RTÉ 1
RTÉ One is owned by RTÉ the Irish Public Service Broadcaster which is ultimately controlled by the RTÉ Board, chaired by Siún Ní Raghallaigh. Day to day operations and management of RTÉ is the responsibility of the RTÉ Executive Board, which reports to the RTÉ Board. The RTÉ Executive is a committee of senior management in RTÉ led by the Director General, and includes Directors of television, radio, news and current affairs, Heads of channels and content as well as heads of corporate divisions such as marketing, finance, legal and strategy. Following the RTÉ payments controversy, which emerged in summer 2023, new Director General Kevin Bakhurst disbanded the RTÉ Executive and replaced it with an Interim Leadership Team.
RTÉ Television overall reaches 34% of Irish adults during the peak viewing times of 6pm - 11.30pm everyday. In 2022 44 of the 50 most watched TV programmes in Ireland were on RTÉ Television. RTÉ One has a 19.74% share of the TV viewing audience.
TV broadcasting in Ireland began when what is now known as RTÉ One, Telefís Éireann launched on New Year’s Eve 1961. The launch of the flagship national television service was accompanied by the move of management of the state broadcasting out of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs and the establishment of a Statutory State Organisation tasked with the management and operation of radio and television services in the 1960 Broadcasting Act. This Act included the establishment of the RTÉ Authority who oversee the running of the broadcaster ensuring that it serves the Irish public. In 1978 the station’s name was changed to RTÉ One with the launch of a second station RTÉ Two.
Programming on RTÉ One includes a range of News and Current Affairs programmes, Light Entertainment, Lifestyle, Factual, Sports, Comedy and Drama. Its schedule includes a mix of content produced by RTÉ, independent Irish production companies and international content which RTÉ buys the rights to broadcast. The Late Late Show is one of RTÉ One’s flagship programmes. The live talk show was embroiled in the recent payments controversy as it emerged that RTÉ had been making additional payments to Ryan Tubridy, the former presenter of the programme, without declaring them as part of his annual salary. The programme is now hosted by Patrick Kielty.
News and Current Affairs programming on RTÉ One is led by Deirdre McCarthy, Managing Director of News and Current Affairs. RTÉ One is home to RTÉ main news bulletins at 1pm, 6pm and 9pm. Key national current affairs programmes are also broadcast on RTÉ One including Prime Time, Upfront with Katie Hannon, The Week in Politics and European Parliament Report. The station also carries live broadcasts of Leaders Questions from Dáil Éireann each week. They also broadcast syndicated content from Euronews overnight, usually between 3am-6am.
In 2009 RTÉ launched the RTÉ Player allowing viewers to access live and on Demand TV via their laptops or mobile devices. In recent years RTÉ has invested in content commissioned and produced specifically for the Player.
RTÉ One is funded through the dual funding model adopted by RTÉ with income derived from both the TV licence fee and advertising revenue. In the 2022 Annual Report the Financial Director highlighted slight changes in advertising spend that were impacting RTÉ with a drop in advertising revenue for TV spot advertising by 1.3% and an increase in sponsorship and product placement revenue of 5.7%.
Audience Share
19.74%
Ownership Type
Public
Geographic Coverage
National
Content Type
Free content
Media Companies / Groups
RTÉ
Ownership Structure
RTÉ is Ireland’s Public Service Broadcaster, as such it is publicly funded and is set up as a Statutory State Body. It is owned by the RTÉ Board and for the purposes of this project we treat the chair of the board Siún Ní Raghallaigh as the ultimate global owner. We also provide details of every board and interim leadership team member. Within this structure there are no shareholders and no dividends are paid, RTÉ operates a dual funding model where income is derived from a public Licence Fee, collected by An Post for the State and advertising revenue from its various platforms.
Individual Owner
General Information
Founding Year
1961
Affiliated Interests Ceo
RTÉ Director General, Kevin Bakhurst became Director General of RTÉ in July 2023 following the resignation of Dee Forbes by request of the RTÉ Board in the midst of the Ryan Tubridy payments scandal.
Between 2006 and 2012 Kevin Bakhurst worked in senior editorial and Director level positions in BBC News. In 2012 he moved to work with RTÉ as Managing Director of News & Current Affairs at RTÉ and Deputy Director General from 2012 to 2016. During this time he was a member of the RTÉ Executive and acting Director General for six months.
On leaving RTÉ in 2016 he moved to work with Ofcom, the media regulator in the United Kingdom as Group Director for Broadcasting and Online and was also a member of Ofcom Board. At Ofcom he was responsible for setting Broadcast Strategy and Policy, creating and implementing the regulation framework for the BBC and editorial standards for UK broadcasters. He also led work on the future of Public Service Broadcasting in the UK. He also led work on the Online Safety Policy for the UK.
Affiliated Interests Editor-In-Chief
RTÉ Director of Content, Jim Jennings oversees RTÉ’s production of TV, radio and online content. He joined RTÉ Radio 1 in 1985, working first in features and current affairs on programmes then moved to television in 1989, working as a producer - including as Executive Producer of The Late Late Show. In 2013 he became Managing Director of RTÉ Radio and in 2017 took on his current role as Director of Content following an organisational restructure and was appointed to the RTÉ Executive as holder of the post. In 2023 following the revelations of payment irregularities at RTÉ Kevin Bakhurst dissolved the RTÉ Executive and replaced it with an Interim Leadership Group, excluding Jim Jennings due to illness and appointing Deputy Director of Content Niamh O’Connor in his place on the Interim Board.
Contact
Further Information
Headlines
Meta Data
RTÉ does not report financial data at station level.
Audience Share from: TV Reach and Share Report August 2023 - TAM Ireland Television Audience Measurement Ireland Reach and Share Report. Share is based on the proportion of all TV viewers nationally that have watched RTÉ One.
Within the media industry in Ireland reporting on income levels are generally at group level rather than individual title level. On top of this, overall revenue details for the market as a whole are unavailable. Due to these factors it is not possible to report accurately on market share for individual titles or groups.
Sources
Horgan, J. & Flynn, R. (2017), Irish Media A Critical History, Four Courts Press, Dublin
