Pre-tax profits doubled at RTÉ’s commercial arm to €11.44m last year on the back of renewed digital distribution deals for shows concluded in respect of RTÉ Player licencing.
New accounts for RTÉ Commercial Enterprises DAC show that pre-tax profits surged by 106 per cent to €11.44m after revenues increased by 16 per cent from €16.6m to €19.28m.
Profits also increased due to a 28 per cent decrease in operating costs from €11.4m to €8.2m.
The main reason for the substantial year-on-year decrease is the costs incurred in 2022 on the production of the box office flop, Toy Show The Musical, that was not recurring in 2023.
Documents released by RTÉ last year revealed that Toy Show The Musical recorded revenues of €495,961 against costs of €2.69m, resulting in a loss of €2.2m.
The RTÉ company's profits were also boosted last year by its €381,000 profit share from RTÉ's controversial joint GAAGO venture with the GAA.
The profit share from GAAGO was an 18 per cent increase on the profit share of €323,000 in the prior year as revenues at the GAAGO joint venture doubled from €2.4m to €5.06m in 2023.
The directors also stated that some individual revenue lines, such as Radio Promotions and TV Programme Sales "returned moderate increases in revenues".
The increases in revenues in those areas were offset by reductions in revenues for the RTÉ Guide and Special Live Events.
The directors state that Programme Interaction Competitions (PIC) revenues “experienced another challenging year and were flat year-on-year as the level of audience engagement with TV competitions has not returned to pre-COVID levels".
The directors also state that RTÉ Guide copy sales “were down 7.6% year-on-year, in line with a magazine market that is estimated to have declined by 8%”.
The directors reveal that total copy sales of 1.53m for the year included a 6 per cent decline in sales of the flagship Christmas issue which sold 225,355 copies compared to sales of 240,600 copies in 2022.
They state that advertising revenue for the RTÉ Guide also declined year-on-year as the magazine advertising market proved challenging.
Two of the figures associated with the fall-out from the RTÉ 'secret payments’ to former Late Late Show host, Ryan Tubridy, that included subsequent appearances before Dáil committees, RTÉ’s former Commercial Director, Geraldine O'Leary and former Chief Financial Officer, Richard Collins resigned as directors of the company during the year.
Pay to contractors by the firm last year decreased sharply from €638,000 to €97,000 while employee costs decreased from €2.74m to €2.1m.
Numbers employed declined by two to 25 in commercial/merchandising and editorial and content production roles.
At the end of December last, the company’s accumulated profits totalled €125m. Cash funds increased from €1.9m to €6.6m.
On the digital distribution deals, a spokeswoman for RTE said: "RTÉ Player Licencing relates to commercial agreements between RTÉ and third party television services such as Sky, eir, Vodafone and Virgin Media.”
