RTÉ Player arriving on the iPhone and iPad before Christmas

Aisling McCabe, director of platform development at RTÉ, took to the stage at the Dublin Web Summit this evening to announce RTÉ’s plans to launch RTÉ Player iPhone and iPad apps in the coming months. More specfically, before Christmas.

To coincide with RTÉ celebrating 50 years of television at the end of this year, RTÉ are launching dedicated iPhone and iPad apps for their popular catch-up service (50 million videos plays since launch). Currently, the RTÉ Player is limited to viewing through the browser or on Sony’s PlayStation 3.

Aisling commented,

“We want you to be able to take your television, put it in your pocket and take it where-ever you go. The audience decides how they interact with television. It’s on their terms”.

As well as announcing the forthcoming release of iOS mobile apps, RTÉ also announced that an improved interface update is imminent. The new interface will feature a larger video window, simpler navigation and new sharing features to services like Facebook and Twitter.

Another great new feature awards viewers the ability to seamlessly watch a particular programme across devices. This means viewers can begin viewing the latest episode of The Walking Dead on mobile on the train home from work, then complete their viewing on their iPad or laptop at home.

Seamless programme viewing across devices is possible by logging into RTÉ Player using your Twitter, Facebook or Google account. This also opens up the door to smarter video recommendations and personalisation of the RTÉ Player service.

Video content will be made available in higher quality than is currently allowed, with streaming bit-rate automatically adjusted to suit an indidvual user’s bandwidth.