Being appointed director general of RTÉ – even being mentioned in connection with the post – can be ageing.
The first one, a Bostonian of Irish descent called Edward J Roth, was reported to be 35 when he made the shortlist for what was then the Radio Éireann job in 1960. Just a few months later, he was suddenly 38.
The older age, the correct one, would seem on the young side to lead a public service broadcaster now – indeed, it seems on the young side to watch a public service broadcaster now – but terrestrial television services still had a frontier technology vibe then.
Television was exciting, novel and, in the eyes of the establishment, a little bit dangerous. Just by existing, it was a catalyst for change.
Roth came from a country that actually had television – which in itself made him some sort of guru – and he had form in spreading the medium. In his capacity as a television management consultant for NBC, he had helped establish stations in Mexico and Peru. But even he had never started a service where the project “didn’t even have land” or, as he put it, “from absolute zero”.
Over the decades, some things about the RTÉ director general position have changed. Roth was paid a basic annual salary of IR£5,000 and accommodation and other allowances totalling £2,500.
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If the outgoing Dee Forbes’s successor is paid the same as she was, they will receive a salary of €225,000 and a €25,000 car allowance – adding up to the semi-State cap of €250,000 – plus pension entitlements of €56,000, resulting in a total annual package of €306,000.
For former managing director of RTÉ news and current affairs and former deputy/acting director general Kevin Bakhurst (57) – said to be the preferred candidate of the interview selection panel – this would represent a slight pay cut compared with his current remuneration at UK media regulator Ofcom.
Still, despite losing out to Forbes in 2016, Bakhurst clearly sustained enough fond memories from his four years at Montrose to have another tilt at the gig.
Given that, at the time of writing, his appointment has not yet been agreed upon by the disunited board of RTÉ and the broadcaster says the process is ongoing, I will hold off on a synopsis of his capabilities and track record for now and ask another question: why would anyone want this job?
RTÉ arrives pre-broken. The idea that one man or woman can just fix it is a fallacy.
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The director general is instead charged with managing the many stress fractures as best they can while defending themselves from fresh brickbats. If they clock up bruises from fighting on multiple fronts at once, then that’s simply the nature of a role that will drain the spirit even of those who get a major kick out of public duty and, in 2023, seems to have failure built into it by design.
Forbes came to RTÉ in 2016 from a highly paid role at commercial broadcasting group Discovery Networks Northern Europe, where she was president and managing director, based in London. Her responsibilities for these operations – now part of the debt-laden mega-company Warner Bros Discovery – covered 18 markets and territories and 27 channels, both free-to-air and subscription, broadcasting to 276 million households.
This experience, coupled with her advertising background, suggested her appointers hoped she might have the magic touch to arrest, potentially even reverse, the already established pattern of decline in RTÉ's commercial revenues.
It didn’t happen, nor would it have done under anyone else’s watch. The business of television channels, the biggest single source of advertising revenue for RTÉ, is structurally shrinking not just in the Irish market, but worldwide.
That RTÉ entered this era trying to recover from recession didn’t help, but ultimately it was not cyclical economic factors that wiped €100 million in commercial revenues from its €245.5 million 2007 peak. Advertisers have gone in pursuit of audiences and audiences are not coming back.
Instead, Forbes became locked in priority number one for an RTÉ director general in the age of waning commercial revenues: shoring up the public ones. These are not easy discussions. The Government invariably wants the benefits of a public service broadcaster without the costs.
But Forbes’s relationship with Enda Kenny’s government appeared to get off on the wrong foot, putting her on the back foot. Since then, the dance has largely been trapped in the realm of what former chairwoman Moya Doherty accurately summarised as a “decision-making vacuum”.
In the most recent update on the future of the licence fee, issued in January, Minister for Media Catherine Martin said the Government would introduce reform by the third quarter of 2024. Martin is respected throughout the media sector and has shown more flair than most for getting things done. But anyone who sets their watch by this timetable hasn’t been paying attention.
A technical group, originally expected to report in November 2022, has been considering long-contentious matters such as who exactly is liable to pay the television licence fee, the database that will be required to “underpin” a new regime and the most appropriate collection and enforcement systems.
Without this information, it is impossible for the new director general to do their job. They can take new stabs at cost-cutting, of course, but they will do so in the dark.
It is an uncomfortable fragility of democracies that once cherished their public service broadcasters that those organisations can be worn down, even crushed, by any government that fancies doing so out of political expediency. The director general of RTÉ is, therefore, charged with nothing less than its survival.
Alas, Forbes’s back-foot stance is now the least of RTÉ’s problems, as the board of the organisation has now progressed to shooting itself in the foot.
The stalling of the selection process – after a board meeting reported to have been “pretty fraught” and “not pleasant” – would lack dignity for any organisation. For RTÉ, it is disastrous. An incoming director general who does not appear to have the full support of the board has been weakened before the handshakes with Government Ministers can even begin.
In 1960, Roth – who left Ireland by the end of 1962 – was asked if he felt “alarmed” by the job he had undertaken. “Well, it’s easy to become a little bit alarmed in the early stages of any television project,” he replied.
It’s easy to become a little bit alarmed in the later stages of one, too.
