RTÉ reports net surplus of €2.4m for 2021 as commercial revenue recovers

RTÉ has recorded a net surplus of €2.4 million for 2021 after commercial revenue bounced back from the Covid-struck previous year.

The public service broadcaster described the surplus as “modest” and highlighted a slight slip in licence-fee revenue as a result of lower television licence sales, with its share of receipts falling from €196.6 million to €196.1 million.

However, after plunging €11.3 million in 2020, commercial revenues surged €13.8 million to €148.3 million as the broadcaster saw “a significant increase in client spending” from television advertisers in particular. Its commercial revenues were €2.5 million higher than they had been in 2019 before the crisis. As a result, total revenue climbed €13.3 million to €344.4 million.

Operating costs, excluding special events, increased by €10.3 million to €315.5 million as content production resumed after lengthy disruption in 2020 due to pandemic lockdowns. They remain below the €337.8 million level incurred by RTÉ in 2019.

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Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and special events were €28.9 million, up from €25.9 million in 2020.

The cost of special events in 2021 — notably sports coverage which included the postponed Euro 2020, Tokyo 2020 as well as World Cup qualifying matches — came to €15.8 million compared to just €2.5 million the previous year, RTÉ said.

Net surplus after tax and exceptional items for 2021, at €2.4 million, is smaller than the surplus of €7.9 million recorded in 2020, when the broadcaster’s spending plummeted due to Covid restrictions, while its income was also propped up by advertising revenues from the Government’s public health campaigns.

While RTÉ spent more on programmes in 2021 than in 2020, some output remained curtailed last year due to ongoing pandemic fallout. Acquired programme costs, which are mostly international imports, fell by €3.1 million because Covid disruption “impacted the supply of new films and series in 2021″.

As of the end of 2021, RTÉ employed 1,871 people, of which 232 were part-time or casual, resulting in a full-time equivalent headcount of 1,755, down three on 2020. In January 2022, this full-time equivalent headcount fell by 70 after the National Symphony Orchestra transferred out of RTÉ to the National Concert Hall.

The broadcaster last week broadly welcomed the Government’s response to the Future of the Media Commission report, though it stressed that the timing of promised licence fee reform was “more critical than ever”.

Much of the past decade has been “dominated by the challenges of financial instability”, RTÉ director-general Dee Forbes said in the annual report. “I very much hope that 2022 marks a turning point in national investment in public service media. It has never mattered more, and our resolve to serve our audiences with the best of Irish content has never been greater.”