RTÉ cut losses by two-thirds to €4.7m, broadcaster's annual report shows

STATE BROADCASTER RTÉ cut losses by two-thirds last year to €4.7 million, according to the company’s annual report which it published yesterday.

However, chairman Tom Savage warned that a reduction in public funding and increased regulatory costs threaten to impose an extra €20 million a year in costs on the company.

The broadcaster’s figures show revenues fell by less than 1 per cent to €371.7 million last year from €374.9 million in 2010.

Its losses fell by almost 70 per cent to €4.7 million in 2010 from €16.46 million the previous year.

According to the report, RTÉ received €196 million in licence revenues in 2010, a €4 million fall on the amount it received the previous year.

The change was largely due to the impact of legislation passed in 2009. This increased the share of the licence fee made available to independent programme makers to 7 per cent of overall licence fees from 5 per cent previously.

Director general Noel Curran noted the company would have reported a small surplus if this change had not been introduced.

More than €200 million in TV licence fees is collected from households in the Republic every year.

The company’s report says between 2009 and 2010, it cut costs by a total of €82 million. By the end of 2010, it cost 19 per cent less to run the business than it did two years previously.

Personnel-related operating costs fell by 8 per cent last year to €8.8 million, it says. The company recently announced a new voluntary redundancy programme.

Mr Savage warned that a number of changes imposed by the Government would cost RTÉ €20 million a year.

These are: €10 million in licence fees to be given to Irish language broadcaster TG4, to compensate it for a reduction in direct Government funding; a further €4.3 million in licence fees to be given to a fund operated by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to finance independent programme making; a direct contribution of €2.5 million from RTÉ to the Broadcasting Authority, and a cap on Department of Social Protection payments to RTÉ for providing free TV licences to welfare recipients, which will cost an estimated €3 million a year.