Director-General’s Review

Dee Forbes
Director-General

“Despite many challenges, I am very proud of what RTÉ achieved in 2022.”

2022 was another significant year for RTÉ. We began the year looking optimistically towards a full return to ‘normality’ after almost two years living with the unprecedented challenges presented by the global pandemic. Following the removal of restrictions in the early part of the year, slowly but surely, we welcomed audiences back to our studios and returned to live public events.

Despite many challenges, I am very proud of what RTÉ achieved in 2022. These achievements included the following:

• RTÉ provided 44 of the 50 most watched TV programmes in 2022, as audiences engaged with live sport, entertainment, trusted news, gripping factual programmes, Irish documentaries and local drama.
• We celebrated 50 years of RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta (RnaG) in April with a gala concert with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and guests in Connemara which was broadcast live on RnaG and subsequently broadcast in a television highlights programme on RTÉ One later that month. It was important for us to be able to come together to mark such an important occasion.
• The FIFA World Cup had 8.5 million total streams on RTÉ Player on 1.8 million unique devices across the tournament - an increase of 240% on Euro 2020 live streams and a 47% increase on the World Cup 2018. Less than 1% of those who streamed raised issues with the performance of the RTÉ Player which is reflective of investment we have made in the service over the last few years.
• Audiences also viewed more of our content on the RTÉ Player during this period. Between the beginning of the World Cup, which began on 20th November and the end of the year, RTÉ Player had more than 17 million streams as viewers engaged with a wide variety of content, including Quinn Country, The Late Late Toy Show and The Irish Civil War.
• Our website, RTE.ie had 31 million visits every month, making it the number 1 news and entertainment website in Ireland. The RTÉ News App had 21 million monthly visits.
• As audiences returned, the RTÉ Supporting the Arts scheme supported 150 local, regional, community and national arts and cultural events across the island with a mix of support on television, radio and online.

But there was so much more important public service content and programming which reminded us of the vital role RTÉ continues to play at the centre of life in Ireland.

Compelling documentaries and investigative reports, such as Blackrock Boys which was produced by the RTÉ Documentary on One team, was both difficult and essential listening, as were the Liveline programmes which followed and provided a significant platform for many victims to come forward over several days to share their personal stories.

Quinn Country, Vicky, War at Home, Cold Case Collins, The Irish Civil War and Tiger Roll, The People’s Horse are just some of the best-in-class documentaries that generated great public interest and discussion. In May, we joined forces with Science Foundation Ireland to co-fund the documentary, The Change – Ireland’s Menopause Story which aired on RTÉ One and on RTÉ Player and followed the phenomenal reaction to women’s stories on Liveline on RTÉ Radio 1 the previous year.

RTÉ Investigates continued its essential and valuable work in unearthing new evidence related to the death of Fr Niall Molloy and turning the spotlight on Ireland’s illegal adoptees revealing how 12 months later many were still searching for answers. These important investigations continue to have an impact long after their broadcast.

In a year in which RTÉ was the home of quality Irish drama and during which Fair City celebrated 5,000 episodes, we were particularly proud to support new Irish writing by bringing Storyland to RTÉ television for the first time with brand-new single dramas, Balor Hall, Mustard and Every Five Miles. These short dramas remain popular on RTÉ Player. I am also very proud that, in October, through RTÉjr we broadcast Dizzy Deliveries, the first ever television series to use manual sign language Lámh, providing a valuable platform to the thousands of kids that use it daily.

We know that live sport is important to our audiences and in 2022, in addition to a successful World Cup, RTÉ provided sports fans throughout Ireland with some incredible live sporting action and memorable moments across the Six Nations, GAA club and county championships, live camogie championship games, women’s soccer, including Ireland’s historic qualification for the Women’s World Cup, Nation’s League matches, Heineken Champions Cup fixtures, European Cross Country action, and so much more across RTÉ television, radio and online.

In addition to our focus on important programming and content, we continued to deliver technological innovation and improve our digital products and services: we significantly updated the RTÉ Radio Player app; we agreed a new deal with Sky which will increase RTÉ content on Sky platforms and place RTÉ at the centre of Sky Glass; we continued to invest in flexible visual studios for audio broadcasts, allowing us to create higher quality video content for social, for online, and for television. This is part of our sustained drive to deliver new products, new functionality and features, more personalisation and new content formats to complement our live broadcasting and to deepen our engagement with audiences, particularly younger audiences, across multiple devices and platforms.

As I mentioned previously, events also made a return after a difficult absence and it was very special to once again be part of important partnerships that welcomed back members of the public, including the National Ploughing Championships, Culture Night, RTÉ Choice Music Prize, Rose of Tralee, Fleadh Cheoil, All-Ireland Drama festival, Bloom, and more. Events like these bring us closer to our audiences and allow us to bring them into the homes of our viewers and listeners.

Once again, I am particularly proud of the role RTÉ played in building on our efforts to raise much-needed funds for charities across the country through a range of uplifting and inspiring initiatives in 2022. Earlier this year we announced that over 1.1 million children and their families started to benefit from some €6.8 million in donations raised from the 2021 RTÉ Toy Show Appeal. 2022’s RTÉ Toy Show Appeal raised almost €4 million. An incredible achievement. RTÉ 2FM, in association with Keary’s Motor Group, gave away a car to one lucky listener in November and raised an impressive €47,000 for Childline to help children throughout Ireland. Through our joint efforts with other media organisations to support the Ireland for Ukraine fund, over €7 million was raised. The Late Late Show Irish Red Cross fundraising appeal for Ukraine in March raised just over €3 million to help those directly impacted by the war in Ukraine. While we never take the generosity of the Irish public for granted, we were humbled by the response to these initiatives, and more, throughout the year.

We also entered 2022 with the hope that, with the publication of the Future of Media Commission Report, we would reach a turning point in national investment in public service media. The Report was published in July 2022 and acknowledged the importance of a diverse and vibrant media, and the multi-faceted role that it plays within Irish life, as well as the unique role of national public service media. The funding solution proposed in the Future of Media Commission Report was the only recommendation not supported by Government. RTÉ will continue in its efforts to make the case for reform to ensure the future of public service media in Ireland. It has never been so important.

Dee Forbes

Director-General