It does, however, require quite a lot of investment.
RTÉ has moved to clarify a report regarding the need to invest "tens of millions" into the RTÉ Player in order to bring the platform in line with industry standards.
According to a headline on the front page of Tuesday's Irish Examiner, the RTÉ Player requires the above amount of funding for necessary upgrades.
However, a statement issued by RTÉ on Tuesday morning cites a 'conservative estimate' of "several million euro of capital investment as a minimal requirement" rather than the aforementioned tens of millions.
The
online version of the Examiner article has been updated to reflect this.
https://twitter.com/irishexaminer/status/1493472644204613632
"The headline and the representation of RTÉ's correspondence with the Public Accounts Committee on the front page of today's Irish Examiner is incorrect," notes an RTÉ spokesperson.
"The relevant section of the correspondence does not state that the RTÉ Player will require investment of tens of millions of euros.
"It clearly states that 'the level of investment is conservatively estimated to be several million Euro of capital investment as a minimal requirement'.
"The tens of millions reference is to the investment of significant capital funding made by linear broadcast services over decades."
The spokesperson goes on to highlight the relevant section of RTÉ correspondence with the Public Accounts Committee from last Wednesday, 9 February, which is detailed below.
"Further product technical scoping and benchmarking will be required to generate specific estimates, but as confirmed by the Director General at the Joint Oireachtas session of 26 January, 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.
"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."
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