Rotten Television Elite - an insight into the golden circle

by Cian Prendiville

Pubs across the country turned off the sport and silenced the music on Tuesday, to instead watch the proceedings of two fairly obscure Oireachtas committees. Oireachtas TV has broken out of its usual niche as a home-remedy for insomnia and suddenly become a headliner, while the Oireachtas online streaming website has been left creaking under the pressure of unprecedented traffic. Driving all of this has been scandal-after-scandal at RTÉ, and intense interest and outrage from ordinary people.

In the last few weeks we have learned about a series of cosy deals done between the car industry and high-profile presenters at RTÉ, lavish spending on treats for corporate ‘partners’, secret bank accounts, and undeclared payments. A tale of two-RTÉs has been told. One of ordinary workers on insecure contracts, suffering pay cuts and job losses trying to produce real public-service news, artistic and imaginative content, and another of obscene wages, corporate sponsorship and sweetheart deals. This has outraged both the general public and the workers and trade unionists at RTÉ.

Greed of the golden circle

What we have seen here is just a small insight into the greedy, grubby, and grandiose culture of corporate Ireland. Rather than being above this corporate culture or exposing it in the public interest, the elite at RTÉ has in reality embraced the same sort of obscene wealth inequality we see across big business in Ireland. They have sought to attract commercial sponsorship by aping the practices of big business - wining and dining advertising executives and paying obscene salaries to the so-called ‘talent’ .

Now in an act of Orwellian doublespeak the establishment seem set to ‘clean up’ RTÉ by pushing it further down the road of privatisation, and by reinforcing the corporate-grip on Irish media. There is talk of splitting up RTÉ, selling off the more profitable parts, and channelling public money to for-profit, millionaire-owned media companies as well. The government seems intent on using this crisis as an excuse to push through their long-desired ‘broadcasting charge’, a new regressive household charge to replace the difficult-to-collect TV licence fee. Twinned with this privatisation agenda will likely be further cuts to the grassroots of RTÉ, job losses for ordinary workers, closure of regional offices, and additional regressive measures..

This is an attempt to put out the fire by adding petrol. Further corporatisation and privatisation will not stop the culture of backroom deals and obscene wages.  Research by ICTU in 2018 showed CEO pay across 26 of the biggest companies in Ireland averaging at €2.3m and rising, a rate 230 times that of the average worker, something the RTÉ elite could only wish for. Instead, what we need is a revolution against this corporate culture, and to build an RTÉ for the people.

Scrap the licence fee - fight the ‘broadcasting charge’

Photo by Rachael Marker on Unsplash

One immediate result of the current scandals will likely be a steep rise in non-payment of the TV licence fee. Already RTÉ estimates they lose around €65m a year in unpaid fees, amounting to around 400,000 homes across the country. This fee, which operates as a regressive flat tax, is already deeply unpopular. The €160 per year hits already hard-pressed workers with a steep bill while being mere pocket change for the wealthy. RTÉ’s general pro-establishment bias, such as the slurs on the water charges protesters and pushing the austerity agenda further, added to this anger over recent years. Now they are estimating the levels of non-payment could rise dramatically, as people protest against nonstop scandals and the exorbitant salaries being paid to the golden circle. One issue for them is that the TV licence is actually fairly avoidable. Only those with an actual TV in their house are eligible for the fee, and its collection is not backed up by Revenue, making it easier to claim it doesn’t apply to you. Instead, a small army of collectors knock on doors, hoping to see into people's homes to see a TV or just to scare people into paying by their presence.

In anticipation of a growth of non-payment, and in fear of the potential for a more organised boycott, the government are talking about pushing through a new ‘broadcasting charge’ that would be easier to collect. It seems their plan is for a similarly regressive tax, but this time with beefed up enforcement.  

We cannot leave this ground to the right or the far-right;  the socialist left must strongly oppose these fees, and lead the fight against them. In the right circumstances, a campaign of non-payment of the licence fee could be initiated by the left and play a decisive role in the fight for proper public service broadcasting. We must instead fight for ending the corporate influence and funding, and instead demand proper public funding of public broadcasting through progressive taxation, and a digital services tax on the corporate giants.

RTÉ for the people

Photo by Gabriel Ramos on Unsplash

As well as fighting against the licence fee & broadcast charge, we also need to fight for a transformation of RTÉ itself. Those at the top must go, and instead we need a thorough democratisation of public broadcasting. Salaries of the so-called ‘talent’ and the corporate bigwigs should be capped.

The corporate influence at RTÉ has been the source of much of the rot. We had free cars for presenters, and sponsorship for the Late Late Show and more by the car industry — at the same time that the Late Late completely failed to address the climate crisis. Instead of an RTÉ beholden to the government and corporations, we need public broadcasting for the people. We need serious investment in Irish art and culture programming, including an expansion of content as Gaeilge. We need expanded investigative journalism, free to expose the myriad scandals and crises we face.

We need to fight against the cronyism, against the licence fees, and for a new vision of public broadcasting — an RTÉ for the people.