While we don't verify specific claims because reviewers' opinions are their own, we may label reviews as "Verified" when we can confirm a business interaction took place. Read more

To protect platform integrity, every review on our platform—verified or not—is screened by our 24/7 automated software. This technology is designed to identify and remove content that breaches our guidelines, including reviews that are not based on a genuine experience. We recognise we may not catch everything, and you can flag anything you think we may have missed. Read more

Review summary

Created with AI, based on recent reviews

Looking at 52 reviews, most reviewers were let down by their experience overall. Consumers frequently expressed frustration, pointing out that the streaming platform constantly freezes, buffers, and crashes during important programmes. People explained that trying to watch live matches or series becomes impossible due to endless technical glitches and poor connection quality. Some people were dissatisfied with the excessive unskippable advertisements that repeatedly interrupt viewing sessions without resolving technical faults. Reviewers also mentioned that paying the national television licence fee feels unfair when the digital service fails to function properly. Users felt that the software has not received proper maintenance or modern updates for many years.

What people talk about most

Application

Consumers express deep frustration and disappointment with the app, citing a strong consensus that it is... See more

User experience

Users describe negative interactions with user_experience, expressing widespread frustration with the... See more

Service

Reviewers highlight deep dissatisfaction with the service, describing it as poor and unsatisfactory.... See more

Website

People report negative experiences with website, describing the platform as outdated and comparing the... See more

Reviews shaping this summary

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Zero stars if possible Paying my TV licence for a rubbish service. Never connects yet broadband is mega fast.. Never remembers where you have left off if you do manage to get connected... Rubbish... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

If I could give this a minus rating, I would. This app is so indicative of the shambles that is RTE as a whole. Spending other peoples money on complete and utter rubbish. First year IT students... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I read other reviews on this app and I can't understand why rte can't get some one in the field of developing an app that really works.. This app is total shite, constantly freezing, won't open half... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

The RTÉ Player app is absolutely not fit for purpose. It crashes constantly, jumps forward or back in the middle of a programme, and often just switches itself off altogether. Trying to watch anythin... See more


Company details

  1. News Service
  2. Media Company
  3. Radio Broadcaster
  4. Television Station

Information provided by various external sources

ie is the brand name and home of RTÉ's online activities, located at the URL http://rte.ie.


Contact info

1.3

Bad

TrustScore 1.5 out of 5

183 reviews

5-star
4-star
3-star
2-star
1-star

No history of asking for reviews

This company hasn't invited their customers, so reviews may not be representative

How this company uses Trustpilot

See how their reviews and ratings are sourced, scored, and moderated.

1.3

All reviews

(183)

52 reviews in the last 12 months

Write a review
Companies on Trustpilot aren't allowed to offer incentives or pay to hide reviews. Reviews are the opinions of individual users and not of Trustpilot. Read more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

RTE ABYSMAL JOURNALISM DURING FUEL CRISIS …

RTE and its journalists are performing very poorly throughout the fuel crisis, and have failed to ask obvious hard questions.Their obsequiousness in the face of criminal obstruction by powerful unelected pressure groups such as farmers and hauliers is breathtaking. What happened to holding wrongdoers to account?

10 April 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

would give it zero stars if i could

would give it one star if i could. RTE is a joke of a company, so not surprised how ducking shit RTE player is. highspeed broadband and the streaming is like something from 20 years ago. Execs getting massive payouts from tax payers money and the main streaming service doesn't even work. ads replay a million times and buffers all the time. takes 2 hours to watch a 1 hour episode of something with the constant disruptions and delays.

29 March 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

RTE Player… can’t be real… pile of muck

RTE Player is an absolute joke! In this day and age how they’ve managed to mess this up so bad is beyond me! Don’t bother trying to watch a series, it’s stutters, freezes, goes back to start… don’t even try rewind, the ads start up again and again and again and again!!
Have given up and started to pay for any series I’d like to watch on Amazon rather than use this heap of muck!! Seems everything about RTE these days is awful!

3 March 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

They have to be trying to make it bad

They have to be trying to make it bad. It could not possibly be this bad by accident. It works on very few devices. On my Phillips TV which I got last year there was initially no app, but they later introduced an app that when loaded simply prints a message that this device is no longer supported. All other apps such as Netflix, Disney, channel 4 etc work fine. On a desktop computer often only the ads can be played on not the actual content. I think perhaps at this point they should consider if they need to outsource their player to a third party.

17 March 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Absolutely shocking service

Absolutely shocking service. Buffering. Constant loading. For the tax payers money going into the platform it doesn't feel like it has been updated since 2010.

6 March 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

How does one really connect with RTE?

I have emailed RTE on a number of occasions and their latest email to me on the 4/3/2026 states that due to the large volumn of emails they are unable to respond to all of them. How many emails from people have they responded to? Is there anybody out there who has received a response? Let's see if I get a response to my latest email.

4 March 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Paying TV licence

Paying TV licence but still bombarded with adverts
RTE news reporting international events very poor, they just look for Irish person living in the area for a report.
RTE News just get major international news stories by copying.
Marty Morrison should be retired still drying his hair.
Always load of coverage about Gaza.
Don't see any Black or Muslin news readers.
Nationwide program is just a advertising vehicle for the small business shown .
Why do we have to listen to Irish language on RTE 1 as we are paying for TG4.

28 February 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

RTE news sources are useless and…

RTE news sources are useless and uniformitave, always supporting the "supposedly" good Irish politicans who are meant to represent the Irish people, including! the now infamous coward like michael martin and the rest of the motley gang who want to remove our free speech, including yourselves who you give credence to their constant gnawing is disgusting. Not forgetting the promotion of perrenial Russiaphobia articles without due diligence and honest research to show who is really to blame for the war in ukraine and why the "good imigrant" is constantly shoehorned down our throats daily ad nauseam, not honest news , just a load of misinformed lies and a constant stream of rubbish...whos side are you on i wonder?

27 February 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Rte Player is the greatest pile of shit…

Rte Player is the greatest pile of shit I've ever been forced to watch a rugby game on. Dont know how many tries I missed seeing because you are paying your staff too much for shit tv, propaganda tow-the-government line news. And you expect people to pay a tv licence to a company like that?

21 February 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

RTE Player

RTE Player still a bucket of SH1T!

The app crashed on my smart TV.

Decided to use the app on my phone and cast it to the TV. Paused the program I was watching. Went back to watch it. The app had closed down. Just spent the last 20mins watching adds to get back to where I was in episode.

Feel extremely justified now for not paying my TV licence.

22 January 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

What another shambles from RTE .

What another shambles from RTE .
Late Later finished up at 11.45 only to listen to x rated young band who spent most of the lead up to the new year tuning their instruments..who are they
Damp said and it wasn't even raining
No wonder it's the law to pay the TV license!!!

1 January 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Zero stars if possible

Zero stars if possible
Paying my TV licence for a rubbish service.
Never connects yet broadband is mega fast..
Never remembers where you have left off if you do manage to get connected...
Rubbish app...
RTÉ need to do million times better

23 December 2025
Unprompted review

Is this your company?

Claim your profile to access Trustpilot’s free business tools and connect with customers.

Get free account

The Trustpilot Experience

Anyone can write a Trustpilot review. People who write reviews have ownership to edit or delete them at any time, and they’ll be displayed as long as an account is active.

We use dedicated people and clever technology to safeguard our platform. Find out how we combat fake reviews.

Learn about Trustpilot’s review process.

Here are 8 tips for writing great reviews.

Verification can help ensure real people are writing the reviews you read on Trustpilot.

Offering incentives for reviews or asking for them selectively can bias the TrustScore, which goes against our guidelines.

Take a closer look