RTÉ One


RTÉ One is an Irish free-to-air flagship television service owned and operated by RTÉ. It is the most-popular and most-watched television channel in the country and was launched as Telefís Éireann on 31 December 1961, it was renamed RTÉ in 1966, and it was renamed as RTÉ 1 upon the launch of RTÉ2 in 1978. It is funded partly by the government's licence fee; the remainder of the funding is provided by commercial advertising. Because RTÉ is funded partly by the licence fee it shows considerably fewer advertisements than most other channels available in Ireland and Northern Ireland.
RTÉ One is available to 98% of the Irish population in HD on the Saorview DTT service. It is also available in Northern Ireland via Saorview, Freeview, Sky, and cable provider Virgin Media. The channel is also available online through RTÉ Player.

History

RTÉ One began life as Telefís Éireann in 1961. It was the second indigenous television channel in the island of Ireland and third overall, the first was BBC TV Service NI in 1955 and Ulster Television in 1959, both in Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom.
Originally Telefís Éireann broadcast in black and white throughout the country using the European 625-line standard, as well as on the 405-line television system in the northern and eastern parts of the country; since the mid-50s, many people in these areas already had 405-line TV sets receiving BBC and UTV/HTV transmissions from Northern Ireland/Wales respectively. A standards conversion unit was used to provide the 405-line service, but when this electronic device failed, optical conversion was used, reportedly by directing a 405-line camera at a 625-line monitor.
The first programme to be pre-recorded for the new television service was The School Around the Corner, an interview/quiz show created and presented by Paddy Crosbie and produced by James Plunkett.
Telefís Éireann was renamed as RTÉ in 1966, upon the renaming of the Radio Éireann Authority as Radio Telefís Éireann, and became RTÉ 1 upon the launch of RTÉ 2 in 1978.
PAL colour transmissions began in 1968, and the first programme made and transmitted in colour was "John Hume's Derry." The first outside broadcast in colour for RTÉ Television was the 1971 Railway Cup Finals, and soon after that, the Eurovision Song Contest 1971 from Dublin.
In the 1970s, the studios in RTÉ's Television Centre started being equipped for colour, the first was the news studio in 1974, studio 2 in 1975, and finally studio 1 in 1976.
Unlike Northern Ireland which had a duopoly of BBC and ITV, RTÉ was the only television channel in the Republic of Ireland until 1978 when RTÉ 2 was created and started full colour broadcasting at the same time. The Irish language station TG4 began in 1996 as Teilifís na Gaeilge. Since 1998 RTÉ One also competes with Virgin Media One.
Since it began broadcasting, RTÉ One has competed with BBC One and UTV from Northern Ireland, and in the 1980s RTÉ began competing with other satellite and cable channels that are widely available across Ireland through cable subscription services due to the high take up of cable TV from pan-European and UK channels since the 1960s, and the continued roll out of MMDS and satellite during the 1980s and 1990s.
From 1961, RTÉ Television would only broadcast from 17:35 until around 23:30 during the Winter months. In 1975 this changed slightly with transmission starting at around 15:30 and concluding around midnight. 24-hour broadcasts began in the late 1990s. In 1988, RTÉ One launched a schedule with a new news bulletin at 13:00. Currently, RTÉ One does not offer "breakfast television", but from 2013 to 2014 the station aired an early morning current affairs show called Morning Edition, which was also simulcast on RTÉ News Now. Virgin Media One is currently the only indigenous broadcaster in direct competition for this early morning market with Ireland AM since 1999. RTÉ One during the Olympics and special breaking news or election coverage, will provide a special bulletin in the mornings. RTE 1 and N2 had separate Weather forecasts. On Monday January 14, RTE 1 and N2 weather forecasts were remerged.
On 6 July 2017, RTÉ One extended its on-air hours, starting at 6:00 am as opposed to the later 6:20 am as previously.

RTÉ One HD

RTÉ One HD was launched on 21 October 2013 — originally in upscaled HD — following the launch of a new Saorview multiplex. Native HD broadcasts began on 16 December 2013.
Since 2024, RTÉ One is now broadcast solely in High Definition on all platforms, with the Standard Definition simulcast ending on 2 April 2014 on the national DTT service Saorview, and on 29 April 2024 on Sky.
RTÉ Television decided to launch the new HD service just before the Christmas period to draw audiences attention to the new service available to viewers. RTÉ have started to convert their main production studios to HD, the first being studio 5 in 2012, which is used mainly for sports productions. Any programmes still made in standard-definition are upscaled on the channel and it is intended that the vast majority of the channel's output will be in high-definition in due course. RTÉ One in SD continues to be available on Virgin Media Ireland until more of their customers have upgraded to HD.
Sky Ireland launched the channel on 14 December 2015, as part of a new long-term partnership with RTÉ, however the channel is not available on Sky UK's Northern Ireland EPG. In response to queries, RTÉ currently advises Northern Ireland Sky subscribers to contact Sky on the matter whereas Sky replies that it's an issue for RTÉ as to whether they make their HD channel available. On 11 April 2024, the channel was finally made available in Northern Ireland. Later that month, the SDTV feed was discontinued on Sky altogether, as such, the channel effectively became HD exclusive.

RTÉ One +1

A timeshift channel for RTÉ One was launched on 27 May 2011 and shares channel space with RTÉjr. The channel was made available on Saorview from its launch, UPC Ireland replaced City Channel with RTÉ One +1 on 13 March 2012. Reeling in the Years does not broadcast on this channel due to music rights restrictions.
It was referred to as RTÉ One Deferred in the Easy TV commercial DTT multiplex application, Easy TV was made up of RTÉ NL and UPC Ireland. RTÉ had also plans to create a third channel called RTÉ Three along with RTÉ One Deferred as reported in the Sunday Business Post in May 2008.
RTÉ Three was dropped for the alternative RTÉ Plus/RTÉjr. RTÉ Plus would have initially been a time shift channel for RTÉ One's prime time schedule, starting each night at 19:00 after RTÉjr ends for the night. This "Phase 1" of RTÉ plus was to begin broadcasting in May 2011. "Phase 2" of RTÉ Plus was to be made up of an entirely different schedule to that of RTÉ One, RTÉ had hoped that this would be made available in May 2012. Minister Pat Carey gave the go ahead for RTÉ One +1 for a maximum of 4 years at which point it will be reviewed. He did not give permission for the second phase in the channel as he was advised by the BAI that it may cause problems for commercial service providers such as TV3.
As part of a new long-term partnership with Sky, RTÉ One +1 launched on Sky channel 115 on 14 December 2015, moving RTÉ2 HD down to 278. On 1 May 2018, the +1 channels and the Entertainment & Documentaries channel sections were moved to 201 - 299 to coincide with the non +1 channel. For example, RTÉ One is on channel 101, and RTÉ One +1 is on 201.
When launched, RTÉ One +1 broadcast from 19:00 to approximately 02:00. On 15 February 2019, RTÉ One +1 began broadcasting 24 hours a day to coincide with the launch of RTÉ2 +1.

Programming

RTÉ One airs a variety of programmes each week, both homegrown programming and imported programming. A typical week of programming on RTÉ One would be as follows: On Sunday night RTÉ's flagship talent show The Voice of Ireland airs at 18.30, with the results show following soap opera Fair City at 20.30. Dragon's Den airs at 21.30 on Sunday nights. On Monday nights at 21.35, there is a questions and answers style show called Claire Byrne Live hosted by Claire Byrne. The long running chat show The Late Late Show hosted by Patrick Kielty airs Friday nights from 21.35, it is the longest running chat show in the world. On Saturday night, game show The Million Euro Challenge airs at around 20.15, The Saturday Night Show airs at around 21.45, similar to The Late Late Show it has a variety of celebrity guests and music performances. Irish soap opera Fair City airs four times a week on RTÉ One, it airs Sundays at 20:30, Tuesdays, and Thursdays at 20.00, and Wednesdays at 19.30, Fair City is similar to the British format for soap operas such as Coronation Street. RTÉ One also airs British soap opera EastEnders weekly at the same times as BBC One. RTÉ One also air a host of films throughout the week including the midweek movie on Wednesday at 21:30 and the big big movie Saturdays at 18:30. RTÉ One also air news coverage throughout the week including a 13:00, 18:00, and 21:00 news broadcast every day.

News and current affairs

RTÉ News and Current Affairs provides all of RTÉ One's news and current affairs programming.
RTÉ News and Current Affairs television programmes include:
News programming
  • Morning Edition
  • RTÉ News: One O'Clock
  • RTÉ News: Six One
  • RTÉ News: Nine O'Clock
  • RTÉ News: Headlines
  • Nuacht RTÉ
  • RTÉ News with Signing
Current Affairs Programming
RTÉ News and Current Affairs coverage of all major political events such as General Elections, Budgets, Local and European Elections and Referendums. Since 2000 RTÉ has covered the US Presidential Elections live. It also covers major political stories from the Northern Irish Assembly, including elections.