That is according to new accounts for the company behind the podcasts under the multi-award winning Second Captains banner, Second Captains Ltd.
The accounts for 2023 show that connected companies owned by Mr McDevitt, Ken Early, Ciaran Murphy, Simon Hick and Mark Horgan were each paid €149,000 in fees for production work carried out on behalf of Second Captains Ltd last year.
The €745,000 paid in aggregate fees was a 20pc increase on the €620,000 – or €124,000 each – paid out by Second Captains Ltd to the five firms during 2022.
The five also shared an additional aggregate €72,000 in pay to directors last year – an average of €14,400 each.
Underlining the buoyant 2023 for the podcast business, the company’s cash funds last year increased by €160,995 from €321,585 to €482,580.
The company’s cash has doubled from €239,070 that was in place at the end of December 2021.
After the payout to the directors’ firms and other costs, the company recorded a modest profit of €4,711 for the year. Accumulated profits at the end of last year stood at €51,129.
The company’s revenues were boosted last year by the podcast staging a sell-out live podcast show at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre, featuring the likes of former Liverpool footballer Graeme Souness, to celebrate 10 years of the Second Captains podcast.
The five Second Captains directors each hold a 20pc share in the company and the podcast company generates the bulk of its revenues from paying subscribers.
The accounts state that the principal activity of the company is online content, radio, television, publishing and live event production. The podcast launched its paid subscription service in February 2017 and within the first day had attracted 2,500 subscribers.
Subscribers pay €5 plus Vat per month to subscribe and the rising revenues at the company last year comes against a background of a 17pc increase in subscribers since October last from 14,250 to 16,678 today. The subscriptions translate to annual revenues of €1m based on the €5 per month charge. The Second Captains team originally produced and presented the Off The Ball show on Newstalk radio for eight years, winning nine PPI national radio awards.
