RTÉ Player

Content

More than 200 hours of programmes from all categories of RTÉ broadcast schedule are available on RTÉ Player, most of which are not available to web users outside the island of Ireland. But in January 2010, news, sport and flagship entertainment programming were released to worldwide audiences. According to RTÉ, it is "one of the first broadcasters in the world to launch a comprehensive international online TV catch-up service."

Popular soap operas are available on a 7-day catch-up basis, while home produced entertainment and children's programming is available for 21 days. All RTÉ News and Current Affairs output and RTÉ Sport shows including The Sunday Game, Monday Night Soccer and OB Sport are available.

In late 2009 RTÉ began putting more and more international programming on RTÉ Player. When initially launched RTÉ had already secured rights for online streaming for many British and Australian shows such as EastEnders and Home and Away. They then launched some American programmes with exclusive online showings of Seasons 1 and 2 of AMC's Mad Men. Other US shows soon followed such as Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Blue Bloods.

On 14 December 2010, RTÉ Player became available on Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) and PSP console.

An app for iPhone and iPad was launched on 22 December 2011. Despite all programs being available on Android via Adobe Flash, only a small selection of programs are available on the iPhone and iPad app.

As part of TV50, RTÉ intends to launch as many as 20 archive programmes each month of 2012 via the RTÉ Player.

RTÉ Player International

On March 4, 2015 RTÉ revamped its RTÉ Player for international audiences. The new service provides over 500 hours of television from Ireland. RTÉ Player International will be a ‘freemium’ offering which means that audiences will be able to download the app for free and access 100 hours of free content, refreshed daily. The full content offering can be accessed and watched free of advertising for a monthly subscription of €8,99 ($8.99/ £6.99) through the App Store. This subscription helps to cover the cost of securing the international rights for the content and for delivering this premium quality video-on-demand service. The new enhanced RTÉ Player International service is available for iOS devices, supporting iOS7 or greater. The original RTÉ Player service for international audiences remains available on desktop and android.

Fair City

RTÉ has been unable to show its popular soap opera Fair City on RTÉ Player for a number of months. An agreement had been made to allow the show appear on the service for a week after broadcast on RTÉ One; however, RTÉ are now in discussions with Actor's Equity to provide the show online in the near future. A statement on the Fair City website reads:

Fair City is currently unavailable to view on RTÉ Player. The programme was available for catch up on RTÉ Player for a 7 day period for a trial period only. This trial period has been brought to an end. As part of RTÉ's overall negotiations on contractor payment rates, discussions between RTÉ and the actors union Equity are underway. Unfortunately during this period live and on demand catch up of Fair City online is suspended. Fair City is broadcast on RTÉ One at 8pm on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, and at 7.30pm on Wednesday.

Fair City is now available to watch on the RTÉ Player for Ireland and international audiences.

RTÉ beta trial

RTÉ has recently launched a beta trial for RTÉ ID users to check out and send feedback about the site.

The new beta site has the ability to add favorite shows, adjust viewing quality and also a new mobile site which currently does not have video on it but redirects to their iOS app.

The beta site has become the new look of the present RTÉ Player.