All is not well over in RTÉ towers it seems as the national broadcaster has reported a deficit of €6.4 million in their annual report for 2017 and is warning the government that it faces a "serious financial position".
While there has been a significant reduction in the broadcaster's losses (in 2016 it was €20 million), RTÉ are not out of the woods yet. Director General of RTÉ, Dee Forbes has said that the uncertainty surrounding the television licence fee system, difficulties arising from Brexit, and falling advertising revenues paint an urgent and bleak financial picture for the organisation.
While RTÉ have sold a part of the campus and began a voluntary-redundancy scheme to help bring in some more capital to the organisation, they want more to be done by the government.
Forbes has already called for the license fee to be increased from €160 to €175 and has said the lack of clarity over future plans for the TV license have meant that RTÉ cannot prepare a long term strategy.
A spokeswoman for Minister for Communications Denis Naughten declined to comment on the report, but she did confirm that the Minister would be presenting a memo to the Cabinet in a number of weeks outlining policy advances in funding for public service broadcasting including dealing with the issue of license fee evasion which is estimated to be 14.6 per cent.
The Cabinet will be considering the national broadcaster’s annual report at its weekly meeting on Tuesday.
