RTÉ player
Encyclopedia
RTÉ player is an on demand video service
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...

 provided by RTÉ
Raidió Teilifís Éireann
Raidió Teilifís Éireann is a semi-state company and the public service broadcaster of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on January 1, 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961, making...

 for programmes broadcast on RTÉ Television
RTÉ Television
RTÉ Television is a department of Ireland's state broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann.The first channel to broadcast was Telefís Éireann which began broadcasting on 31 December 1961...

. RTÉ player is available in two formats; one for the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

 and Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

 and another format for international audiences. The service provides news, current affairs, entertainment, sport, local and international dramas..

On September 2, 2011 RTÉ announced they will launch a similar platform of its digital radio stations under the name RTÉ Radio Player.

The service allows viewers to watch programmes from 7 to 21 days after they are broadcast. It was launched on April 21, 2009.

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 world-wide 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 opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

s 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
RTÉ Sport
RTÉ Sport is a cross platform, integrated business division of Irish broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann, responsible for the provision of sport coverage on RTÉ Radio, RTÉ Television, and RTÉ.ie....

 shows including The Sunday Game
The Sunday Game
The Sunday Game is Raidió Teilifís Éireann's main Gaelic games television programme. It is shown on RTÉ Two every Sunday during the Football Championship and Hurling Championship seasons. It is one of RTÉ Two’s longest-running shows, having been on air since 1979, one year after the channel first...

, Monday Night Soccer
Monday Night Soccer
Monday Night Soccer is the RTÉ's main football television programme. It is shown on RTÉ Two on Monday evenings during the Irish football season, showing highlights of the day's matches in Irish football's top division, the League of Ireland Premier Division...

 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
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...

 and Home and Away
Home and Away
Home and Away is an Australian soap opera that has been produced in Sydney since July 1987 and is airing on the Seven Network since 17 January 1988. It is the second-longest-running drama and most popular soap opera on Australian television...

. They then launched some American programmes with exclusive online showings of Season 1 and 2 of AMC's Mad Men
Mad Men
Mad Men is an American dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. The series premiered on Sunday evenings on the American cable network AMC and are produced by Lionsgate Television. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its fourth season on October 17, 2010. Each...

. Other US shows soon followed such as Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series created by Shonda Rhimes. The series premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC; since then, seven seasons have aired. The series follows the lives of interns, residents and their mentors in the fictional Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in...

, Ugly Betty
Ugly Betty
Ugly Betty is an American comedy-drama television series developed by Silvio Horta, which premiered on ABC on September 28, 2006, and ended on April 14, 2010. The series revolves around the character Betty Suarez and is based on Fernando Gaitán's Colombian telenovela soap opera Yo soy Betty, la fea...

, Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...

 and Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Executive producer Cherry serves as Showrunner. Other executive producers since the fourth season include Marc Cherry, Bob Daily, George W...

 and Blue Bloods
Blue Bloods
The Blue Bloods was the name of the professional wrestling stable in World Championship Wrestling that consisted of "Lord" Steven Regal, "Earl" Robert Eaton, and "Squire" David Taylor, along with their butler Jeeves, that operated in the middle to late 1990s....

.

On December 14, 2010 RTÉ Player became available on Sony's PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...

 (PS3) and PSP
PSP
PSP most commonly refers to the PlayStation Portable, a handheld game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment.PSP may also refer to:-Computing and programming:*Corel Paint Shop Pro, a graphics editor...

 console.

Fair City

RTÉ has been unable to show its popular soap opera Fair City
Fair City
Fair City is an award-winning Irish television soap opera on RTÉ One. Produced by Radio Telefís Éireann, it was first broadcast on Monday, September 18, 1989...

 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
RTÉ One
RTÉ One is the flagship television channel of Raidió Teilifís Éireann , 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 One upon the launch of RTÉ...

, however RTÉ are now in discussions with Actor's Equity to provide the show online in the near future, the statement on the Fair City website reads like so:-
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.

External links

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