Annual Reports - RTÉ

ANNUAL REPORT & GROUP FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 2007
Director-General’s
Review
Cathal Goan Director-General
Overview of 2007
2007 was a very busy and a very successful
year - as evident from the detailed reports for
each area of RTÉ activities listed below. RTÉ
content, in all its manifestations and on all
platforms, enjoyed significant audiences and,
despite the growing competition, maintained -
and in some cases increased - its share of the
audience. Taken together with a very strong
commercial performance, this positions RTÉ
well for the many challenges facing public
service media in 2008 and the coming years.
Pressures facing every organisation in a
competitive environment remain to the fore,
and this is especially true for an organisation
with a change agenda. Cost escalation is an
ever present factor which must be managed
firmly and proactively. Unavoidable operational
cost increases, due to national wage
agreements, and the ever increasing cost of
rights acquisitions are just two examples of
such pressures. Competition continues to
increase from both domestically regulated
broadcasters and international operations
which target Irish opt-outs.
RTÉ is migrating all its content production and
distribution to a fully digital environment and
the management of these projects requires
ongoing vigorous attention if we are to benefit
from its full potential and avoid wasteful
investment. The distinctive quality and direct
relevance of RTÉ’s offerings to the audience
continue to be the key to success.
RTÉ Television enjoyed very impressive
audiences throughout 2007 and reached
record commercial targets. RTÉ Radio
experienced some recovery in audience share
through schedule changes and, despite a
very tough mid-year on the commercial front,
achieved revenue targets by year end. 2007
saw pressure on the RTÉ Guide’s circulation
figures and advertising; notwithstanding
that challenge RTÉ Publishing achieved its
targets and re-launched RTÉ.ie to the great
satisfaction of users at home and abroad and
the site witnessed very impressive year-onyear
growth.
RTÉ Performing Groups, with a change
in leadership, enjoyed critical and popular
acclaim for a wide range of music-making
activities and engagements with the public
in live performance, in the classroom,
across Europe on radio and television and
on the worldwide web. RTÉNL continued
to invest in improving analogue reception
for both radio and television and was at
the centre of piloting DAB and DTT trials
throughout the year. 2008 will require
a major focus on and investment in the
building of infrastructure to support Digital
Terrestrial Television (DTT) for Ireland. RTÉ
is fully committed to making a success of
this new platform and facilitating analogue
switch-off.
The Chairman has already alluded to the
Broadcasting (Amendment) Act 2007
and the challenge for RTÉ in establishing
DTT and bringing a television broadcasting
service to Irish communities living abroad.
It is a matter of concern that no financial
provision has been made for this new
service and that RTÉ is expected to
establish it at a time of mounting costs and
a less buoyant commercial outlook from
within existing resources.
As a not-for-profit public corporation,
Ireland’s national Public Service
Broadcaster must stay creative,
confident, efficient and competitive in
order to maintain its public funding and
its privileged position of popularity and
trust in Irish society. The Chairman has
noted that an independent assessment of
RTÉ’s performance commissioned by the
Department of Communications, Energy
and Natural Resources led to Government
approval for a modest Licence Fee increase
in January 2008. The need to demonstrate
value for money and the most effective
content creation possible is an ever present
reality. RTÉ will work in 2008 to develop
further metrics which assist in a transparent
appraisal of its commitments and
achievements and the ongoing requirement
for public funding as a proportion of its
overall financing.
The coverage of the General Election 2007
campaign and results will be referred to
in detail below in various ways, but it is
important to acknowledge with gratitude the
enormous commitment and resourcefulness
of all staff involved in bringing RTÉ’s most
successful ever Election coverage to the
public at home and abroad on Radio,
Television, Online, Teletext and through
mobile alerts. This was the public service
high point of a year which offered many
individual highlights in all areas of creative
content but which also drew RTÉ into
controversy in a number of instances.
RTÉ’s independence from political influence
is vital to its role in Irish society and to a
healthy functioning democracy. Completely
groundless claims of political interference
in RTÉ featured disproportionately in
a number of media outlets and have
been robustly rejected. Of more central
concern is maintaining vigilance in our
editorial standards and in this regard the
acknowledgement that mistakes were
made in the commissioning process of the
series High Society was a telling and timely
caution. This process has been a subject
of close internal scrutiny and, following a
thorough review in Television, a renewed
commitment to keeping in place the best
possible editorial standards as outlined in
the RTÉ Programme Makers Guidelines.
Challenges for 2008
We expect that 2008 will see the
introduction of new legislation which will,
inter alia, establish the Broadcasting
Authority of Ireland under whose aegis
RTÉ will operate. As the term of office
of the RTÉ Audience Council had been
completed before the new legislation
had been enacted, we are grateful to the
current members for agreeing to stay on
for another year and to the Minister for
Communications, Energy and Natural
Resources for facilitating this extension.
This year will also see the very significant
ramping up of activity in establishing DTT
and in bringing RTÉ and TG4 television
programmes to audiences outside Ireland.
Work will continue apace to migrate
production facilities to a fully digital
environment and to assess the workflow
changes and the implications for the
physical lay-out of the Donnybrook campus
which will arise as a result. It will also see
preparation of the third iteration of RTÉ’s
Strategic Corporate Plan: Putting the
Audience First.
In a time of dynamic change, it’s important
we maintain a constant sense of that key
reason for our existence which translates
into: offering independent and impartial
News and Current Affairs; creating the
most relevant and cost effective quality
content available anywhere anytime and
at no additional cost to the Licence Fee
payer. This is only possible with the full
support of a dedicated team of in-house
and independent content providers backed
up by first class commercial, financial
and administrative staff. I am grateful to
them and look forward to their continued
commitment to bringing the best possible
content to our audiences.
The term of office of the current RTÉ
Authority will come to an end in 2008 and
I want to record my appreciation of the
support and rigorous governance of RTÉ’s
affairs during their tenure. I wish to thank
the Chairman Mary Finan in particular for
her unstinting interest and commitment
to Public Service Broadcasting and to
continued success for RTÉ.
Cathal Goan
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