RTÉ One

### Broadcast area

Nationally (Ireland and Northern Ireland), also availble worldwide through RTÉ Player

### Headquarter

RTÉ Television Centre, DonnybrookDublin, Ireland

## Ownership

### Sister channels

RTÉ2RTÉjr
RTÉ News

## Programming

### Language

EnglishIrish (Gaelic)Irish Sign Language (ISL)

## History

### Former names

Telefís Éireann (1961–1966)RTÉ (1966–1978)
RTÉ 1 (1978–1995)

## Availability

### Streaming live

RTÉ PlayerVirgin TV Anywhere

**RTÉ One (RTÉ a hAon)** is Ireland's oldest and largest television channel, and the flagship channel of the country's public broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ).

## Channel description

RTÉ One serves the wider population with high impact programmes, landmark drama, documentary, factual and entertainment programming, news and current affairs and bring the country together for key national events.

## History

In 1958 preparations for television got underway with the establishment of the Television Commission.

The 1960s saw the arrival of an Irish television service Telefís Éireann to accompany Radio Éireann. Viewers of Telefís Éireann are now well familiar with the symbol of the station, St. Brigid’s Cross.

Television began broadcasting on New Year’s Eve 1961, as President of Ireland Éamon de Valera launches new television service and addresses the audience in both Irish and English. In 1966 the corporate name would place both services under the name RTÉ (Radio Telefís Éireann).

The first news bulletin was read by Charles Mitchel on Irish television on the opening night of Telefís Éireann 31 December 1961. The first programme of ‘The Late Late Show’ was broadcast at 11.20 pm, 6 July 1962. ‘The Late Late Show’ was intended to be a summer “filler” but proved so successful with the public that it became part of the regular schedule.

The service started some of the factual and entertainment programmes that began broadcasting during the 1960s. The cover of the first RTV Guide (which would later become The RTÉ Guide) and the listing for the first evenings viewing on Telefís Éireann can also be seen.

An explosion took place at the RTÉ Television Studios in Donnybrook at 1.30AM on 5 august 1969 and despite the damage to the buildings nobody was hurt.

Technological developments saw the introduction of the advent of colour television, PAL colour transmissions began in 1968, and the first programme made and transmitted in colour was documentary "John Hume's Derry" broadcast as part of the program 7 Days. The first outside broadcast in colour for RTÉ Television was the 1971 Railway Cup Finals (Gaelic Athletic Association), and soon after that, the Eurovision Song Contest 1971 from Dublin, as Ireland won the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 1970 with Dana singing ‘All Kinds of Everything’. Bernadette Ní Ghallchóir introduces the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest, hosted in Ireland from Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre. The programme was one of the first home produced colour television programmes by RTÉ.

RTÉ was also the sole Irish TV channel until 1978, RTÉ would launch a second television channel RTÉ 2. RTÉ Television became RTÉ1 , then was renamed RTÉ One in 1995 . Teilifís na Gaeilge (TnaG, later known as TG4) began broadcasting on 31 October 1996. Since 1998, RTÉ One has had to face competition from TV3 Ireland (later Virgin Media One) in Ireland, but also from all the British channels broadcast by satellite and cable.

As violence increased in Northern Ireland and the political situation became more complex, Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act was invoked in 1971, in which it prohibits RTÉ from broadcasting anything that could be interpreted as supporting the aims or activities of organisations which “engage in, promote, encourage or advocate the attaining of any political objective by violent means”.

In 1980s, the big home produced television drama of the decade was ‘Strumpet City’, began in 1979. Rural drama series ‘Glenroe’ began in 1983. Zig and Zag arrived from planet Zog in 1987 and began to appear on the children’s afternoon programme ‘Dempsey’s Den’.

In television there were a number of developments in production. HDTV is demonstrated for the first time in Europe at an EBU conference held in Killarney in 1982. Also during this decade video would replace film, RTÉ changed how it delivered weather forecasts and the Aertel teletext service was launched on 22 June 1987.

An unstable political situation meant that RTÉ had to cover three general elections in less than two years. ‘Morning Ireland’ on radio and ‘Today Tonight’ led the coverage of current affairs.

In 2000s, new wave of drama on RTÉ Television introduced series such as ‘Paths to Freedom’, ‘Bachelors Walk’ and ‘The Clinic’.

In current affairs ‘Prime Time Investigates’ sparked a national debate on care for the elderly after a programme about conditions in the Lease Cross nursing show. ‘Questions and Answers’ came to an end after 23 years while ‘The Late Late Show’ would have a new presenter.

The last medium wave transmitter at Moydrum closed down while a pilot for high defintion television commenced.

RTÉ ONE Television launched a new on-screen identity package in November 2006. A package of twelve new idents and on-screen graphics were produced. Each ident attempted to represent a different facet of Irish life in the 21st century. The Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan launches the first terrestrial broadcast of an Irish sporting event in high definition television (HDTV). The Leinster Football final in 2007 at Croke Park was chosen as the first broadcast of its kind in Ireland.

Five decades of Irish analogue television broadcasting came to an end with the switchover to digital on 24 October 2012. At that day, Dustin the Turkey counts down the analogue switch-off live on ‘The John Murray Show’ on RTÉ Radio 1. A free to air television in Ireland is provided by RTE’s new digital service SAORVIEW.

RTÉ One began broadcasting in high definition on December 16, 2013 on digital terrestrial television nationwide.  The channel in standard definition (SD) stopped broadcasting on DTT on April 2, 2014, remaining only available on payment platforms.

## Services

### Reception

RTÉ One is broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week nationwide and is almost universally receivable on the VHF and UHF bands (although VHF has been mostly phased out), via satellite via the Sky Digital both in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, as well as cable and MMDS including Virgin Media's digital cable service in Northern Ireland. RTÉ One is also available on most digital television services available in the Republic of Ireland, such as Sky Ireland. Virgin Media, Magnet Networks, and Saorview/Freeview, and much of Northern Ireland via Sky and Virgin Media, as well as online worldwide via the RTÉ Player service.

### Funding

RTÉ One is funded in part by a radio and television license fee, the remainder of the funding comes from commercial advertising. As RTÉ is partly funded by the radio and television license, it shows far less advertising than most other channels available in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

### 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.

RTÉ One is now broadcast solely in High Definition (HD) on the national DTT service Saorview, with the Standard Definition simulcast ending on 2 April 2014. However RTÉ still provides a Standard Definition (SD) output of RTÉ One to pay television operators on cable and satellite, for those subscribers who still have equipment that does not support HD.

RTÉ One reaches 98 percent of Ireland's population and broadcasts in HD quality on the digital terrestrial network (Saorview) in Ireland.

### RTÉ One +1

A timeshift channel for RTÉ One (RTÉ One +1) was launched on 27 May 2011 and broadcast 24 hours a day. This channel offers viewers another opportunity to experience the key offerings of RTÉ One, one hour later.

### Subtitles and teletext

Approximately 95% of programmes on RTÉ One are subtitled during peak hours, and Audio Description (AD) is provided for blind and visually impaired viewers.

Irish Sign Language (ISL) is the indigenous language of the deaf community in Ireland, and it is now available on RTÉ One every day.

**RTÉ Aertel** is a teletext service broadcast on RTÉ One, and was also available in its entirety on the Internet until 2019.

## Programming

### RTÉ News and Current Affairs

RTÉ News and Current Affairs (Nuacht agus Cúrsaí Reatha RTÉ), also known as RTÉ News (Nuacht RTÉ), is the national news service provided by RTÉ.

* RTÉ News: One O'Clock
* RTÉ News: Six One
* RTÉ News: Nine O'Clock
* RTÉ News with Signing
* Euronews
* Nuacht
* Prime Time
* Leader's Questions
* The Week in Politics
* European Parliament Report
* ISL Weekly Weather
* Farming Weather

### Current programs

* All Creatures Great and Small
* All Fired Up
* Angela Scanlon's Ask Me Anything
* Bog Amach
* Born to Kill
* Bridge of Lies
* Call The Midwife
* Casualty
* Cheap European Homes
* Dermot Bannon's Incredible Homes
* Doctors
* Dr Phil
* Ear To The Ground
* EastEnders
* Eco Eye
* Face The Music
* Fair City
* Gentleman Jack
* Great Irish Interiors
* Holby City
* Keeping Up Appearances
* Lie With Me
* Mass On Sunday
* Nationwide - regional program
* Neven's Greenway Food Trails
* Neven's Spanish Food Trails
* Putin & The West
* Realtaí na Gaeltachta
* Saol na Feirme
* Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators
* Silent Witness
* Tastes Like Home
* The 1% Club
* The Durrells
* The Great British Bake Off
* The Keith Barry Experience
* The Liffey
* The National Symphony Orchestra In Concert
* The North Water
* The Shelter: Animal SOS
* The Silent Civil War
* The Style Counsellors
* The Sunday Game/Live
* The Tommy Tiernan Show
* The Zoo
* Young Sheldon
* Ár mBia, Ár Slí - cooking show

### Film and Documentary

* How to Tell A Secret
* Mrs Brown's Boys D'movie
* The US and the Holocaust: A Film by Ken Burns
* Argo

## External links and references

1. ↑ https://www.rte.ie/archives/2012/1018/342173-changes-for-tv-arrival-of-colour-television/
2. ↑ https://www.rte.ie/archives/exhibitions/681-history-of-rte/707-rte-1990s/321074-telifis-na-gaeilge-launched/l
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://web.archive.org/web/20131231093445/https://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/media-and-marketing/rt%C3%A9-one-hd-to-launch-next-monday-1.1624437
4. ↑ https://about.rte.ie/how-rte-is-funded-2/