RTÉ Player

A Google user

5 years ago

The ad breaks take ages to trigger, you're often waiting about a minute staring at a blank screen before the ads launch, then each break between the ads is another 30 seconds of blank. When the video finally loads, I seem to get past the first ad break (15 mins into Love/Hate), when it returns... I'll get about a minute into part 2 and it will just stop without warning, as if its about to kick into ads again.... but it does nothing.

A Google user

5 years ago

Edit: Now with Chromecast and so much better than it was. It would be great if you could select a lower quality stream so it doesn't eat up so much mobile data. Congrats RTE. Low quality video, no Chromecast support and crashes a lot after the adds which requires you to start from the beginning. RTE, if you won't produce good apps for smart TV's then at least produce one good app that will work with Chromecast. It's not that difficult.

A Google user

6 years ago

This app is a joke. Assuming you've survived the onslaught of ads, you're likely to get 1 to 2 minutes into your show before the inevitable crashing of the app. It's like clockwork - crashes every single time. There used to (possibly still is) an app for Samsung that used to be great, going back c.5 years. No app for Android TV which is crazy. Very poor. Don't waste your time.

Ciara N

4 years ago

Very frustrating to use. Between 3-6 ads before, during and after watching a show. When you go to pause on the TV app, it brings you back to the homepage and have to find your episode again, not without watching 6 more ads. Disconnects to the wifi even though the wifi is working for other apps. The 'continue playing' feature brought me back to the very first episode of a show. The ads are unbearable and the app isn't user friendly.

Helen Matthews

5 years ago

The updates include they've added box sets. You can now watch a full series which you couldn't do before. You can now rewind and ff. However, the amount of ads is just incredulous! There are ads embedded the whole way through, every few mins. Plus every time you pause, more ads! It is infuriating! It has taken about 2hrs to watch a 40 min show bc it keeps crashing & the ads. What is my license I paying for??? However, I'll upgrade my stars from 1 to 2 due to the improvements

A Google user

6 years ago

Terrible, the new version is even worse than the old ones. I have latest Android version and it keeps stopping. Won't work on the tablet at all. Not to mention the fact that it never worked on the smart TV and the app there does not update! Still have the old version. And for some reason the only videos that always work are the ads!!! Really I expect better taking on account that I pay the TV licence, a service that I am not able to use on ANY of my devices!!!!! It does not matter which device you are using: pc, tablet, phone or even smart tv. Takes ages to open and does not load content. When finally you are able to get to any content, it works for 2 seconds and then it stops for loading for 30 seconds: it takes 2hrs to watch a 30 minutes episode. The only content that works are ads. Plus there are loads of replicas of series and it's not called out, so you think it's a new season and in fact is from 6 years ago... you would expect more from the national broadcaster. The episodes are loaded in the wrong way and you cannot hear a thing. I pay TV licence!!!

A Google user

6 years ago

if you switch apps, when you return you need to watch ads again. there is no way to continue an episode you were on. you have the search the tv show, click into it, and after the ads ypu will be at the beginning. skip halfway to where you actually were, then be prepared for another 2 mins of ads. thats only if the app hasnt crashed, which it has done almost every second time i open it.

A Google user

6 years ago

Fundementally unstable. Crashed 2/3 times. Adverts script seems to be the issue as the switch point between ads is when the crash occurs. Consider a mainstream SSP to serve more relevant ads more smartly. I'm using the latest version of Android on a top of the range phone with huge ram. I never have apps crash on this device. Get better Android developers from a competitor media agency and get their developers/agency to build you a working app. Function>Ux in the end. It needs to work!

A Google user

5 years ago

Awful. Installed it to watch a programme I'd missed during the week and quickly remembered why I'd uninstalled it originally. Constant playback / freezing issues (conveniently, though, the ads worked fine). At one stage the ads started playing over the programme I was watching and it wasn't even an ad break, so I had the ads and the programme running at the same time. Bad form on RTE's part that they're leaving it as it is and not working to improve it. Uninstalled.

A Google user

6 years ago

App does not seem to be tested and crashes. 2 mins for ads to load on some content is over kill. If app crashes (which has happened at least once each time to try to view content). The player skips, reloads, spins, doesn't work on first click, locked scrolling, and much more. The app looks good, but DOES NOT WORK. Poor app development management

anita kenny

1 year ago

It's difficult to describe just how frustrating and terrible this app is. It is glitcy and slow, for starters. The Ad breaks seem to run fine but the app will stop responding and show an error several times mid show. No functionality to download so the issue noted above can't be avoided. Functionality to skip forward 10 seconds (similar to Netflix app) exists but not usable as the entire thing is so temperamental any interference will result in a playback error.

Jonathan Holt

1 year ago

Awful. Doesn't save progress therefore can't watch half an episode and come back the next day. Also, it was advertised as watching on one device and picking up where you left off on another...I refer you to my earlier point. 4 ads to check if you've watched an episode as the blurbs are so short, then to choose a different one, 4 ads again. Every other streaming service in the world has got it right why can't RTE? They complain about revenue and how it's needed from ads, what is it used on?

Gemma Doyle

1 year ago

This app is just awful it keeps crashing won't let you continue where you wanted to leave it the ads play fine and when you've sat threw 6 ads at 30 seconds long each then it crashes and you've to go threw it all again if I could rate it below one star I would it's one of the WORSE apps in the play store!!!!! Really needs fixing ASAP no good enough!!!!!!!!

Jennifer Farrell

1 year ago

Not really surprising that an organisation like rte that's in such disarray has such a bad quality player app. Constantly buffering when you try to watch something from the (good variety of, hence the second star) box sets. It's so frustrating that I just give up most of the time and go back to Netflix. In 2024, it's really not good enough. Glad I didn't have to pay a licence fee to use it!!

J L

11 months ago

Pity I can't give 0 stars for this app. Searching doesn't work, I can't see why, Searching was solved last century. Audio Description switches on automatically at random. Ad is a great addition to any service, but seriously, we can't turn it off, on lg tv or google tv. But ads work, every time, never a stutter on ads, no accidental audio Description on ads.Rte Support sends us on pointless checking for things wrong on our end,everything is up to date, all other apps work. Fix it or delete

Mary Spillane

11 months ago

This app has been experiencing the same problems for many years, with no apparent improvements or fixes. Ads play fine, but content is constantly buffering and crashing. Very disappointing.

Mike Sanchez

3 years ago

Pretty good overall, especially considering it's free. A few things I would like to see fixed: 1) Sometimes I have to watch 4 straight ads when starting an episode, then I skip to where I left off watching last time and have to watch 4 more ads. 2) It seems like it's not possible to save where you left off in a series. Instead you have to remember. 3) Could be easier to find the search box.