Throughout the highs and lows of 2021, there was one for everyone in the audience as Irish viewers watched over 3.7 billion hours of TV and continued to choose Irish content above all else available.
RT was home to 44 of the 50 most watched TV programmes in 2021, as audiences turned to RT in their droves for its unique offering of live sport, entertainment, trusted news, local Irish drama as well as, gripping factual programmes and documentaries.
The average Irish adult in a TV home, watched TV for 2 hours 47 mins every day, almost 20 hours a week in 2021.
As audience viewing and listening evolves, RT continues to offer a range of platforms for Irish people to watch and listen to content, when and how they want. Tam Ireland research confirms that Irish audiences spend twice as much time on broadcaster content than any other form of content, including content from international streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon.
RT Player continues to grow its on-demand content offering of boxsets and curated catalogue and saw a substantial 48% increase in time spent streaming in 2021 compared to the previous year. Over 67 million streams were accessed subscription free on RT Player last year.
As live TV remains king, The Late Late Toy Show retained the crown at the top of the Irish TV viewing chart with over 1.7 million viewers and an impressive 6.6million raised for good causes on the night of The Lion King themed show.
2021 was a bumper year for Ireland as a nation of sports fans, with seven of the top ten most watched programmes all free-to-air sport. The All-Ireland Football Final Tyrone V Mayo on RT 2 was the second most watched programme overall, while nearly a million streams of The Saturday Game / The Sunday Game Live were watched on the RT Player during the year.
RT Sport's coverage of UEFA Euro 2020 also scored big with Irish fans as 2.5 million streams from the action-packed tournament were streamed on the RT Player, and the final of Italy v England attracting 941,000 viewers on RT 2, making it the third most watched TV programme of the year.
Irish drama proved a huge draw for audience in 2021 as viewers turned to RT 's unique offering of the best of local TV writing, acting, and producing. Hit crime drama Kin proved the top favourite among viewers of all TV dramas in 2021, with 687,000 viewers watching on RT One, and a phenomenal 2.5 million streams on RT Player. The gripping opening episode was also the most watched programme on the RT Player across 2021 with over 515,000 streams alone.
RT One on Sunday nights became the must-watch home of new Irish drama in 2021 with Hidden Assets (537,000 viewers) and Smother (481,000) also both featuring among the Top 50 most watched programmes. While audiences continued their love for RT local drama from Carrigstown with Fair City, as it was streamed over 3.3 million times on the RT Player last year.
2021 saw Irish audiences come together for pivotal TV moments across RT , generating a real sense of community and collective watching with programmes such as The Late Late Show (695,000), the new series of Reeling in the Years (654,000), Ireland's Fittest Family (604,000), The Tommy Tiernan Show (546,000) and Operation Transformation (496,000).
The public continued to choose RT for trusted News & Current Affairs in 2021 with the most watched news programme of the year on any channel being the RT Six One News on 5th January with 798,000 viewers watching, as the government considered closing schools for the month of January due to Covid-19, while 7th January saw 689,000 viewers watch the biggest rated RT Nine O'Clock News as the government reversed the decision for Leaving Cert students return to school and US President Biden addressed the storming of Capitol Hill. The two evening bulletins collectively also generated over four million streams on the RT Player throughout the year as people sought to be informed when and where suited them best.
Our interest as a nation, in current affairs and factual content was clearly evident with RT programmes The Case I Can't Forget (No. 28), Let the Rest of World Go Bye telling the story of two elderly male best friends marrying (No.30), RT Investigates: Stuck in the Rough revealing the plight of rough homeless sleepers (No.31), Dr Cassidy's Casebook from the former state pathologist (No.36), Prime Time (No. 42) and Marian recounting the life of broadcaster Marian Finucane (No. 48) all featuring among the Top 50 programmes.
RT licensing of international content which was made available free-to-air also appealed hugely to the public. The broadcast of Oprah with Meghan and Harry was watched by 837,000 on RT 2, making it the sixth most watched programme of the year, and generated over 269,000 streams on the RT Player. While drama series' including Home and Away (4.9m), Eastenders (3.5m), and box sets of Line of Duty (2.5m), and The Good Wife (1.1m) all generated millions of streams on the RT Player.
RT also offered audiences of all ages the chance to enjoy nostalgic programmes or discover classics for the first time as The Man Who Came Around: Johnny Cash in Ireland documentary on RT One (No. 49), They Way We Were (No.50) and enjoying entertaining boxset bingeing with Love/Hate (1.7m) and Frasier (1m) both streaming over a million times on the RT Player.
In 2021, Irish audiences spent twice as much time consuming broadcaster content than any other form of content including content from international streaming services.
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
27/01/2026
Click for Japanese version
Tokyo, Japan - January 27, 2026 - Akamai Technolo...
27/01/2026
Today, Spotify is proud to support our partner Backline, an industry-leading men...
27/01/2026
With nearly 29 million monthly listeners and clear momentum on Spotify, Net n Ve...
27/01/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
27/01/2026
New agreement for uninterrupted UHF connectivity for Australian Defence Force through 2033, With Options Extending to 2041
Luxembourg, January 13, 2026 - Satel...
27/01/2026
Tuesday 27 January 2026
SNL UK creative team expands as Pauli Lovejoy, Annie Ha...
27/01/2026
RT Supporting the Arts is delighted to support a dynamic programme of cultural events taking place across Ireland this February. From visual art, film, music, ...
26/01/2026
Music videos play a huge part in how fans connect with their favorite songs, but...
26/01/2026
Wuppertal January 26, 2026
Riedel and Media Tailor Deliver Unified Broadcast a...
26/01/2026
26 Jan 2026
VEON Unveils the New Beeline Uzbekistan Network Operations Center, ...
26/01/2026
Bookish is created by and stars Mark Gatiss
Images available HERE
Following th...
26/01/2026
Monday 26 January 2026
New Sky Original Series explores Entertainment Juggernaut, The X Factor
Sky today confirmed it has greenlit a premium, definitive docum...
26/01/2026
Monday 26 January 2026
Sky confirms major investment to transform Livingston ca...
26/01/2026
Software for Stable Data Management and Lasting Business Success in Uncertain Ti...
26/01/2026
RT is today publishing a statistical summary of the Register of External Activities for the third quarter of 2025.
The RT Register of External Activities com...
24/01/2026
RT and Virgin Media Television kick off comprehensive free-to-air coverage of t...
23/01/2026
Staines-upon-Thames, UK, 29 July, 2025 - Yospace, the global leader in Dynamic A...
23/01/2026
Spotify's annual Best New Artist celebration honors the rising stars whose talent, creativity, and dedication have propelled them to the music industry'...
23/01/2026
Paramount is transforming its operations by unifying the media supply chains of their top brands into a scalable global pipeline.
This transformation enhances ...
23/01/2026
Every delay costs. When a subtitle fails QC, even the smallest issue can mean missed deadlines, extra vendor costs, or frustrated teams. The new Accurate.Video ...
23/01/2026
Find out where Sare and Suze are now on RT One and RT Player Thursday 29 January at 10.15pm
Hit drama SisterS, created by, written by and starring real-life ...
23/01/2026
Friday 23 January 2026
Sky appoints Lisa Clark as Commissioning Executive for SNL UK
Lisa Clark headshot
PNG (468KB)
Lisa Clark joins Sky as Commissioning E...
23/01/2026
RT is delighted to announce that the RT and F s ireann / Screen Ireland supported short film Retirement Plan has been nominated for Best Animated Short at th...
22/01/2026
Last November, Ed Sheeran returned to his musical roots for an intimate, one-nig...
22/01/2026
Every delay costs. When a subtitle fails QC, even the smallest issue can mean missed deadlines, extra vendor costs, or frustrated teams. The new Accurate.Video ...
22/01/2026
Thursday 29 January 9:35pm on RT 2 and RT Player
The dating show returns with something old, something new and a dater you may already know
Thursday evenings...
22/01/2026
Rohde & Schwarz, Qualcomm, and Motorola demonstrate successful 5G Broadcast comp...
22/01/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
21/01/2026
Wednesday 21 January 2026
Backing Britain on the global stage: Sky becomes an o...
21/01/2026
Fox Corporation Executives to Discuss Second Quarter Fiscal 2026 Financial Resul...
21/01/2026
Baselight v7 brings colourists and post-houses smarter mattes, faster workflows and deeper control
FilmLight, known for its detailed colour toolset and longsta...
21/01/2026
RT News is pleased to announce the appointment of Jackie Fox as its new Washington Correspondent. Jackie is a multimedia journalist with RT News and has repor...
19/01/2026
Monday 19 January 2026
Sky News reinvents News at Ten for the modern audience with The Wrap
Sky News today announces The Wrap, a bold evolution of its 10pm ou...
19/01/2026
DPA Microphones is striking a new chord in piano miking with the debut of its DPK2015 Piano Stereo Kit, an out-of-the-box, plug-and-play miking solution that ta...
19/01/2026
DPA Microphones will present its 4099 CORE Instrument Microphone and redesigned...
19/01/2026
Trianel relies on Arvato Systems for future-proof data center operations
Moving to the cloud: Arvato Systems implements extensive IT migration project
Migrat...
19/01/2026
Celebrating 21 Years of the RT Choice Music Prize
RT Choice Music Prize
In association with IMRO and IRMA
Irish Album of the Year 2025 - Shortlist Announce...
18/01/2026
January 18 2026, 21:30 (PST) Dolby Cinema Arrives in Bengaluru: Dolby Laborator...
16/01/2026
The start of a new year brings fresh possibilities. Whether you're diving in with big goals or simply setting new intentions, audiobooks can bring inspirati...
16/01/2026
In 2025 we launched the Spotify Partner Program to give creators more ways to tu...
15/01/2026
The SGL Carbon site in Bonn has a long tradition of training. For many years, young talent has been successfully trained here, regularly achieving excellent exa...
15/01/2026
The JEC Composites Innovation Awards annually honor the most innovative and ambi...
15/01/2026
X-energy Reactor Company, LLC ( X-energy ) and SGL Carbon LLC ( SGL ) have signed a 10-year framework agreement to provide graphite for the deployment of X-ener...
15/01/2026
RT is tonight announcing that Mari Hurley has decided to leave her role as RT 's Chief Financial Officer to take up a new position outside RT . Mari will r...
15/01/2026
15 Jan 2026
VEON's Kyivstar Reaches 3.0 million Customers with Starlink Dir...
Throughout the highs and lows of 2021, there was one for everyone in the audience as Irish viewers watched over 3.7 billion hours of TV and continued to choose Irish content above all else available.
