RTÉ’s commercial arm hurt by lower television exports

RTÉ recorded a "steep revenue decline" in its international programme sales in 2016 due to the limited international appeal of programmes made for an Irish audience.

Recently filed accounts for the commercial arm of the national broadcaster suggests that the drop in programme sales was also impacted by the “non-recurrence of a significant domestic sale”, which combined with currency depreciation in the aftermath of Brexit.

Despite some negativity on the international sales front, the Montrose-based broadcaster had some success with the sale of 1916 programming and the comedy series Bridget & Eamon, which it sold to British broadcasting group UKTV.

The accounts for RTÉ Commercial Enterprises DAC also confirm that RTÉ is “reviewing” its presence in the merchandising market where activities came “under severe pressure during 2016”.

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After one of its distributors went into liquidation, CD and DVD sales reduced significantly, it said. That, combined with consumers moving away from CD and DVD purchases, has “necessitated a complete re-evaluation of the activity”.

RTÉ group commercial director Willie O'Reilly told The Irish Times in June that it was considering exiting the merchandising market after a "really difficult" period of trading. "The market has moved on, probably faster than any of us predicted," Mr O'Reilly said.

RTÉ Guide

Aside from international sales and merchandising, the commercial arm controls the RTÉ Guide magazine, aspects of the RTÉ Player, the operation of GAAGO and management of broadcast facilities, as well as fulfilling sales roles for the broadcaster.

RTÉ Guide, which had printing and related costs of €1.49 million in 2016, was singled out as a "contributor to RTÉ's bottom line" with the Christmas edition in particular recording stable year-on-year sales. The magazine had a circulation of 48,089 in 2016.

Despite the troubled merchandising and international sales divisions, the company recorded a profit for the year of €7.4 million, up from €4.48 million the previous year.

This was achieved as revenue dipped by almost 20 per cent to €20.4 million and operating costs fell from €21 million to €12.9 million.

The single most significant operating cost drop was in the area of employee costs, which fell from €9.35 million to €2.67 million as the number of employees more than halved to 37.