RTÉ 2

RTÉ 2 is owned and operated by RTÉ, Ireland’s public service broadcaster. The most recent data available shows that RTÉ2 reaches 67.6% of Irish adults and has a 7% share of the TV audience.

RTÉ2 is aimed at a younger demographic, people up to 45 years of age with the core audience in the 15-34 age group. Content on the station is varied with entertainment the main focus. The station broadcasts a mix of comedy, lifestyle, sport and documentaries with a mix of Irish produced and imported content. Children’s content is also broadcast on the station from 7.50am to 4.20pm.

News content on RTÉ2 is also aimed at a younger demographic with a daily morning and afternoon, news2day. This 10-minute programme focuses on national and international news that is of interest to a younger audience. RTÉ2 also broadcasts syndicated news content from Euronews from 2am to 6am when the station is off air. Since its launch RTÉ2 has reduced news and current affairs programming over time to the current levels. Initially there was space on the schedule for late night news and current affairs programming, mainly aimed at a younger age group. However, over time content on the station has shifted to focus mainly on entertainment, sports and children's content.

RTÉ2 is owned by RTÉ the Irish Public Service Broadcaster which is ultimately controlled by the RTÉ Board, chaired by Siún Ní Raghallaigh. Day to day operations and management of the station lie under the remit of the Director of Content, a post currently held by Jim Jennings, and the Deputy Director of Content Niamh O’Connor. As the channel’s focus is on entertainment programming, Alan Tyler, Group Head of Entertainment and Music plays a significant role in commissioning and purchasing entertainment programming for RTÉ. 
RTÉ2 began broadcasting in 1978 and was aimed at the Irish public who didn’t have access to the transmission overspill of UK Television services like BBC and ITV. For the first decade RTÉ2 was only broadcast in the evening post 6pm, it wasn’t until the 1990s that the schedule expanded to morning and afternoon.

Throughout this decade the government had grappled with how to provide an additional TV station for Irish viewers. Up to this point only people living along the border with Northern Ireland or on the East coast had access to additional stations due to transmission overspill from UK broadcasters such as BBC and ITV. Three modes of delivery for a new station were considered, re-transmission of BBC1 in the Republic of Ireland, licensing of a new commercial service or getting RTÉ establish and manage a new station.

Originally the station broadcast UK content to Irish homes with simulcasts of programmes such as live music programme Top of the Pops and soap opera Coronation Street. During its first decade this expanded to include American sitcoms and dramas and then in the 1990s the addition of Australian programming. In the 1990s children’s programming became a central feature of the morning and early afternoon schedule, followed by programming aimed at teenagers in the late afternoon/early evening. Throughout the 1990s RTÉ2 was the home of prime time American programming for Irish Audiences in the target age range. From the early 2000s RTÉ2 began investing heavily in Irish produced programming in drama, comedy and reality TV genres. In 2009 RTÉ launched the RTÉ Player allowing viewers to access live and on Demand TV via their laptops or mobile devices. In recent years RTÉ has invested in content commissioned and produced specifically for the Player.