While Love/Hate was first broadcast in 2010, it has become the gift that keeps on giving for RTE, as it is still racking up international sales. Last year it was sold to the streaming service ITVX, following the success of another Dublin-based crime drama, Kin, on the BBC.
Another sleeper hit for the station has been The Clinic, a medical drama that was first shown in 2003 but which was sold into America last year. Smother, starring Dervla Kirwan and first shown in 2021, has been sold all over the world.
Overall, RTE’s commercial wing made a profit of €11.6m last year, up by €200,000 on 2023.
Revenue for the year, at €19.9m, was up by 3pc on the 2023 figure. The station said that while the highest performing area was programme sales, which were up 90pc year-on-year, most income was generated by digital player licensing.
RTE has been able to carve out overseas markets for the dramas it is making, with some being pre-sold even before they are made. There can be a long time lag before the station sees all the proceeds of the sales come back into its coffers, which only happens when advances have been recouped.
Station sources say that The Nobody Zone, a documentary series on the Irish serial killer Kieran Kelly who is thought to have murdered up to 30 people in London in the 1970s, was another lucrative performer in 2024. It was sold to Netflix.
In April 2024 it was announced that Netflix had also bought the crime drama Kin, starring Clare Dunne and Aidan Gillen, but the proceeds of this sale are not likely to show up in the RTE accounts for some time.
The Walsh Sisters, adapted from two novels by Marian Keyes, recently sold into Australia, and has already been pre-bought by the BBC, which is to show the series early next year.
The accounts also show that RTE made a profit of €487,000 from the streaming service GAAGO last year, which was up from €381,000 the previous year.
The station has since sold its half share in the controversial venture that it had operated with the GAA since 2017.
The popularity of phone-in competitions is continue to decline, with the new accounts saying they had “another challenging year” and were down “significantly” on 2023, with a 35pc fall in revenues.
This is because “the level of audience engagement with TV competitions continues to decline”.
Sales of the RTE Guide also fell, down by 6.7pc, in line with expectations. The total number of copies sold was 1.43 million, with the flagship Christmas edition selling 200,000 of these. This was down from 225,000 the previous year, itself a fall of 6pc.
A higher cover price meant there was a modest increase in circulation income from the RTE Guide, despite the lower volumes sold. Advertising revenue was down, however, “as the magazine advertising market proved challenging”, the accounts say.
RTE Commercial Enterprise’s costs for the year were up 4pc, to €8.6m. This was partly due to higher programme royalties linked to the increased amount of sales, professional fees related to the sale of GAAGO, and higher personnel costs.