RTÉ ‘looking at’ IPTV channels

Broadband speeds and penetration in Ireland are not yet good enough for RTÉ to deliver services over IPTV (internet protocol television), but the broadcaster has been exploring the possibility of doing so, according to outgoing RTÉ director general Noel Curran.

"We are looking at the IPTV space. Everyone is looking in that direction. But we're not going to be foolish about it," Curran told the Institute for Future Media and Journalism at Dublin City University last week. He added that there was no point in rushing in and then saying: "Oh, that didn't work."

But at a certain point, when broadband penetration across Ireland improves, there will be a “tipping point” in RTÉ’s approach to digital television, he predicted.

Rather than streaming an existing channel online-only to cut costs – as the BBC has done with BBC Three – it would more likely be the case that specialist genres such as the arts could be given an online, IPTV home. The difference between the BBC and RTÉ, he said, was that the BBC earned a billion in income. “They don’t have to commercialise BBC Three.”

RTÉ has “tried to get our best bang for our buck” in digital, Curran added, noting that a new generation of RTÉ Player will be launched later this year.

Only 46 per cent of the 165,000 people who watched the recent series of Homeland on RTÉ2 watched it live as it went out, he said, with the other 54 per cent watching the programme over the course of the week using their personal video recorder or the RTÉ Player. Loyalty to television channels – the habit of sticking with whatever a channel has scheduled for the entire evening and then coming back for more the next day – is not what it was. "It's not even remotely the same."