Record-breaking viewership appearances by broadcaster, Ryan Tubridy and revelations about RTÉ barter accounts and flip-flop spending contributed to more than a doubling to 43 million minutes of live-streaming consumed on Oireachtas TV services last year.
That is according to the 2023 Houses of the Oireachtas Commission Annual Report which shows that the 43.07 million minutes of live-streaming consumed on Oireachtas TV services for 2023 compares to 20 million minutes consumed for 2022 - an increase of 23 million or 115 per cent.
The RTE scandal concerning the covert payments to the former Late Late Show presenter was at its height last July during Mr Tubridy’s appearance before the Public Accounts (PAC) and Media Committees at Leinster House.
The annual report states that the 43 million minutes of live-streaming consumed for 2023 on the Oireachtas website, the Oireachtas App and social media accounts, “included a record daily consumption of 8.8 million minutes on July 11th 2023”.
On that date, Tubridy appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Media Committees with agent, Noel Kelly and the 8.8 million minutes watched was a 303-fold increase on normal viewing figures for a PAC hearing.
Those numbers were only for those who streamed from the internet and did not include the numbers who watched proceedings on the RTÉ News Now Channels.
In separate dates to Mr Tubridy’s appearance, RTE executives appeared before Oireachtas Committees last year to be grilled by TDs and Senators and the Oireachtas Commission annual report credits the RTÉ controversy with the massive upturn in Oireachtas Committee viewing figures.
The Oireachtas Commission report states that “due to exceptional public interest in seven committee meetings involving representatives from RTÉ, the livestreaming figures for Oireachtas Committees more than doubled in 2023”.
The report states that “meetings took place on June, 28th June 29th, July 5th, July 11th, July 13h and September 13h. Mainstream media websites also embedded live streams of these Committee meetings, increasing their reach and consumption”.
A graph in the report shows that Oireachtas TV live streaming minutes increased from just under 10m to around 15m while live streaming minutes for Oireachtas Committee broadcasts increased from between 5m and 10m to between 15m and 20m for 2023.
The ratings busting appearances by the Virgin Radio host and podcaster, Tubridy and then RTE colleagues also coincided with a 56% increase on 2022 in overall website traffic to oireachtas.ie last year. Website visits increased from 1.4m to 2.19m in 2023.
The 2023 spend on the Oireachtas TV service that last year broadcast the appearances by Tubridy and the senior ranking RTE executives totals €3.63m.
The annual report discloses that the €3.63m spend on Oireacthas TV services was a 7pc increase on the 2022 spend of €3.4m.
The report states that the Commission was budgeting for a 2023 spend of €4.5m on Oireachtas TV services. However, a note attached to the accounts states that the underspend of €871,000 was due to the deferral of a specific project from 2023 into 2024.
The report states that "overall, there were over 1,030 hours of live broadcasting of Oireachtas proceedings in 2023, and over 1,266 hours of Oireachtas original TV content broadcast. Replay of Committee proceedings made up 34% of total Oireachtas TV airtime in 2023”.
