TV licence revenue 'collapsing' with loss of almost €3 million

A dramatic drop in the renewal and sale of new TV licences has resulted in a loss of the close to €3 million in revenue for the national broadcaster in the past month. 

Latest figures show that television licence fee sales fell by over €2.7 million during the month of July.

The drop in sales shows that the fallout from the "hidden payments" to Ryan Tubridy has not gone away. 

Figures from the Department of Media show a continued decline in licence fee sales in the final week of the month, also, with 3,490 fewer licences sold.

A TV licence costs €160 and renewals and sales of new licences have both been significantly down in July. 

Deputy Alan Dillon, who serves on the Media and Public Accounts Committee, said the controversy is being allowed to continue into a third month to the detriment of all concerned.

“TV licence revenue is collapsing and 1,800 people are employed at RTÉ. At the same time, we are left awaiting numerous reports which we have been promised for weeks at this stage,” Deputy Dillon said.

“The only way we can move on from this is to rebuild trust and that cannot happen until we have a clear and accurate picture of what occurred at the publicly funded national broadcaster which received €196m in TV licence fees in 2021.

He said the outstanding miscellaneous investigations concerning RTÉ include:

the Grant Thornton interim report 2017 to 2019.
Internal RTÉ review into Tubridy payments 2017 to 2019
Report into Toy Show – The Musical
Report into the voluntary exit schemes in 2017 & 2021

“All bar the latest RTÉ annual report which Media Minister Catherine Martin has had for several weeks are under the commission of RTÉ. We need to have all of these published immediately in the public interest,” the Mayo TD said.

“Minister Martin also needs to publish the latest RTÉ annual report and audited accounts,” he added.