RTÉ One
RTÉ One (Irish: RTÉ a hAon) is the flagship television channel of Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), and it is the most popular and most watched television channel in Ireland. It was launched as Telefís Éireann on 31 December 1961, it was renamed RTÉ Television in 1966, and it was renamed as RTÉ 1 upon the launch of RTÉ 2 in 1978.
RTÉ is funded partly by the licence fee; the remainder of the funding is provided by commercial advertising. Because RTÉ is funded partly by the licence fee it shows considerably fewer advertisements than most other channels available in Ireland and Northern Ireland.
RTÉ One is available to 98% of the Irish population in High Definition on the Saorview DTT service. It is carried on all the digital television services in the Republic of Ireland such as Sky Ireland, Virgin Media Ireland and Magnet Networks. The channel is also available online through RTÉ Live.
The channel is available to viewers in Northern Ireland on Freeview (UK), reception is also possible through Saorsat (Freesat) from the KA-Sat at 9° East.
Programming
RTÉ One airs a variety of programmes each week, both homegrown programming and imported programming.
A typical week of programming on RTÉ One would be as follows:
On Sunday night RTÉ’s flagship talent show The Voice of Ireland airs at 18.30, with the results show following soap opera Fair City at 20.30. Dragon’s Den Ireland airs at 21.30 on Sunday nights.
On Monday nights at 21.35, there is a questions and answers style show called Claire Byrne Live hosted by Claire Byrne. The long running chat show The Late Late Show hosted by Ryan Tubridy airs Friday nights from 21.35, it is the longest running chat show in the world.
On Saturday night, game show The Million Euro Challenge airs at around 20.15, The Saturday Night Show airs at around 21.45, similar to The Late Late Show it has a variety of celebrity guests and music performances. Irish soap opera Fair City airs four times a week on RTÉ One, it airs Sundays at 20:30, Tuesdays, and Thursdays at 20.00, and Wednesdays at 19.30, Fair City is similar to the British format for soap operas such as Coronation Street. RTÉ One also airs British soap opera EastEnders weekly at the same times as BBC One.
RTÉ One also air a host of films throughout the week including the midweek movie on Wednesday at 21:30 and the big big movie (usually a children’s film) Saturdays at 18:30. RTÉ One also air news coverage throughout the week including a 13:00, 18:00, and 21:00 news broadcast every day.
Website: www.rte.ie/tv/rteone.html
RTÉ Two
RTÉ2 is a free-to-air general entertainment channel operated by Irish national broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann. It is available to 98% of viewers across the Republic of Ireland through Saorview and available in Northern Ireland through Freeview. It is also available through digital television services Virgin Media Ireland, Sky Ireland, Eir TV and in Northern Ireland on Virgin Media and Sky. Content from RTÉ2 is available on the RTÉ Player both nationally and internationally.
RTÉ2 provides a broad range of programming which is mainly targeted towards young people up to 45-year-olds. Between 06:00 to 18:30 kids and teens programming is served by RTÉjr (separate to the channel) and the teenage strands TRTÉ and Two Tube. From 19:00 onwards, RTÉ2 provides a wide range of programming from Irish produced content, sports, comedy, dramas, films and acquisitions from North America, Australia, the UK and Central Europe.
Films are also regularly aired on the channel especially Irish-European cinema and International cinema.
RTÉ2 broadcasts in both standard definition and high-definition.
The channel is available to viewers in Northern Ireland on Freeview (UK), reception is also possible through Saorsat (Freesat) from the KA-Sat at 9° East.
Website: www.rte.ie/tv/rtetwo.html
RTÉ News Now
RTÉ News Now is a 24-hour news television network in the Republic of Ireland operated by Irish public service broadcaster RTÉ. The channel launched as RTÉ News Now available exclusively online on 12 June 2008. The channel began broadcasting as a free-to-air channel on 29 October 2010 on Saorview. I
t began broadcasting on channel 200 of UPC Ireland’s basic Value pack on 2 October 2012. As of January 2016 the channel is also available on the Sky Ireland platform channel number 578 (Republic of Ireland only)
The channel broadcasts free-to-air on Sarview and commercial free. The channel is available in Ireland and globally online, on mobile phones and an iPhone/iPad application is also widely available free. The channel is operated by RTÉ’s department RTÉ News and Current Affairs. The channel broadcasts in the Irish, English and ISL languages.
RTÉjr
RTÉjr is a children’s channel operated by Ireland’s national broadcaster RTÉ Television, which targets a demographic between 2 – 6 years of age. The channel broadcasts 12 hours of programming each day between 07:00 and 19:00.
The channel is available nationally through Saorview, UPC Ireland and Sky Ireland. The channel is supported by digital radio station RTÉ Junior and additional services available on-demand, on mobile and online. The channel operates alongside its sister strand TRTÉ (Teen RTÉ).
The channel has a wide range of domestically produced programming either in-studio progrmaming or animations. The channel has a strong focus on inclusive programming with a mix of programming in both the Irish, English and ISL languages.
RTÉjr Live (Depending on rights issues outside of Ireland)
RTÉ Player
The RTÉ Player is a free online catch-up service which lets you watch a variety of programmes for up to 21 days after they are broadcast on RTÉ One and RTÉ Two television.
Finding programmes on the RTÉ Player is easy. You can search by category, by date or in the A-Z listings. You can also type in the name of a programme in the search box on every page.
All programmes in the RTÉ Player are streamed so you simply “click and play”. To find out if your computer supports the RTÉ Player and about the broadband speed needed to stream programmes, visit the FAQs section.
There are lots of new programmes available each day which range from Entertainment to Arts and Music, Irish Language, Religious, News and Current Affairs, Factual to Lifestyle and Young Peoples’ so there’s something for everyone to watch and enjoy.
If you want to know more about this brand new service from RTÉ or have a question about how to use the RTÉ Player, please visit the FAQs section.
The RTÉ Player app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch is available to download from the App Store.
RTÉ has collaborated with the National Council for the Blind of Irealnd (NCBI) to improve accessibility of RTÉ Player.
As a result the RTÉ Player XL interface has been designed for use with the popular screen-reader application – JAWS.
Website: www.rte.ie/player/
TG4
TG4 is a public service broadcaster for Irish-language speakers.
The channel has been on-air since October 31, 1996 in the Republic of Ireland and since April 2005 in Northern Ireland. TG4 was formerly known as Teilifís na Gaeilge or TnaG, before a rebranding campaign in 1999. TG4 was the third national station to be launched in Ireland; after RTÉ One in 1961 (as Teilifís Éireann) and RTÉ Two in 1978, and was followed by TV3 in 1998.
The channel has 800,000 viewers who tune into the channel each day to view a broad programming policy. It has a share of 3% of the national television market.
The daily Irish language programme schedule is its core service: seven hours of programming in Irish supported by a wide range of material in other languages such as French and English. The daily Irish-language programme schedule is its central service, broadcasting approximately 2.5 hours a day of new Irish-language programming, with an estimated 2.5 hours a day of repeated Irish-language programmes. Currently, RTÉ supplies TG4 with one hour a day of Irish language programming. The remainder of the TG4 schedule is made up of acquisitions from other broadcasters particularly from US broadcasters. Operating as a publisher and broadcaster, TG4 annually invests up to €20m in original indigenous programming from the independent production sector in Ireland.
The Irish language soap opera Ros na Rún is one of its most popular programmes, and it also commissions a number of documentaries. On 1 April 2007, Teilifís na Gaeilge became an independent statutory corporation, with former Gaelic Athletic Association president Peter Quinn becoming first chairperson of the corporation. The other members appointed to the authority were Joe Connolly, Padraig MacDonnacha, Eilís Ní Chonghaile, Méabh Mhic Ghairbheith, Méadhbh Nic an Airchinnigh, Bríd Ní Neachtáin, Feargal Ó Sé, and Regina Culliton. Coinciding with TG4’s independence from RTÉ, TG4 began to broadcast 24 hour news broadcaster France 24 in replacement of Euronews. RTÉ hold a share in Euronews meaning TG4 could no longer broadcast the service.
Reception in Northern Ireland Viewers in the Northern Ireland can receive a number of channels broadcast in the Republic of Ireland, including TG4 and RTÉ One RTÉ Two, TG4 and RTÉ Raidio na Gaeltachta. The multiplex (NiMux) broadcasts in DVB-T2, the same parameters used by Freeview HD and is available to 90% of viewers in Northern Ireland. Other areas are covered by overspill from the Irish Republic and by Saorsat which covers almost the whole of Ireland.
TG4 Live Stream (250 kbps)
Website: www.tg4.ie
