1.4 million people tuned in to RT Does Comic Relief last Friday night for what was a jam-packed night of comedy, heart-warming moments and entertainment, raising over 5 million euro on the night. It was a particular hit with younger audiences attracting a 48% share of 15 to 34-year olds.
Viewership reached its peak at 9:40pm with 638,000 people tuning in, while donations peaked between 10pm and 11pm, with almost 11,000 coming in per minute ( 10,916).
The marathon four hour show which was a celebration of Irish creative talent was a massive hit with international audiences. It was watched on RT Player in over 100 countries including Egypt, Thailand and Venezuela. RT Does Comic Relief clips on RT Player attracted almost 500,000 streams*.
Over on RT 's social platforms, #RTEComicRelief videos generated 2.5million views across all RT channels on Facebook, with Hozier, The Derry Girls and Jam Media's animation of Christy Moore's The Voyage being popular amongst users.
On Twitter, #RTEComicRelief videos on RT channels generated 2.025 million views, with Normal People attracting 937k views. The Instagram audience put Westlife, Derry Girls and Normal people in their top 3 most watched videos with a total of 450k views.
Executive Producer of RT Does Comic Relief, Michael Hughes said: I'd like to thank all of the artists and everyone who contributed to Friday night both in front of and behind the scenes. We had an incredibly short run in to pull the show together in challenging circumstances, but everyone pulled out all the stops to make it happen, from across RT and the independent production sector.
RT Player views between Friday night and Sunday show that RT Does Comic Relief was streamed 93,700 times over the weekend.
We knew before the show that we had an incredible group of artists lining up for RTE Does Comic Relief but the sheer breadth of Irish creative talent on show on the night was mind blowing. I'm so incredibly thankful to all the amazing artists and creative contributors who gave us such beautiful, funny and moving works, and who did so with such generosity and good will. We are indebted. I also want to thank the brilliant team at RT for their tireless efforts in realising such an ambitious show. This will result in real and tangible support for our charities and community and voluntary groups supporting those most in need as a result of Covid 19 - Deirdre O'Kane, on behalf of the Comic Relief Ireland Steering Group.
Viewers who logged on to RT Player and viewed rte.ie/entertainment streamed Normal People Confess to Fleabag's Hot Priest' 85,200 times between the two sites.
Donations are still open at rte.ie/comicrelief and the fund now stands at a total of 5,570,657.20**.
Tina Roche, CEO of The Community Foundation for Ireland said, Thank you so much to the thousands of families and businesses who donated on Friday night. We are so grateful for all your support and know that it will make a huge difference to so many charities who have been struggling to raise funds and provide services to the most vulnerable in our communities. The good news is you can still donate online at www.rte.ie/comicrelief. Every donation makes a difference and means we can help more people.
Note:
All figures quoted, unless otherwise stated, are live +Vosdal.
* 489,000 streams
**Funds total is now at 5,570,657.20 with Government funding included. Before Government contribution the Irish public have helped to raise 2,785,328.60.
More:
About The Community Foundation for Ireland
The Community Foundation for Ireland believes in a fair, caring and vibrant Ireland for now and the future. We work with individuals, families, corporates and other trusts and foundations to enable strategic and impactful giving.
We have been in existence since 2000 and last year we gave out 8.15 million to communities in Ireland and abroad. We have extensive experience of grant-making from working with over 4,000 non-profit organisations at a national, regional and local level throughout Ireland and overseas. With over 1,800 community foundations globally, the community foundation model is proven and effective model for social change.
All funds raised from the RT Does Comic Relief campaign will be ring-fenced and distributed by the Community Foundation for Ireland as grants following an open call which will be held in July/August 2020. The fund will be used to support communities around Ireland in the recovery and rebuilding stage after the Covid-19 lock down, helping society to adjust to the new realities. The open call will invite charities and community and voluntary groups to apply for grants to help them support those most in need due to Covid-19.
For more information, please visit www.communityfoundation.ie
About Comic Relief's activities in Ireland
Comic Relief's activities in Ireland have been spearheaded by comedian Deirdre O'Kane, TV producer Darren Smith, Talent Agent Jane Russell, Advertising Exec Patrick Hickey, Accountant Ciaran Medlar and Lawyer David Phelan. This group is working in conjunction with RT , Comic Relief International and the Community Foundation for Ireland (CFI) across all aspects of the campaign. The group founders have previously staged three gala nights of stand-up comedy at the 3Arena; the shows raised more than 600k, which has been distributed by CFI to a variety of Irish charities such as Focus Ireland, The Simon Community and Trocaire.
RT Does Comic Relief' is a licensee of Comic Relief Limited. Since its inception in 1985, Comic Relief has raised over £1 billion to support people living incredibly tough lives both in the UK and internationally. Through humour and stories of hope, we've shown that people can make a massive difference. We fund amazing organisations who are working on the ground t
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
28/08/2025
IBC stand 5.F81
Wowza to Reveal Next-Gen Video Streaming Innovations at IBC 2025
Amsterdam, August 28, 2025 Wowza, a leader in video streaming infrastructur...
1.4 million people tuned in to RT Does Comic Relief last Friday night for what was a jam-packed night of comedy, heart-warming moments and entertainment, raising over 5 million euro on the night. It was a particular hit with younger audiences attracting a 48% share of 15 to 34-year olds.
