Irish broadcaster RTÉ has said its video-on-demand service RTÉ Player will require “several million Euro” of investment if it is to keep up with the global streaming services.
In a letter to the Irish Public Accounts Committee, the broadcaster said further product technical scoping and benchmarking will be required to generate specific estimates, but the level of investment is “conservatively estimated to be several million Euro of capital investment as a minimal requirement”.
“In addition, further evolution of the service needs additional specialist skills which will require increased operating expenditure,” added the broadcaster.
“On-demand and live streaming technology requires extensive investment and infrastructure to deliver parity of service with linear broadcast services, which have been in operation for many decades, with continued investment of significant capital funding to the level of tens of millions,” said the letter.
According to the Irish Examiner, RTÉ Player has come under criticism from viewers due to its perceived instability and unreliability, especially in terms of live sporting events with large audiences.
The newspaper quotes RTÉ’s director general Dee Forbes as saying the broadcaster had spent “a lot of time and resources” improving the performance of RTÉ Player for live broadcasts. She said that RTÉ “almost broke the internet” in terms of the numbers of people streaming Euro 2020.
