RTE staff warned cuts on the way as losses to hit €20m
RTE staff are bracing themselves for a range of cost-cutting measures, as losses for the year approach €20m.
RTE has carried several high-cost events this year, such as the General Election coverage, 1916 commemorations and the Olympics, while advertising revenue growth has been below expectations. In recent weeks, advertisers — many of whom are based in London — have reduced spending in the wake of the Brexit vote, and senior ad agency executives believe spending on TV advertising could be down by 20pc next month.
Last week, senior managers at RTE briefed employees to warn them of the worsening financial position and flag the possibility of redundancies and other cuts.
New director general, Dee Forbes, has outlined RTE’s deteriorating financial position to Minister for Communications Denis Naughten in recent days.
Naughten has ruled out an increase in the licence fee but plans to bring in measures to tackle evasion, which costs the broadcaster as much as €40m a year.
A spokesman for RTE said although the organisation had forecast a deficit for 2016 some time ago, the year was proving to be “very challenging”.
IT’S been quite a while since Michael Fingleton’s man in the UK, Gary McCollum, has featured on the property scene — but I see he has recently re-emerged in Northern Ireland. McCollum, who once ran Irish Nationwide’s £5bn British loan book, is now involved in running a shopping centre in Lisburn, Co Antrim. The development — Lisburn Square — cost £23m to build and first opened in 2001. However, it has struggled to stay en vogue with shoppers and retailers alike and many of the units have remained vacant.
Last summer, British asset management firm Marcol bought the centre for £2m and more recently McCollum and members of his family have been promoting the complex.
McCollum, who set up property consultancy Gmax after leaving the building society, told local media that Lisburn Square “had been unloved and badly managed”.
“But it was a blank canvas and we saw the potential,” he said. “We want to give the Square a more European feel.”
It has already undergone a significant upgrade with a modernised logo and new lighting and paving.
In his former life, McCollum ran the Irish Nationwide UK loan book with Fingers’ son, Michael Fingleton Jnr.
It was quite an undertaking for the two men — at one time, the UK loans represented 42pc of Irish Nationwide’s overall loan book.
McCollum parted ways from Irish Nationwide in 2010.
He had managed Irish Nationwide’s Belfast office at a time when the building society set a rental record in the city in 2008.
However, when promoting Lisburn Square he was quick to point out that rents had been reduced in a bid to attract tenants to the struggling shopping centre.
Oh, how times have changed.