RTE LOSE €20M IN ONE YEAR
»»Euro 2016 & Olympics hike costs »»Operating bill climbs to €327m
RTE suffered a massive loss of nearly €20million last year, it was revealed yesterday. Publishing its annual report, the national broadcaster recorded a deficit of €19.7million in the financial year to the end of December last. The station is blaming an “onerous” year where covering large-scale events such as the Olympics, Euro 2016 and the 1916 centenary celebrations cost more than €16million. RTE Director-general Dee Forbes, said: “Despite these challenges, we delivered firstclass election and sports coverage and analysis to our audiences on all platforms, and an ambitious centenary programme that we can all be very proud of. “The investment of proceeds from the recent sale of land and plans to significantly reshape the organisation will better equip RTE to meet the needs of our audiences in what is a very challenging market.” Excluding the impact of covering the high-profile events, operating costs rose €7million to €327.3million. Revenue generated through advertising and sponsorship deals rose by 2% to more than €158million. Despite little growth, the bulk of RTE’S overall revenue was generated through the licence fee, which took in €179 million - almost identical to last year’s figures. A number of significant achievements throughout the year were also highlighted in the report. RTE Player hosted a record of 4.2 million streams per month and more than 50 million overall, while in excess of one million people tuned into RTE Radio 1 each week. The broadcaster’s coverage of Euro 2016, Olympic Games, Paralympics and GAA coverage were also noted. But Ms Forbes criticised “the uncertainty around the TV licence fee system, both in its current performance and in how and when it might be reformed. She added it is making it almost impossible “for RTE and those reliant on us, to plan ahead”.