It’s not as if the RTE stars are going to land a gig in France
TD hits back as boss defends star salaries and warns of regional and political cuts
RTÉ has defended the salaries paid to its top stars – despite arguing its services are at risk if it doesn’t get more TV licence cash.
The national broadcaster’s director general, Dee Forbes, yesterday pleaded for a shake-up of licence funding to bring in more revenue to RTÉ – warning she would be forced to cut services otherwise.
However, Fine Gael TD Jennifer Carroll MacNeill told Ms Forbes that the market for its top presenters is ‘local’ and that there isn’t a ‘competitive European market’ for their skills. ‘It is not as though an RTÉ presenter is going to go off and land a gig presenting in France,’ said Ms Carroll McNeill. Responding, Ms Forbes – who was appearing before the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee – said: ‘The market is local. What I’m saying is that it’s a feature of the media market that talent are paid various rates above normal [broadcast] salaries.
‘These people fulfil a particular role and have a particular skill set. They fulfil a public service remit, and they fulfil a commercial piece for us which attracts advertisers.’
Ms Forbes said that regional news coverage, as well as political and election coverage, and issues pertaining to Northern Ireland would take a hit unless more cash comes into RTÉ’s coffers. It came as the broadcaster estimated that it is losing out on €50million a year from licence fee evasion.
‘Quite simply RTÉ does not have adequate revenues to deliver against our remit or fulfil our prescribed role. Key decisions are now essential to secure the future of public service media,’ Ms Forbes told the committee.
RTÉ’s top ten earning presenters commanded combined salaries of more than €3.2million a year, the latest figures, from 2019, show, but this does not reflect a 15% pay cut implemented since.
According to RTÉ’s annual report for 2019, it ran a deficit that year of €7.2million. In the same year, revenue was €342million.
Ms Fobes said that 2020 accounts have yet to be finalised, but they are expected to show a profit.
However, the RTÉ chief called for the TV licence funding system to be overhauled to bring in more revenue to the broadcaster.
Ms Forbes pointed out that only households with a TV are obliged to pay the €160 licence fee despite the fact ‘94% of Irish people’ access one or more of RTÉ’s services each week using multiple devices. She also highlighted how people can watch programmes on the RTÉ Player for free without proving they have a TV licence.