The sales of "Love/Hate", "Smother" and "The Clinic" to television stations overseas helped programme sales increase by over 90% at RTÉ's commercial arm last year.
New accounts filed by RTÉ's Commercial Enterprises DAC show that pre-tax profits last year increased by 3% from €11.44m to €11.79m.
The company recorded the increase in profits as revenues rose by 3% from €19.28m to €19.88m.
A spokesman for RTÉ said today: "The increase in RTÉ programme sales was driven by RTÉ's strong new and back catalogue of great local drama, which included unprecedented sales of "Love/Hate" in the UK and USA, as well as sales of "Smother" to multi-territories and "The Clinic" concerning a licence renewal in the USA."
"Love/Hate" became a broadcasting phenomenon when it aired between 2010 and 2014 on RTÉ spanning five series and 28 episodes and its appeal continues overseas
The directors for RTÉ Commercial Enterprises state that "while Digital Player Licensing generated the most income for the year, the highest performing area was programme sales which was over 90% up on prior year".
The accounts show that the company recorded post tax profits of €487,000 from its then joint venture, GAA GO with the GAA.
Revenues at the GAA GO firm last year increased by 8.5% to €5.49m as the streaming service continued to face a GAA fan and political backlash for putting certain GAA championship games behind a paywall.
Profits at GAA GO last year increased by 28% from €761,000 to €975,000 and RTÉ's Commercial Enterprises received a €500,000 dividend from its joint venture.
RTÉ has since sold its 50% share in the GAA GO business to the GAA and directors for RTÉ's Commercial state that professional fees from the proposed sale of GAA GO contributed to overall operating costs last year increasing by 4% to €8.6m.
The directors stated that at the time of the signing of the financial statements on May 13, the negotiations to sell GAA GO were in the process of being finalised.
Elsewhere in their report, the directors state that "PIC (Programme Interaction Competitions) revenues experienced another challenging year and were down significantly 35% on 2023 as the level of audience engagement with TV competitions continues to decline".
They also state that total RTÉ Guide copies sold in 2024 amounted to 1.43 million, including the Christmas edition which was 200,000 of the total.
They state that "our expectation was that there would be a continued decline in the print market with a budgeted decrease in volumes sold of 7% year on year and this is in line with the actual out-turn of 6.7%".
They state that the increased price resulted in a moderate increase in guide circulation income versus prior year meaning the guide performed well despite the lower volumes sold.
"Advertising revenue for the by RTÉ Guide further declined year on year as the magazine advertising market proved challenging," they added.
The company recorded post tax profits of €11.6m after incurring a corporation tax charge of €182,000.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
