![the walking dead rte player the walking dead rte player](https://presspack.rte.ie/wp-content/blogs.dir/2/files/2016/07/TWD_616_GP_1116_0239-RT.jpg)
They’re more likely to watch bite-sized content rather than an hour-long drama or a half-hour comedy, so the new player responds to this demand with original online-only content like The Doireann Project, a sketch show with episodes lasting just 12 minutes - perfect for a short bus trip and a short attention span.
![the walking dead rte player the walking dead rte player](https://presspack.rte.ie/wp-content/blogs.dir/2/files/2014/08/f714fab3-93c6-3a04-6089-afffe0ff4842_TWD_410_GP_0830_0316.jpg)
It’s smoother to navigate, the content is better organised and easier to find, and there’s a lot more of it to find. The graphic design is sleek, clean, modern and much more pleasing to the eye. Needless to say, the ads played perfectly.īut the real question about the new version is not how long it took to develop or even how much it cost, but whether it’s any good. The sound was flawless pity there was no picture to go with it. Personally speaking, one of the most annoying recent experiences was trying to watch a live World Cup match on the Player’s phone app while sitting in a parked car. The buffering and freezing and fuzzy picture, even when watching on a laptop with a high-speed Wi-Fi connection the random jumps back to the beginning of a programme, which of course meant having to endure the adverts all over again. The frustrations were manifold and maddening. To be brutally honest, the old RTE Player (see, I’ve started doing it already) could sometimes be, to put it as mildly as I possibly can, a pile of crap. Still, the news will be greeted with tentative optimism by anyone who’s ever used what I suppose we’ll soon be calling “the old RTE Player” - an experience, as most of us can testify, that wasn’t always pleasant. That’s a year more than it took to make Star Wars: The Force Awakens (which is on RTE1 on Christmas Day, by the way). And all it’s taken is three years of development. By now, it should be available on all the applicable devices. The beta version of the player’s latest iteration went online last week. Version of the RTE Player is finally here. The wait - assuming you were waiting, rather than just getting on with your life, which would have been the sensible thing to do - is over.