RTÉ Player has today updated its free online video catch-up service to enable live streaming of channels RTÉ One, RTÉ Two, and RTÉ News Now. It’s not yet understood if all programming will be made available, but this certainly is a welcome move from our national broadcaster.
In a tweet earlier today, RTÉ Player officially announced live streaming capabilities,
We’re excited here @ RTÉ Player!! We’ve just launched a new feature: Live TV!!! Check it out: http://bit.ly/blIqWK
— RTE Player (@RTEplayer) March 15, 2011
RTÉ Player was initially launched in April 2009 and has been growing steadily since. This growth has also been helped by the launch of RTÉ Player for the PS3 in December of last year.
However, this latest move may not bode well with other broadcasters including TV3 and the National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI), who are already angered by our previous government’s decision to allow RTÉ to broadcast five new digital channels from this May.