RTÉ plans plus-one channel for RTÉ2

RTÉ has sought regulatory permission to launch an RTÉ2 +1 channel in a move that is likely to boost the audience for its shows.

An Oireachtas committee heard on Thursday that the broadcaster has asked the Department of Communications if it can add the channel to its line-up.

"We have asked for it," RTÉ director-general Dee Forbes said, after Public Accounts Committee chairman Seán Fleming said he wanted to have the option to watch such a channel and believed it would help RTÉ's cause to have one.

A Department official present at the hearing said the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland was reviewing the application.

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The channel would show the RTÉ2 schedule with a time delay of one hour in the same way as other plus-one television channels.

Even in the age of widespread on-demand consumption – both online and through the use of digital video recorders – these time-delayed linear channels are popular. RTÉ One+1, which begins from 7pm each day, added 0.86 per cent to RTÉ One’s share of all-adult viewing in March, while TV3 +1 added 0.42 per cent.