It began life seven years ago as a desktop offering aimed at people who had missed programmes when they were broadcast, but RTÉ Player has since clocked up more than 2 million downloads on mobile and tablet devices, 22 per cent of them from international users. The app is currently averaging 11,200 downloads each week, according to new figures released by RTÉ.
Across all platforms – desktop, mobile, tablet, pay-TV providers, Samsung Connected TVs and Xbox – the RTÉ Player is now serving up an average of 4.4 million streams a month. Viewing peaks between 9pm and 11pm each night, slightly later than the peaks for traditional linear channels.
The growth in use has continued this year, climbing from an average of 3.35 million streams per month last year. The Player had 489,000 unique users in the last seven days, with more than half of them via its mobile and tablet apps.
"Mobile viewing now represents a huge proportion of our streaming on RTÉ Player," says Aoife Byrne, RTÉ's director of content and products.
Three-minute videos
Examples of short-form content produced especially for “the needs and habits of this mobile audience” include its “snackable” three-minute videos in its Food Bites hub.
RTÉ is keen to evolve the Player from its original function as a catch-up service and streamer of the linear channels. It is increasingly using its Player as a home for show "extras" that spin off from peak-time programmes, most recently from First Dates Ireland, with videos on chat-up lines, dream dates, celebrity "reviews" and such critical date issues as what to wear and who should pay.
The Late Late Show extras, usually broken-up segments of the chat show, generated 292,360 streams in the first three months of the year, while Fair City extras garnered 103,827 views and Ray D'Arcy Show clips 88,821.
The next most popular extras were from the Six Nations (52,082 streams) and Operation Transformation (48,173).
Soap opera fans are the most frequent users of the Player. EastEnders (1.4 million streams), Home & Away (1.3 million) and Fair City (1.2 million) were the most popular programmes on the Player in the first quarter, with the latest Irish news bulletins clocking up 458,343 views. The Late Late Show itself attracted 326,493 views over this period.
Making money from video-on-demand has proved trickier than luring an audience to it, however. Outgoing RTÉ director-general Noel Curran said in a speech earlier this month it seemed that income from video-on-demand had fallen in the first quarter, compared to a rise in television advertising spend.
“The proliferation of channels has driven television prices down to such a level that they may now be hitting digital revenues,” he said. “That’s how complicated the market has evolved, and navigating it is even trickier than last year.”
An industry push to introduce a "total audience" measure combining traditional television ratings with digital streams should help. Research body Nielsen is preparing to launch a measure of cross-platform consumption for both content and advertising.
Plans for a new version of the RTÉ Player are underway.
