RTÉ News
RTÉ News Channel 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.
The RTÉ News Channel was launched online in 2008 and as a free-to-air station on TV in 2010. The channel broadcasts 24 hour rolling news bulletins and weather as well as RTÉ’s flagship news programmes, the News at One and Six One. The station is operated by RTÉ News and Current Affairs Department.
Audience Share
MissingData
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
2008
Affiliated Interests Founder
Director General of RTÉ 2003-2011, Cathal Goan joined RTÉ in 1979 originally as an archivist and then moved into production and editorial orioles in radio, news and current affairs. In 1990 he became editor of Irish Language Programming at RTÉ. In 1994 he left RTÉ to join the new Irish language channel Teilifís na Gaeilge and was instrumental in its launch. He returned to RTÉ in 2000 and became Director General in 2004 after the departure of Bob Collins.
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
Chief News Editor RTÉ News and Current Affairs since 2018.
Michael O’Kane began his news career as a reporter with The Irish Press. He first joined RTÉ as a news correspondent in 1994 and worked with the national broadcaster until 2001. At this point he moved to the Irish Daily Star, joining as News Editor. He was appointed Deputy Editor of the publication in 2007 and Editor in 2011. He resigned in 2012 after publishing controversial photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton, when the UK-based owner at the time Richard Desmond threatened to close the newspaper. He was Political Editor with the Irish Examiner from 2013-14 and then rejoined RTÉ in 2014 first as Programme Editor for the News at One and Morning Ireland. In 2016 he became News Editor for RTÉ News and in 2018 the overall Editor for News and Current Affairs.
Affiliated Interests other important people
Chair of the RTÉ Authority, A media professional and former TG4 Chairperson and Board member, where she was a founding member of the team who established the Irish language station. She was CEO of Ardmore Studios and Troy Studios until 2021 and previously Managing Director with Tyrone Productions. She was Head of Finance with Tribune Newspaper Group. She founded her own independent television company Ikandi Productions and produced several documentaries. Siún is also involved in the animation sector and has executive produced several animated feature films.
Contact
Financial Information
Revenue (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)
Missing Data
Market Share
Missing Data
Further Information
Meta Data
TAM Ireland does not include audience share information for the RTÉ News Channel.
RTÉ does not break down financial data at channel/outlet level.
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.
