RTÉ News Channel (formerly RTÉ News Now) is an Irish

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...

news television network operated by

Raidió Teilifís Éireann Raidi (; ; also written Ragdi; born August, 1938) is a Tibetan politician of the People's Republic of China. He served as a vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress from 2003 to 2008, and the highest ranking Tibeta ...

(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 Saorview ( ) is the national digital terrestrial television (DTT) service in Ireland. It is owned by RTÉ and operated by 2RN. The service began operation on 29 October 2010 on a trial basis with a full launch on 26 May 2011. By legislation i ...

. The channel broadcasts free-to-air and commercial-free. It is available in Ireland and globally online, on mobile phones and an iPhone/iPad application is also widely available free. It is operated by RTÉ's department

RTÉ News and Current Affairs (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, while ...

and broadcasts in the

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and ISL languages. The channel was rebranded from RTÉ News Now to RTÉ News channel in August 2020 with minor changes to its programming line-up. As part of the rebrand, the channel is complemented with a new-look app.

History

RTÉ News NOW was originally available only to online users of the RTÉ website and on mobile phones when the channel launched on 12 June 2008. Availability of the channel improved during test trials of

in December 2009. The channel was made available since May 2010 on train services within Dublin city and surrounding regions under a special agreement between

CIÉ Córas Iompair Éireann (''Irish Transport Company''), or CIÉ, is a statutory corporation of Ireland, answerable to the Irish Government and responsible for most public transport within the republic and jointly with its Northern Ireland counte ...

and

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

. Previously,

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...

provided such a service. Since October 29, 2010 the channel is available free-to-air to 98% of homes throughout the Republic of Ireland through

. Upon the announcement in February 2011 that RTÉ News NOW would become a permanent fixture to the Saorview line-up a number of media organizations criticized such a move claiming RTÉ would continue to have a monopoly over news output within Ireland. In 2017, Head of News and Current Affairs at RTÉ Jon Williams suggested that he could discontinue RTÉ News Now to save money and therefore in August 2020, he re-branded the channel as RTÉ News. In 2022 RTÉ Radio developed two visual news rooms from which Morning Ireland and This Week broadcast from.

Advertising

RTÉ News is currently one of two RTÉ channels that does not carry advertising. The other being

RTÉjr RTÉjr is an Irish free-to-air children's television channel operated by state-owned broadcaster RTÉ. The channel mainly targets a demographic of 2- to 7-year-olds, but some cartoons for older children also air. The channel is part of RTÉ K ...

. In January 2015, it was reported that RTÉ intend to ask the Minister for Communications to allow them carry advertising on RTÉ News Now as part of an overhaul of the service. Such a proposal needs government approval.

Format

The channel regularly simulcasts live news bulletins and current affairs programmes as they are broadcast on

RTÉ One RTÉ One ( ga, RTÉ a hAon) is an Irish free-to-air flagship television channel owned and operated by Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). It is the most-popular and most-watched television channel in the country and was launched as ''Telefís � ...

, and also that of the children's news programme RTÉ News2Day which airs on RTÉ2. The remaining programming on the channel serves as a replay service of the most recent news, sport and weather bulletins, the streaming of raw feeds of

breaking news Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming or current news in orde ...

stories and ' filler' programmes such as 'news headlines'. The channel also airs the latest breaking news stories from Ireland and around the world.

Scheduling

The channel airs live news programmes such as ''Six One'', as they are broadcast on other RTÉ channels, along with weather forecasts. During other periods, live current affairs programmes such as ''

Prime Time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

'' are shown. Outside of these hours the most recent show is repeated, looped, unless interrupted by live feeds of breaking news stories. Up-to-the-minute financial data and weather are also broadcast on-air. As with many other stations, a live ticker is provided, across the bottom of the screen, providing headlines sourced from content on the broadcaster's website. RTÉ have a number of bulletins on the channel that do not air on RTÉ One or RTÉ Two; they also provide a live Irish language news bulletin at 17:00 each weekday. They provide special reports from different news and current affairs programming, this is identified as RTÉ News Now Highlights. ''News2Day'' also appears on the channel. RTÉ have proposed some other changes to the RTÉ News Now schedule: * Television news bulletins at 08:00 and 09:00 during ''Morning Ireland'' * Sporting events that RTÉ have rights to but cannot currently provide coverage due to scheduling conflicts * Extra sporting analysis that currently runs on RTÉ's live Internet service There are no TV news bulletins on RTÉ News, television news starts at 13:00 with the One O'Clock news while it ends at 21:30 with the Nine News and mid-week with Current Affairs programming at 22:30.

Programming

The channel broadcasts a mix of

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...

and current affairs shows.

News

The channel airs the following RTÉ news programmes live: *''

Morning Ireland ''Morning Ireland'' is the breakfast news programme broadcast by RTÉ Radio 1 in Ireland and is noted as that country's most listened to radio programme. It is broadcast each weekday morning between 07.00 and 09.00 and alternate items are normall ...

'' *'' RTÉ News: One O'Clock'' *'' RTÉ News: Six One'' *'' RTÉ News: Nine O'Clock'' *'' Nuacht RTÉ at 17.00 and at 17.40'' (Irish language) (including ''RTÉ News with Signing'') *''

News2day ''news2day'' is an Irish children's television news programme, broadcast weekdays at 4:20pm on RTÉ2. It is 10 to 15 minutes long, with 15 minute recap episodes on Saturdays. It is similar in format to the BBC's ''Newsround''. It is currently ...

'' (Children's news bulletin) Regular news bulletins and weather forecasts shown on RTÉ One and Two throughout the day are also simulcast on RTÉ News Now.

Former RTÉ news programmes

* ''RTÉ News @ 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 15.00, 16.00 & 23:00'' * RTÉ News on 2

Typical Weekday Schedule

As of August 2020, the following is a typical weekday schedule currently broadcast on the channel: * 07.00 – ''

'': simulcast of the

RTÉ Radio 1 RTÉ Radio 1 ( ga, RTÉ Raidió 1) is an Irish national radio station owned and operated by RTÉ and is the direct descendant of Dublin radio station 2RN, which began broadcasting on a regular basis on 1 January 1926. The total budget for th ...

show * 09.00 – Good Morning Europe: simulcast of ''

euronews Euronews (styled on-air in lowercase as euronews) is a European television news network, headquartered in Lyon, France. The network began broadcasting on 1 January 1993 and covers world news from a European perspective. The majority of Eurone ...

'' * 10.00 – ''

Today with Claire Byrne Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 ...

'' * 11.00 – Latest News and Weather: repeated on a loop for the rest of the hour * 12.00 – Latest News and Weather: repeated on a loop for the rest of the hour * 13:00 – '' RTÉ News: One O'Clock''. Live simulcast of

's lunchtime news bulletin * 13.30 – The ''One O'Clock News'' is repeated on a loop until 15:00 * 15:00 – Latest News and Weather * 16:00 – Latest News and Weather, repeated on a loop for the rest of the hour (includes live simulcast of ''

'' at 16:45) * 17:00 – '' Nuacht RTÉ le TG4'', repeated on a loop until 17.40 * 17:40 – ''Nuacht RTÉ le TG4'' and ''News with ISL'': Live simulcast with RTÉ One * 18:01 – '' RTÉ News: Six One'': Live simulcast of RTÉ One's flagship evening news bulletin * 19:00 – Latest News and Weather * 20:00 – ''

Nuacht TG4 ''Nuacht TG4'' (; Irish for ''TG4 News'') is a daily half-hour Irish language, Irish TV news programme. It is broadcast on weekday evenings at 7pm, Live television, live from the studios of TG4 in Baile na hAbhann, County Galway. A shortened ed ...

'' * 21:00 – '' RTÉ News: Nine O'Clock'': Live simulcast of RTÉ One's nightly news bulletin * 21:35 – '' Claire Byrne Live'' (Monday) / ''

'' (Tuesday/Thursday) / Latest News and Weather (Wednesday, Friday to Sunday) * 22:10 – Latest News and Weather * 23:00 – RTÉ News Update / ''Prime Time'' * 23:30 – ''Nuacht TG4'' * 23:50 – ''euronews'' simulcast until 07:00

Raw Politics

' Raw Politics broadcast on the channel each day from November 2018 airing separate to the Euronews channel, before the show was cancelled by euronews.

Breaking news

The channel provides analysis of breaking news stories domestically and internationally.

Overnight and special simulcasts

RTÉ News channel

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

Euronews Euronews (styled on-air in lowercase as euronews) is a European television news network, headquartered in Lyon, France. The network began broadcasting on 1 January 1993 and covers world news from a European perspective. The majority of Eurone ...

from 23:00 to 7:00 every day.

RTÉ Weather

RTÉ Weather provides the channel with weather updates, some updates are a re-broadcast of what has previously aired across RTÉ television or updates produced specific to the channel. Due to commercial advertising being prohibited from the channel weather updates have no sponsorship unlike other updates across RTÉ television and radio.

RTÉ Entertainment

RTÉ Entertainment (formally called RTÉ TEN (The Entertainment Network)) provides viewers with up-to-the minute showbiz news from music reviews, interviews, film premieres and more. The show airs daily and hosts a weekly round-up show each weekend.

Current affairs

It broadcasts these current affairs shows:
} On 30 November 2014 RTÉ News Now revealed its new on-air identity inline with RTÉ News rebrand in early 2014. In August 2020, RTÉ News Now was rebranded to RTÉ News channel with minor changes to its programming line-up. As part of the rebrand, the channel is complemented with a new-look app.

Availability

The channel is available nationwide as of 29 October 2010 on Saorview, Ireland's national digital terrestrial service. On 2 October 2012 it also launched on

UPC Ireland Virgin Media Ireland is Liberty Global's telecommunications operation in Ireland. It is the largest digital cable television provider within the country. As of 31 December 2014, the company offers broadband internet, digital television and d ...

. On 18 January 2016 it launched on

Sky Ireland Sky Ireland Limited is a subsidiary of Comcast-owned Sky and supplies television, internet and telephony services in Ireland. Its corporate headquarters are in Dublin which were opened by Taoiseach Enda Kenny on 18 January 2013. Sky Ireland e ...

. The channel is available online throughout the world, without restriction. The service is available through a special iPhone application. Currently, the service is available in

Windows Media Player Windows Media Player (WMP) is the first media player and media library application that was developed by Microsoft for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on ...

and

RealPlayer RealPlayer, formerly RealAudio Player, RealOne Player and RealPlayer G2, is a cross-platform media player app, developed by RealNetworks. The media player is compatible with numerous container file formats of the multimedia realm, including MP ...

formats, and in Flash H.264 format on the Ireland-only

RTÉ player RTÉ Player is an on demand video service provided by Irish public media broadcaster RTÉ. The service provides live and recorded RTÉ television programmes, and content exclusive to the player as well as content from other international broad ...

. On 19 January 2010 RTÉ announced a new application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It was announced on 19 May 2010 that RTÉ News Now would begin appearing on Transvision digital screens in the main Dublin Bus and Train stations (Heuston, Connolly, Pearse and Busaras). In November 2010, the service became available, free of charge, on Android smartphone customers through the app store,

Android Market Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating sys ...

for use over 3G networks and wi-fi, regardless of service provider.

RTÉ News App

On Thursday 17 April 2014 RTÉ News Now launched a new app for both iPhone and Android. With over 1 million downloads the service is the most used news app in the Republic of Ireland. The next generation News Now App provide users with an expanded range of content, new features and an innovative, market-leading app experience. The service will eventually be made available on iPad and other tablets. On 28 August 2020, the RTÉ News Now App was rebranded to the RTÉ News app ahead of the channels refresh.

RTÉ News Now Strategy: 2012 to 2017 and Possible Closure

On 16 September 2013 RTÉ management announced its Strategy:2012–2017. Under the strategy, RTÉ confirmed its commitment to the 24 hour news channel. It is hoped that the channel will broadcast live bulletins from 07:00 – 00:00 with fewer repeats. Over 80% of the channel's existing content is made-up of repeats with exception to live news broadcasts and breaking news stories. RTÉ want to drive the channel towards becoming "the driver of the 24-hour news cycle.” By 2018, due to the lack of revenue available for the channel and low viewing figures, RTÉ's Dee Forbes confirmed her intention to close the channel by early 2019 following a review by the government and broadcasting authorities. An internal review within RTÉ also determined if the stations closure was imminent. With early morning news bulletins discontinued on RTE 1, the only morning news coverage on RTE Television is now provided on RTE News Now with the live simulcast of RTE Radio 1's Morning Ireland web-stream and short news updates at 10.00 am and 11.00am. In August 2020, RTÉ confirmed it would continue with the channel for the foreseeable future and plans on refreshing the channel and expanding live broadcasts from September.

COVID-19 pandemic programming

During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

in the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

, mass was broadcast daily at 10:30am from different churches around Ireland, normally a relay of the churches own webcast. A press conference chaired by

Chief Medical Officer Chief medical officer (CMO) is the title used in many countries for the senior government official designated head of medical services, sometimes at the national level. The post is held by a physician who serves to advise and lead a team of medical ...

Tony Holohan William Gerard Anthony Holohan is an Irish public health physician who served as Chief Medical Officer of Ireland from May 2008 to 1 July 2022. Fergal Bowers described him as being "as familiar as Dr Anthony Fauci in the US and arguably as i ...

and members of the National Public Health Emergency Team, initially each weekday evening, then twice weekly, was broadcast, as it often coincided with the '' Six One News'' on

, so the RTÉ News channel would broadcast the press conference, then follow that with a re-broadcast of the ''Six One News''.

Awards

In October 2008, RTÉ News Now won the award for ''Business Services'' at the Inspired IT Awards in Dublin. In November 2010, RTÉ News Now iPhone app won Best Media app, Best Apple App and the Grand Prix awards at 'The Appy's 2010 with The Carphone Wareshouse'.

Logo history

File:Rtenewsnowlogo.png, Logo of RTÉ News Now, 2009–2014 File:Rtenewsnownewlogo.png, Logo of RTÉ News Now, 2014–2020 File:Updated RTÉ News and Current Affairs Logo.png, Logo of the RTÉ News channel, 2020–present

References

External links

RTÉ News Now

RTÉ News Now on Twitter

RTÉ News and Current Affairs
including archived and on-demand material
RTÉ Live
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rte News Now 24-hour television news channels Internet television channels RTÉ News and Current Affairs News Now News Now Commercial-free television networks Television channels and stations established in 2008 2008 establishments in Ireland