€338k Rte boss calls for tv licence reform as station loses €6.4m
Forbes urges government to act on deficit after report
RTE boss Dee Forbes was paid €275,000 last year while the State broadcaster recorded a loss of €6.4million, it has been revealed.
The director general, who was appointed to the post in 2016, received a basic salary of €250,000 along with a car allowance of €25,000.
RTE’S annual report published yesterday also outlined that €63,000 was contributed to her pension, bringing her total pay package to €338,000.
Meanwhile, Ms Forbes called on the Government to reform the TV licence fee in a bid to return the broadcaster to a “sustainable financial footing”.
She said: “The current system is losing more than €50million every year. Not only is this unfair on the majority that pay their TV licence fee, it is also limiting the potential of the whole independent production sector.
“Without action there will be farreaching consequences for our journalism, for national cultural and creative expression and for employment in the broader media sector.”
The report showed while revenue from the licence fee jumped from €179million in 2016 to €186million last year, 15% of households did not pay the mandatory fee in 2017.
It stated: “A growing concern is the increase in the number of homes that do not have a traditional television set. This has been growing steadily over recent years, as per the Nielsen Establishment Survey, and is now at 9.1% [January 2018].
“As media consumption patterns become more complex and continue to evolve, the television licence fee mechanism reflects less and less how people consume public service content.”
The report revealed there were 1,746 full-time employees working in the national broadcaster last December – a decrease of 84 on the previous year due to a voluntary redundancy programme.