TV licence payments down nearly €3.7mil in wake of RTÉ payment scandal

There has been a significant drop in TV licence revenue in the last few months.

A further drop in TV licence payments has been reported for the first week of August, with €900,000 less collected than in the same week last year.

TV licence sales for this period were 9,361 compared with 15,030 in the same period in 2022, a drop of 37% as indicated by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

RTÉ receives €134.80 from each TV licence payment.

The drop in payments is likely due to the RTÉ payment scandal, which has been unfolding since the revelation of hidden payments to Ryan Tubridy in June of this year.

The former Late Late host received €345,000 in undeclared payments over a period of several years, in addition to his salary of €440,000 per year (an 11% drop from his salary highs in 2019 when he was paid €495,000 and €466,250 in 2020).

According to RTÉ, the payments were uncovered after the company’s auditors alerted the board to some of the transactions.

Last month, Minister for Media Catherine Martin said September will bring a clearer view of licence fee payment trends, at which time decisions can be made around extra funding for RTÉ.

Publication of a Grant Thornton report into payments to Tubridy from 2017-2019 is still awaited.

Header image via Getty/RTÉ

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