RTÉ Announce Deficit for 2011 of €16m

The Annual Report for RTÉ 2011 has shown the state run broadcaster made a lost of €16m. The report also shows significant cost reductions in operating costs of 20% since 2008, while also showing RTÉ are currently receiving less of the licence fee. TG4 received 8% of the licence fee, directly and indirectly.

Over the course of the year RTÉ One increased its audience share to 31% in peak time viewing, meanwhile RTÉ Two saw a continued drop in audience levels now at 9% across the day. RTÉ Radio 1 remained the most popular Irish radio station, however 2fm also saw major drops in audience levels.

Currently in RTÉ a restructure is taking place, however in 2011 the old RTÉ structure was in place. The annual report shows that the following from each division of RTÉ: -

RTÉ Television made a loss of €13,074,000, RTÉ Radio made a loss of €3,249,000, RTÉ News and Current Affairs made a loss of €2,150,000, RTÉ Publishing made a loss of €2,077,000, while DTT related costs and RTÉ HQ made a loss of €5,259,000.

The only division of RTÉ to make a profit in 2011 (as in 2010) was RTÉ Network Ltd., they made a profit of €8,749,000.

RTÉ say a number of factors have to be included when looking at the losses at the company. 2011 saw the official launch of Ireland's Free-To-Air Digital Terrestrial Service. A major General Election and Presidential Election. RTÉ spent €3.4million on the General Election, Queen Elizabeth II of Britain's visit and the visit of the US president Barack Obama.

RTÉ made apologies to Fr. Kevin Reynolds on foot of the Mission to Prey programme that was broadcast in 2011.

RTÉ is the national broadcaster of Ireland it owns 5 TV services RTÉ One, RTÉ Two HD, RTÉjr, RTÉ One +1 and RTÉ News Now and owns 10 radio services, RTÉ Radio 1, 2FM, RnaG, LyricFM, Radio 1 extra, 2XM, Choice, Pulse, Gold, RTÉ Radio Jr and Chill.

RTÉ Radio was awarded Broadcaster of The Year 2011 and 2012 at the New York Radio Festival. It also owns the National Broadcasting Transmitter Network, National Performing Groups (including the National Concert Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra), the RTÉ Guide, RTÉ Aertel and RTÉ Online.

In 2011 RTÉ saw television advertising decline by 6%.

Hours of Ingenious TV

Drama 147 hours, up 8 hours
News 704 hours, up 19 hours
Entertainment 354 hours, up 6 hours
Music 32 hours, down 17 hours
Young People's 28 hours, down 6 hours
Sport 371 hours, down 56 hours
Education 8 hours, down 3 hours
Religion 23 hours, hours no change
Arts 33 hours, up 4 hours
Factual 388 hours, up 21 hours

Hours of Ingenious Radio

Arts 681 hours, up 3 hours
News 6,511 hours, down 227 hours
Sport 1,460 hours, up 82 hours
Music 17,890 hours, down 1,473 hours
Factual 1,569 hours, down 152 hours
Entertainment 6,192 hours, up 1,414 hours
Other 822 hours, down 13 hours

RTÉ Publishing Statistics

RTÉ.ie had 117.2m page impression each month.
RTÉ Guide had 517,000 readers per issue, this is down nearly 70,000 from 2010.
RTÉ Aertel was used by 92% of viewers, down from 95% in 2010.

RTÉ Performing Groups

RTÉ's performing groups presented 231 live performances in 2011, with over 200,000 going to see them perform.

Revenues

Commercial Revenue to RTÉ dropped to €167.3million, licence fee revenue dropped to €183.6million. Operating cost at RTÉ were €367.7million.

Total Licence Fee Fund to RTÉ

Saorview

The cost of marketing Saorview in 2011 was €1.7million.

The Licence Fee

The licence fee cost €160 and in 2011 it was divided between RTÉ, TG4, An Post and The BAI: -

Spend on Programming on Television

Home Productions = 144,699,000
Acquired = 25,086,000
Total = 169,785,000