RT PUBLISHES 2024 ANNUAL REPORT

RT PUBLISHES 2024 ANNUAL REPORT

RT REPORTS NET SURPLUS OF 5.5 MILLION IN 2024

A YEAR WITH MANY SPECIAL EVENTS UEFA EUROS 2024, THE OLYMPICS AND PARALYMPICS, PLUS THE GENERAL, LOCAL AND EUROPEAN ELECTIONS AND A RECORD YEAR FOR RT PLAYER

To view RT 's 2024 Annual Report, visit https://about.rte.ie/reports-and-policies/annual-reports/

RT is today releasing its Annual Report and Group Consolidated Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31st December 2024, following it being laid before the Houses of The Oireachtas today.

Director-General of RT , Kevin Bakhurst said: RT today reports a surplus of over 5m for 2024, thanks to careful cost controls which have continued into 2025. Alongside a full review and scrutiny of the balance sheet, RT is also on course to deliver a surplus in 2025. From the start of 2026, no one in RT will earn more than the Director-General. These results demonstrate RT 's commitment to running the organisation in a financially responsible and sustainable way.

Chair of the Board of RTE, Terence O'Rourke, said: I was appointed Chair of the Board of RT in March 2024 a significant and transformative year for RT . On the one hand the Government published two Expert Advisory Committee Reports in May, with recommendations, while RT published its five-year strategy and a new Governance Framework in June. In July RT received a commitment from Government to provide the organisation with 725 million in public funding over three years, a decision that allows RT to plan ahead with a considerable degree of assurance, for which we are grateful. We do not take lightly the responsibility that comes with this decision.

All the extensive work taking place across RT to ensure we deliver cultural reform while also meeting the changing needs of our audiences needs to be matched by superior levels of corporate governance and transparency, as well as financial rigour. Much of my work as Chair of the Board has been and will be to work with my Board colleagues, the Director-General and the Leadership Team to ensure that we deliver on the commitments in our strategy and ensure that RT is a well-run, well-governed, accountable organisation. This is essential to the task of rebuilding trust in RT .

On that note, I am pleased that RT is today reporting a surplus for 2024 and that we are forecasting a surplus for 2025.

Director-General of RT , Kevin Bakhurst continued: 2024 was an eventful and challenging year - but one where RT demonstrated how it can truly deliver for audiences and bring the country together for important national moments, while also carefully managing our costs and delivering a surplus.

While we continued to face many challenges, particularly in the early part of the year, and to deliver extensive and necessary reforms to the organisation, we also let our programmes, our content and our services do the talking, and audiences came to RT , often in record numbers. The strong growth in RT Player streams - by an incredible 44% year-on-year - and the very high levels of engagement with RT .ie, our RT News and Radio Player apps and our social media content were very encouraging. RT 's Commercial team also delivered a really strong performance in 2024 in a very competitive market, which generated important revenue to support our public service content and programming.

2024 also saw the launch of our five-year strategy, which will prepare RT for the future. And for the first time in a generation, we received multi-annual public funding, which recognises the importance and value of strong and independent public service media to Ireland and is enabling us to plan ahead with certainty. This has been transformative and will enable RT to make significant changes and to deliver more to audiences. For this we are grateful and we will not take it for granted.

At the end of the year, in an email to RT staff, I stated that, while 2025 will bring its own set of challenges and we will be making some important decisions, I am very optimistic about RT and its future. While challenges remain, we are delivering more to audiences, we are listening to what they have to say and making better decisions, we are also listening to our staff and improving our culture to make RT a better place to work, while implementing important governance reforms, managing our costs and ensuring strong financial discipline. This is reflected in the surplus in the 2024 Annual Report and the surplus forecast for 2025.

>>> RT 's 2024 Annual Report in summary:

NET SURPLUS: RT recorded a Surplus of 5.5 million for the year.

TOTAL REVENUE: Total revenue (TV Licence/Commercial) increased by 36.4m between 2024 and 2023 ( 380.4 million in 2024 vs 344.0 million in 2023).

LICENCE FEE & GOVERNMENT FUNDING: Licence fee income received by RT in 2024 was down 4.0 million compared to 2023. In addition, 48.0 million of government funding income was recognised in 2024 ( 32.0 million of which was received in 2024). As a result, combined licence fee income and government funding received by RT in 2024 was 222.3 million, compared to 193.3 million in 2023.

COMMERCIAL REVENUE: 2024 commercial revenue of 158.1 million represents a year-on-year increase of 4.9% (2023: 150.7 million). The main reason for this was increases in Television Trading and Digital Trading income

OPERATING COSTS: Excluding special events, operating costs increased by 6.6 million or 1.9% year-on-year.

SPECIAL EVENTS: 2024 was a year of many special events ranging from the UEFA Euro 2024 championships, the Olympics and Paralympics and the General, Local and European elections. Total special event-related costs were 13.7 million (2023: 7.4 million), a difference of 6.3 million.

TRANSPARENCY: For the second time, and in line with the previous commitment of RTE Director-General, Kevin Bak

LINK:	https://about.rte.ie/2025/10/29/rte-publishes-2024-annual-report/...
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