Drop in people buying TV licences ‘disappointing but not surprising’ – minister

The drop in people buying TV licences in the weeks since the controversy at RTE came to light is “disappointing but not surprising”, Ireland’s finance minister has said.

Michael McGrath said that RTE does not have an “easy job” to restore trust in the organisation after the “self-inflicted” damage done to its reputation over financial issues at the public service broadcaster.

The debacle began on June 22 when RTE said it had not correctly declared fees to its highest-paid earner Ryan Tubridy between 2017-2022, but has widened out to other financial and governance matters.

This has led to a dramatic fall in TV licences being bought in the weeks since, with thousands of citizens a week choosing not to renew or apply for a licence when compared to last year.

Media Minister Catherine Martin has said she is monitoring the figures to see if it becomes a long-term trend while chairwoman of the broadcaster’s board Siun Ni Raghallaigh said there is concern about the decline among the organisation’s board and management.

Mr McGrath said that Ms Martin and Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe will be having “a very serious discussion” on interim funding for RTE as part of Budget 2024.

“The drop-off in the rate of payments on TV licences is not surprising, but it is disappointing, and for now that remains the vehicle through which we all need to support public service broadcasting,” he told reporters in Cork.

“So it’s important that we do continue to support it.”

On a long-term funding model, Mr McGrath said it was “important” that RTE is not entirely funded through the Exchequer, adding that if “the entire burden of funding fell on the shoulders of taxpayers through general taxation”, it would be “a very different RTE”.

“This was very much a self-inflicted own goal by RTE in recent months, and they have put their hands up and acknowledged that as an organisation they have been the cause of these problems, and that has undoubtedly undermined public confidence and public trust in the organisation,” he said.

RTE director general Kevin Bakhurst said he “fully understands” some people’s reluctance to pay the 160-euro TV licence fee, particularly during the cost-of-living crisis.

“I hope to convince those people who haven’t paid it that they still get real value from RTE, that we’re doing everything we can to change the organisation, to rebuild that trust with them, and hopefully in due course, they’ll change their mind,” he told RTE Morning Ireland.

He said there is “an increased hole in the funding” at the broadcaster and said ways to ensure a “security of public funding” included a household-based fee and a device-neutral fee.

RTE has previously warned that it is losing millions of euro in funding a year by people with televisions evading paying the fee and by those using the RTE Player on phones and tablets to watch its programmes.

Mr Bakhurst said among the reforms he is planning is to cut its highest-paid presenters’ pay as their contracts come up for renewal.

He also said that a proposal for a register of interests has been drafted, and that he would need to consult with the unions, the management association and the Data Commissioner in relation to it.