RTÉ have refused to reveal its earnings through phone-ins and texts.
Viewers must text or phone in their votes on Dancing With The Stars, while The Late Late Show charges a small fee to viewers who enter phone-in competitions.
According to The Herald, RTÉ refused a request made under the Freedom of Information Act, citing that the information is “commercially sensitive”.
In a statement, the station said the reason was due to a public body being allowed to withhold information “containing financial, commercial or other information, the disclosure of which could reasonably be expected to result in a material financial loss to the person to whom the information relates”.
The broadcaster also pointed out that its privately-owned competitors, like TV3, are not required to release such information – and if they were to do the same, it could give competitors an unfair advantage.
“Their release would be unfair to RTE and would put RTE’s competitors at an unfair commercial advantage vis-a-vis RTE,” the statement read.
“This is because their release would allow RTE’s competitors to use the information contained in the records to their advantage when entering into commercial negotiations in respect of similar services and programming.”
They also said that under the Broadcasting Act 2009, RTE has a responsibility to “exploit commercial opportunities so as to reduce the net cost of providing its public service”.
They also added that releasing the information would be “commercially sensitive to the contractual agreements between RTE and the relevant third-party independent production companies and format distributors.”
Both Dancing With The Stars and The Late Late Show are two of RTÉ’s most popular programmes.
Dancing With The Stars maintained an audience of over half a million throughout its three-month run.
Meanwhile, The Late Late Show regularly draws in half a million viewers on Friday nights.
