The recent increase in the television licence fee will go some way to alleviate RTE's long term financial responsibilities, the RTE authority chairman Prof Farrel Corcoran said yesterday.

In a statement accompanying the official release of the State broadcaster's results, Prof Corcoran said major changes in the broadcasting environment would continue to destabilise the prospects for public service broadcasting.

Prof Corcoran said the "economic realities of television broadcasting are under severe pressure with the proliferation of cable and satellite channels which are driving up the market price of acquired programming".

The results show that the group had a surplus of £14.8 million compared to 1994, but broadcasting itself was actually £2.43 million in deficit.

As reported in The Irish Times yesterday, the surplus was due mainly to the success of RTE Commercial Enterprises Ltd and the sale of 15 per cent of Cablelink.