RTÉ appoints Gavin Deans in ‘critical’ role of commercial director

RTÉ has appointed Gavin Deans as its commercial director with effect from February 2024. Mr Deans will join the permanent leadership team of RTÉ and oversee the development of a new commercial strategy.

RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst said the role of the commercial division would be “critical” as the organisation embarks on a new strategic vision for its future, with staff due to be briefed on the plan on Tuesday.

“Commercial revenue will be an essential pillar of a sustainable RTÉ and, with his unparalleled experience as an innovator in the sector, I am confident that our excellent commercial team will have a leader that can drive results for RTÉ, and for the audiences we serve,” Mr Bakhurst said.

The crisis-stricken broadcaster said Mr Deans’s job would involve “optimising revenues for reinvestment in public-service media through an evolution of RTÉ's revenue streams, markets and strategic partnerships”.

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Mr Deans joins RTÉ from his role as managing director of media sales house Media Central, which was acquired by Today FM and Newstalk owner Bauer Media Audio in September. He was previously sales director for 98FM and Spin 1038*, two stations that at the time belonged to Denis O’Brien’s radio group Communicorp, the former owner of Bauer’s Irish stations.

He said RTÉ held “a special place in Ireland’s media landscape” and that he understood the challenges faced by both it and the wider media sector.

“My focus, and that of my new colleagues in RTÉ, will be to deliver the maximum amount of revenue possible to safeguard RTÉ's public-service portfolio for current and future generations,” he said.

Bolstering RTÉ's commercial revenue has become even more vital in light of a dramatic collapse in television licence fee income since June, when it emerged that RTÉ had understated how much it had paid former Late Late Show and radio presenter Ryan Tubridy.

RTÉ's commercial revenue peaked at €245.5 million in 2007, the same year that its total revenue peaked at €441.5 million. In 2022, commercial revenue stood at €152.1 million, with its total revenue arriving at €347.7 million.

The broadcaster’s advertising revenue was hit first of all by the recession, then by competition over the past decade, with advertisers shifting their marketing budgets away from traditional media to online giants led by Google and Facebook-owner Meta.

Mr Deans succeeds group commercial director Geraldine O’Leary, who announced her early retirement in July just weeks before she was due to depart the organisation after she “agreed to facilitate” Mr Bakhurst’s appointment of a fresh interim leadership team.

RTÉ is currently seeking a chief financial officer to replace Richard Collins, who resigned last month. It has appointed executive search specialists Odgers Berndtson Ireland to manage the process, with applications due to close on November 20th.

The job ad states that RTÉ is “poised to transform into a forward-thinking, IP-based public-service media provider”, describing this as “an exciting transition”.

*This article was updated on November 24th, 2023, to clarify Mr Deans’s previous job title.