RTE received over €3.7 billion in TV Licence fee income from the state in the last 20 years, it has been revealed.
But the national broadcaster is still losing money and was given €15 million in additional taxpayer cash last year on top of 196.2 million it had already received from the TV licence.
The figures were released by the Minister for Culture, Tourism , Arts and the Media Carherine Martin at the request of Sinn Fein TD Aengus O Snodaigh.
READ MORE: Cash-strapped RTE recorded deficit of €7.2million in 2019
The biggest amount in TV licence revenues RTE got paid was €197.6 million in 2020. The lowest amount it received in the last 20 years was €158.5 million in 2003. RTE is one of the few state broadcasters in the world operating on a dual funding model.
Minister Martin confirmed RTE receives revenue through the TV licence system plus its own commercial income - predominantly advertising.
The BBC can not sell advertising on its TV and radio stations only the independent sector in the UK can do this because they don’t get a licence fee.
In Ireland RTE is given the best of both worlds and is allowed to sell advertising against the commercial sector. The licence fee is currently €160 a year.
The Government is considering changing the title of the TV licence fee to a household or internet licence fee at the request of RTE by the Autumn.
RTE bosses are concerned at the rise in the number of non-TV homes where people don’t have an actual television set and instead consume their tv entertainment via the internet.
An increasing number of households are using this “loophole“ so as to not pay the tv licence fee.
The number of houses with no televisions has increased from 3 to 15.5 pc in the last seven to eight years, the Dail Committee on the Media recently heard.
RTE complained that the number of non TV licence payers was growing by at least €2 million a year, a figure station executive felt was not sustainable.
The broadcaster reckons it is failing to collect around €65 million a year in tv licence fees. During the decade 2019 to 2019 the station’s public and commercial funding ranged from 54pc and 46pc respectively.
RTE has been running at a deficit for years but showed a surplus of over seven million during Covid in 2020 after slashing costs and cutting back on making new programmes during the pandemic.
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