I can’t quite remember when I stopped listening to broadcast radio. First the little transistor I used to carry gave way to the smartphone. Then the tuner in the hi-fi was swapped for a streaming box. Before long every device in the house was connected to every other and capable of playing everything, everywhere (though preferably not all at once). Live radio was still in the mix, but now jostled for attention with podcasts and music services tailored far more closely to individual taste.
Traditional broadcasters have struggled with this. RTÉ persevered for more than a decade with DAB (digital audio broadcasting), even though Irish listeners showed little appetite for it and less inclination to buy the receivers. Why would they, when the device in their pocket could reach not just a handful of Irish channels but stations from every corner of the globe? (God loves a trier, and RTÉ Gold returned to DAB this summer as part of a new industry trial.)
TuneIn, my default app, claims more than 100,000 stations, from community radio in Alaska to Vatican Radio. It remains the best-known aggregator, though the smart speaker in the kitchen and the Irish industry’s Radioplayer are alternatives. In truth, once the novelty of late-night jazz from San Diego wore off, I have mostly used it for my usual diet of Irish and British stations.
RTÉ has been promising its new audio app for a long time. When it relaunched its 10-year-old Radio Player in 2022, it described that as the first stage of a two-year overhaul of its digital audio. In the years that followed, the upgrade became a pillar of the New Direction strategy drawn up after the 2023 payments scandal, with this year’s performance commitments promising better curation, easier discovery and a slate of original podcasts.
RTÉ Listen began appearing on phones over the summer and was officially launched at the end of August. I say appearing because this is not a brand new app you consciously choose to download. With automatic updates on, it has probably already replaced the old RTÉ Radio Player icon on your screen. So what has changed?
Less than you might expect. Downloads, a sleep timer and Siri voice control were all features of the old version. The new elements are a home page built around trending podcasts and clips, a personal hub called My Audio, a listening queue and, most usefully, the ability to pause and rewind some live talk programmes on Radio 1, though only in Ireland.
Reaction has been generally positive, with some expressions of irritation. Reviewers in the app stores like the look, several noting a resemblance to BBC Sounds. There are complaints about problems with casting to wireless speakers, and pre-roll advertisements remain the most common gripe, as they were on the old app. The first of these will probably be addressed in future fixes but it doesn’t look as if pre-roll is going anywhere.
It is one of the crosses RTÉ must bear that it suffers constant comparison with its nearest neighbour. In audio, BBC Sounds has by common consent led the field for years on design, range and features. Irish fans of the app have endured withdrawal symptoms since the BBC geo-blocked it for listeners outside the UK last year. That decision has probably made life a little easier for RTÉ.
Once you allow for a dramatically smaller catalogue, RTÉ Listen resembles BBC Sounds as it was several years ago. These days Sounds lets you rewind any live BBC station, tailors recommendations to your habits, holds back some programmes as exclusives. Listen does not as yet have any of those things, though it does still work abroad. Closer to home, Bauer Media’s GoLoud app, which carries Newstalk and Today FM, already offers personalised recommendations and curated music playlists. But RTÉ is keen to make clear this is an iterative process, with further improvements on the way.
You can use Listen without an account but favourites, downloads and the queue require you to sign in, and RTÉ has signalled it may phase in compulsory registration across its video and audio services. Linking the RTÉ Player to licence payment has long been floated. The BBC requires a licence for its iPlayer, but not for Sounds.
The diaspora complicates matters. RTÉ spent almost a decade fending off protests from the Irish in Britain before finally switching off Radio 1 on long wave in April 2023, on the promise that streaming would fill the gap. So geo-blocking is unlikely, although sports and music rights can sometimes complicate matters.
Then there is the question of what registration is actually for. On this, RTÉ’s 2026 rate card is candid, telling advertisers that sign-in will yield richer information about audiences and allow more personalised, better-targeted advertising. But should a licence-funded public service be offering its listeners’ data as part of the sales pitch? RTÉ argues that targeted ads are simply a logical part of the commercial activities that form part of its dual-funding model.
The biggest gap is in the data. Every January RTÉ trumpets its television streaming figures, with 157 million RTÉ Player streams claimed for 2025 (revised to 155 million in July’s annual report). For audio it publishes nothing comparable, relying instead on the JNLR survey. That puts smartphones and smart speakers at under a 10th of radio listening, with connected devices accounting for a fifth among under-35s. Yet the Irish Audio Report says a third of adults listen to audio on a smartphone. The JNLRs are a far from perfect measure, particularly when it comes to younger listeners, but they’re all we have as we don’t know the real numbers.
RTÉ knows. In 2017 it was happy to disclose that the UK accounted for about 12 per cent of its live online listening – some 600,000 streams a month. Claims that the data is commercially sensitive ring hollow from an organisation that trumpets its public service values when it suits. It should just tell us the numbers.
