The Government has given itself two months to make a decision on how to fund public service media into the future. It comes against a backdrop of falling TV licence revenues in the wake of a series of controversies to hit RTÉ. Here’s a guide to the licence fee, previous reform efforts, the current fault lines in Government on future funding, and what happens next.
Q: What is the TV licence?
A: Any household or premises that has a television must have a TV licence. The €160 fee has remained unchanged since 2008 and is collected by An Post. The vast majority of receipts go to RTÉ, with the percentage of gross receipts provided to the broadcaster in 2022 standing at 89 per cent. RTÉ's 2022 annual report shows licence-fee revenue that year of €195.6 million, down €500,000 on 2021.
Q: Does everybody pay?
A: A majority of households do, but not all, with those who do not pay risking being hauled to court. RTÉ have long sought an overhaul of the TV licence system. It complained of evasion rates even before the drop in licence-fee sales that has occurred since the revelations about undisclosed payments to former Late Late Show host Ryan Tubridy and other controversies arose last year. For instance, the rate of evasion in 2022 was estimated to be running at about 15 per cent.
Minister for Media Catherine Martin said in January that the likely evasion rate in 2023 was approximately 19 per cent. This includes the fall in the number of licence-fee sales in the second half of the year. Sales fell by almost €22 million between the end of June 2023 and late February 2024 compared to the same period the previous year.
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Q: The current Government is not the first to try to overhaul the TV licence fee, is it?
A: It is not. There were proposals for a new public service Broadcasting Charge during the Fine Gael-Labour Coalition in power between 2011 and 2016. It would have been for all households, not just those with a TV, given the rise in streaming on tablets and smartphones. The plans never came to fruition. Politically unpopular, it was dropped by the Fine Gael-led minority government elected in 2016, with then minister for communications Denis Naughten, an Independent, saying: “we have to live in the real world” and that his objective would be to “try to maximise the collection of the existing licence fee”.
His successor in the role, Fine Gael’s Richard Bruton, later sought to revive the broadcasting charge idea, but again it was not progressed. The current Coalition set up the Future of Media Commission to develop recommendations on sustainable public funding for the media. It recommended direct exchequer funding for public service broadcasting. This was the only one of the commission’s 50 recommendations that was rejected by the Government, amid concerns over the implications the exclusive use of exchequer funding could have for the independence of public service broadcasting.
Q: So is the Coalition in agreement on how to change the TV licence system?
A: Not exactly. Ms Martin, the line Minister, has been supportive of reviving the commission’s full exchequer funding model provided there are safeguards for independence. Tánaiste Micheál Martin, along with Minister for Finance Michael McGrath and Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe, have been resistant to this. The Tánaiste has said full exchequer funding would mean any Government in the future would have a level of control over Irish media that “would not be a healthy one”.
Mr McGrath has raised concerns that full exchequer funding would result in funding for RTÉ and other public service broadcasting “competing with the health service, education and other vital frontline services”.
It has been reported in recent days that a model that would see a reduced TV licence being collected by Revenue and topped up by exchequer funding, at least in the short term, was emerging as the likely outcome of Government deliberations. On Tuesday, Ms Martin cautioned that such a hybrid model could “represent the worst of both worlds”. She said there are “differences of opinion, but we are absolutely united at Cabinet that a decision [on funding] will be taken before the summer”.
Q: So when can we expect to know the plan?
A: The decision on future funding is expected just before the Dáil rises for its summer recess in July, with the outline of legislation ready in autumn or winter. This timing avoids any potentially contentious announcement before the local and European elections in June. However, if the Government cannot get the required legislation over the line before a general election is called – a tall order with just 10 months left for the current Dáil to run – expect the TV licence to become an issue in that campaign.
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