Pre-tax profits at RTÉ’s commercial arm last year fell by 4% to €11.33million due to the firm no longer receiving income from its GAAGO joint venture.

New accounts filed by RTÉ Commercial Enterprises DAC show that pre-tax profits declined as revenues reduced by 6.5% or around €1.3 million, from €19.88 million to €18.58 million, in 2025.

Operating profits last year remained flat at €11.3 million, but the €487,000 share of profit that the company booked from its GAAGO joint venture in 2024 was no longer available in 2025, resulting in the decrease in pre-tax profits.

A note attached to the accounts states that the sale to the GAA of RTÉ Commercial Enterprises’ investment in GAAGO – since renamed GAA+ – was completed in February 2026 with sale proceeds received of €3million.

The note states that ‘the locked box date with regard to the sale of the company’s share in GAAGO was December 31, 2024, hence no share in profit in 2025’.

The directors state that Digital Player Licensing – licensing RTÉ’s digital content – was the primary source of income for the firm in 2025 at €7.9 million, although they add that ‘this was slightly behind 2024, due to the non-renewal of one licensing arrangement’.

Revenues generated by phone-in and text competitions stabilised last year and remained consistent with 2024 after being impacted over the past few years by declining levels of audience engagement with TV giveaways.

Sales of Love/Hate, Smother and The Clinic to TV stations overseas helped programme sales increase by over 90% in 2024, and the directors state that for 2025, ‘TV programmes sales were significantly down on prior year’.

They add: ‘However, as noted at the time, 2024 was an unprecedented year for programme sales, in particular across drama.’

The directors report that the number of RTÉ Guide copies sold in 2025 hit 1.33million and that the Christmas edition represented 200,000 of this – 15% of the total for the year.

The report states that the directors’ expectation was that there would be a continued decline in the print market and that the actual decline in volume was 7%, which is consistent with what was experienced in the previous year.

However, an increase in price resulted in a moderate increase in RTÉ Guide circulation income over 2024. The firm’s operating costs were reduced by 15% from €8.57 million to €7.25 million.