Online traffic to RTÉ’s online and mobile services RTÉ.ie, RTÉ News Now app, RTÉ Player and RTÉ radio apps reached record levels in 2016, attracting up to 1.2 million browsers per day, according to the company.

The online channels operated by the broadcaster are its website RTÉ.ie, the RTÉ News Now app, RTÉ Player, and RTÉ’s radio apps. Between them they attracted record numbers of users in 2016, according to RTE’s chief digital officer Múirne Laffan.

“In the Irish market, RTÉ operates the number one multi-media website, news and entertainment app and on-demand TV and radio services," she said. "With close to 50% of Irish adults connecting with RTÉ’s online services every week, 2016 delivered strong growth and engagement with online audiences.

“This reflects the increasingly important role of our online services for the public’s access and consumption of RTÉ content. Audience expectations are constantly growing, in terms of expected product performance and the availability of our online and mobile services across multiple platforms. The insatiable appetite for online news is reflected in the marked increase in online traffic across our online and mobile news platforms.

Laffan (pictured) added that RTÉ Player served a record 50 million streams through 2016. "Live streaming of content was also significantly up this year, reflecting changing viewing habits.”

In Association with

The Player is broadening its reach from being a pure catch-up service, adding exclusive online content and original programming, and permanent content hubs such as Doc Hub, Food Hub and Culture Hub.

Top Stories

The top news stories online in 2016 included Ireland's general election, the US elections, Michael Conlan’s defeat at Rio, the Orlando nightclub shooting and Ireland’s rugby victory over New Zealand in Chicago.

General election weekend attracted the biggest surge in traffic, with over 31 million page views and 1.9 million unique browsers on RTÉ.ie and RTÉ News Now during the count weekend. Online traffic that weekend was up by 68% compared to the 2011 election count weekend.

That News Now app has totted up over 1.6 million downloads, adding over 165,000 in 2016. Traffic increased by 26% to a monthly average of 68 million page views, while monthly unique users averaged 426,000, an 11% increase on 2015. Daily app users opened the app 2.5 times per day, perusing 5.5 pages each visit..

RTE's international audience for digital services was  2.2 million unique browsers per month last year. In 2016, 25% of online traffic to RTÉ.ie was from international audiences, while international traffic to RTÉ News Now accounts for 16% of traffic. In addition, one-third of traffic to RTÉ’s radio apps came from international listeners.