RTE loses €58m in licence fees after Ryan Tubridy scandal

Times

27-07-2025

RTE has lost more than €58 million in TV licence revenue since the fallout from the Ryan Tubridy payments scandal, according to new figures from the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport.
Government sources have described the decline as 'the real cost of the collapse in public trust' in the national broadcaster with the scale of the loss dwarfing the RTE controversies, including the €2.2 million lost on Toy Show the Musical, the €3.3 million in executive exit packages and the €345,000 in undisclosed payments made to Tubridy.
The department's figures compare first-time sales and renewals of TV licenses, which cost €160 a year, from July 2021 to June 2023 with those from July 2023 to June 2025, after the emergence of the Tubridy controversy in mid-2023. Between July 2021 and June 2023, RTE collected €306 million in licence revenue. Over the following two-year period that figure dropped by €58.4 million to €247.6 million. In that time, licence transactions fell by more than 365,000, from 1,912,500 to 1,547,357.
An Post, which is responsible for collecting the annual fee, said the revenue fall stemmed from a range of factors but acknowledged: 'The RTE payments issue has also had an impact on TV licence sales and renewals.'
A shrinking pool of potential licence holders is contributing to the loss, due to both changing media consumption and rising eligibility for free licences under the Department of Social Protection (DSP). 'An ever-increasing number of people are entitled to a DSP free licence,' An Post said. 'Just under half of the database is now made up of addresses either entitled to free licences or listed as having 'no TV'.'
An Post is collaborating with the government's TV licence technical working group to overhaul the licence collection system. As The Sunday Times previously reported, An Post submitted a report in July last year outlining proposed reforms.
Among the proposals: commercial premises such as hotels, bookmakers and bars would pay €169.50 for the first 15 screens, and the same amount for every additional five screens. Property owners, rather than tenants or occupiers, would become liable for payment — a change An Post estimates could improve compliance by up to 20 per cent.
Patrick O'Donovan, the arts and media minister, is expecting to receive a report in mid-November on reforms and enhancements to the TV licence model from the taskforce; once he has considered it, he will decide next steps.
The government's decision to retain the current TV licence system last year proved controversial, particularly as the Future of Media Commission had recommended its abolition and replacement with a new public funding model. Kevin Bakhurst, the RTE director-general, has previously described the TV licence model as 'broken' and warned it was no longer a sustainable source of funding.
Despite the overall drop, the latest figures show a modest improvement: from 761,762 transactions between July 2023 and June last year to 785,595 in the following 12 months — a year-on-year increase of 23,833. However, this still represents a sharp fall from the 947,999 transactions recorded in the 12 months leading to June 2023 — a decline of 162,404.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, Bakhurst welcomed the recent uptick in payments but stressed the need for long-term stability.
'We remain grateful to the vast majority of the audience who have paid their TV licences and are encouraged by the recent increase in the number paying compared to last year,' he said.
'We have made very significant changes to the way RTE is run and will continue to do everything we can to demonstrate to licence fee payers that for around €3 a week, they are getting great programmes and content across TV, radio and online — and receiving value for money.
'It is incredibly important that we now have multi-annual funding for three years. That allows us to deliver the ambitious strategy, plan programmes and commission them over that period.'
Bakhurst also pointed out that the TV licence fee had remained unchanged at €160 since 2008.