.’ Ms Forbes noted that advertising has also been severely impacted, because as businesses ceased trading, so too did their need to advertise. She also cautioned that the outlook for the rest of the year for the broadcaster remained very unclear, and that the decline has affected all media in Ireland and abroad. Ms Forbes added: ‘Current estimates project that total income is likely to be reduced by between 25% to 35%. ‘These combined factors, therefore, have exacerbated existing financial vulnerabilities considerably,’ she said. She outlined ways in which RTÉ is continuing to meet the needs of audiences, but warned, ‘there can be no doubt that the delivery of this level of service, with such financial uncertainty and compromised resources, does have consequences for the organisation in both the short and medium term’.