RTE has to pick licence or advertising model
In an interesting news report this week we’ve read that RTÉ will be forced to pick one of two business models in the near future [1]. We wonder are the bosses sitting in their Donnybrook offices beginning to worry about the next planned changes for the national broadcaster.
In the news article Communications Minister, Alex White, says that it could be seen that RTÉ has an unfair advantage over other Irish broadcasting companies. RTE has a dual funding model, earning money from advertising as well as the licence fee. This move could also come about with the Public Broadcasting charge where every household in Ireland could be forced to pay a fee whether they have a TV or not. RTÉ current earns about 50% of it’s revenue from advertising, while stations like TG4 is closer to 6% [2].
Companies like TV3, 3e, TG4 and UTV Ireland all currently bid with RTE for advertisers budgets. Having more than one income stream means that RTE has an advantage over other stations.
“There is only a limited pool of advertising out there and you have a State broadcaster that is on the one hand being funded by a licence fee to develop its programming and its content, and a lot of that content in itself is being re-purposed to create the digital side of their business, and then in addition they’re able to monetise that by selling advertising in a commercial fashion,” , Local Ireland president Sean Mahon
Other national broadcasters like BBC don’t show ads, and solely rely on the British licence fee. So will we be able to watch RTE soon without ads?
Sources
- [1] RTE to choose between licence fee and ad revenue – Irish Independent
- [2] Public Broadcasting (Ireland)- Wikipedia
Hat-tip to John L for sharing this news with us.
RTE has to pick licence or advertising model,