The profit of €17m for the year ends a number of years of losses. However, the paper profit is largely a result of an accounting issue – a €15.7m write-back of historically booked impairments, or write-downs, dating back to 2006.
Virgin Media Television Limited operates ‘Virgin Media One’ and is a wholly owned subsidiary of broadband provider Virgin Media Ireland, which is in turn owned by billionaire John Malone’s cable giant Liberty Global.
The TV business is headed by managing director Áine Ní Chaoindealbháin.
The results for 2024 show a drop in revenue from a year earlier – €58.2m versus €59.17m.
However, they record a huge rise in profits. The business reported a loss of €578,000 in 2023. That was dramatically reversed in 2024, with a reported profit for the year of €17m.
However, the accounts show that does not reflect improved profitability but it is a result of a tidy-up of corporate entities that resulted in the absorption into Virgin Media TV of an entity called Kish Media Limited.
What is now Virgin Media Ireland bought Kish Media back in 2006 – it operated what had been the Channel 6 TV station, later renamed ‘3e’.
The tidy-up last year to simplify the Virgin Media group structure resulted in a one time “book gain” as a result of accounting for reversal of an impairment of an intercompany balance due from Channel 6 Broadcasting Limited.
Stripping out this one-off write-back the accounts still show a significantly improved financial performance last year, as a result of lower costs.
The television business generated an operating profit of €1.5m in 2024 without the Kish Media one-off.
Staff numbers were reduced last year, with the average monthly number of employees, including directors, at 251. That’s down from 275 in 2023 and 284 a year earlier.
Virgin Media TV’s management has been sharply critical of the Government over what it regards as a failure to support its obligation to provide news and current affairs over a number of years.
In the annual report, the directors “note with disappointment the Government has increased funding to the national broadcaster, while continuing to provide no financial support for Virgin Media Television’s public service broadcasting remit”.
The station has been awarded €400,000 over this year and next from the government’s Global Media Fund, which was set up to provide the public with better information about major geopolitical events and is operated by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
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