Netflix and RTÉ are facing the same problem - but only one can fix it

NETFLIX IS IN trouble.

Stock is down and growth is slowing. The company recently laid off around 1,000 staff including senior executives like its chief content officer and its head of film.

Strangely though, the streamer is actually doing well. It reported $12.87 billion (around €11.5 billion) in revenue for the third quarter of 2026. Subscriber churn continues to be ahead of other streamers despite a slew of recent price hikes. Kudos to the management team.

But investors are forward-looking and the future isn’t looking quite so bright. While viewing hours are growing, they only grew by 2% in the first half of 2026. Wall Street is beginning to price Netflix as a media company with high overheads, rather than a software company with the potential for huge growth and high margins.

Compare this story with our national broadcaster. RTÉ is also in trouble. Its stock in Irish society is down, as is licence fee revenue. A voluntary exit programme failed to deliver the scale of departures needed.

Strangely though, the public service broadcaster is doing well. It reported a surplus of €22.5 million in 2025, compared with a surplus of €5.5 million in 2024. This is down to resilient commercial revenues and cost-saving initiatives. Kudos to the management team.

But here too the future isn’t looking so bright. The government still needs to top up RTÉ’s coffers on an annual basis. The broadcaster needs to decrease headcount by around 300. And there is no evidence of the government redefining what public service broadcasting should entail for a digital age and agreeing a sustainable approach to funding it.

So, is this a false comparison? Do RTÉ and Netflix have anything really in common? Is there any real equivalence between the national broadcaster in a tiny market and the largest streaming platform in the world?

On some levels there is. Both Netflix and RTÉ are built on an assumption that audiences will reward institutions for spending money on great programming. Unfortunately, today’s audiences never signed up to that agreement. They want entertainment, company, distraction and something to share and discuss, which might be a 30-minute programme or a 10-second clip. They don’t care whether it comes from a star-filled studio or a YouTuber’s kitchen. Increasingly, they are being drawn to platforms that don’t make them choose their entertainment, but which just serve them what they want on an algorithmic platter.

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YouTube, TikTok and Instagram are undercutting traditional media outlets because they have so much going for them in their favour. Their costs are low and their average revenue per user is high. Creators supply content for free; platforms distribute it. Production costs sit with the creator, while rewards depend on attention. Netflix has to commission before knowing whether anyone cares or not about what they’re making. RTÉ maintains expensive newsrooms, studios and transmission alongside its programmes. Things get even more confusing when you factor in that the television is replacing laptops, tablets and smartphones as the most common device for viewers to watch YouTube at home – and that Instagram is testing 90-minute vertical videos. All are scrabbling for audience attention, which finite.

Netflix is trying to keep users on its app through diversification. It has radio programmes and podcasts, for example, and it offers games. After the recent earnings call co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that programming needs to improve. Easy to say, but hard to create or back shows like Squid Game that can become a feature of global water-cooler conversations.

RTÉ’s path isn’t as clear. It has invested in podcasting and a new audio app. But its main advantage is that it serves a single market. It doesn’t need programming with global appeal. The Toy Show and sporting occasions provide reasons to assemble around something. Morning Ireland needs to talk only to an Irish audience. The clue is in the name.

But RTÉ’s hands are tied when it comes to defining its own future. Until government redefines what public service broadcasting means in a digital age it will remain an institute that presides over decreasing commercial revenues and legacy distribution channels. RTÉ creates excellent journalism, arts and children’s programming that has informed and entertained Irish society. Allowing it to continue to do so requires a rethinking of how content is created and distributed to modern audiences. It can do a certain amount of this itself, but it also needs a clearer remit around what it should be doing.

And this is where Netflix and RTÉ really differ. Netflix can allocate capital freely and has agency in a global market. It has a deep understanding of its audience and the algorithmic chops to deploy that understanding. RTÉ is beholden to legacy distribution channels and the licence fee. Tying payment to television set ownership is like funding roads through a tax on horses. People can consume RTÉ through phones and laptops while the collection system remains attached to another era. A universal mission needs a funding mechanism that recognises universal access.

This is an issue for the government. And yet no media minister since Pat Rabbitte has shown any interest in grasping that nettle. Why on earth should they? RTÉ has become a useful political football for government and opposition to kick around whenever needed.

Instead of figuring out what public service broadcasting should look like in this country, our politicians would rather grill RTÉ executives over operational matters. Did Ger Gilroy get a tracksuit for a photoshoot? How are presenters hired? Yes, RTÉ has opened itself up to this sort of interrogation through poor historical management. But as stated earlier, the new management team is doing a pretty good job of turning the ship around. All the talk of tracksuits means we forget the boring work of discussing how we fund a sustainable media entity into the future. Sure, there are some amusing headlines, but should legislators really be interrogating how a photoshoot was run? I suggest not, when there is the more pressing matter of a €260 million annual shortfall in funding.

Funding was almost touched on at this week’s Oireachtas committee hearing. Some committee members like Alan Kelly and Sinead Gibney focused on how RTÉ lost €20 million at the last minute in the recent Budget. Senator Alison Comyn raised the issue of non-payment of the licence fee – but no one raised what future funding to support RTÉ into the future should look like.

For its part RTÉ is trying to figure out what it should look like in the future. It’s running a survey currently that asks respondents to agree or disagree with statements like “RTÉ’s independence from government and political influence is important” and “Adequate public funding is important if RTÉ is to deliver its public-service role”. Other elements of the questionnaire seemed designed to gather public support for existing activities.

The survey’s results are never going to produce a bold vision for the future of RTÉ but this is where the government comes in. It won’t happen this time around, but a commitment in the next Programme for Government to look at the long term future for public service broadcasting – including the independent sector – should really be on the political agenda at this stage.

So while Netflix is in control of its own destiny, RTÉ is beholden to the government for long-term vision and commensurate funding. And in the absence of proper governmental support, its most compelling shows are likely to remain the tiresome reality TV of Oireachtas committee appearances.