How to Watch RTE in USA – Irish TV in the US

Last Updated on November 29, 2023

How to Watch Irish TV in USA

Just checked this post as it was over six years old, wanted to make sure RTE is still accessible in 2023.  Well the RTE site has changed a lot from 2013 and it actually has a lot more options.  Anyway I was just checking how can I watch Irish TV in UK or USA and can confirm it still works fine.  There are reports that many VPNs are now blocked with RTE but NordVPN appears unaffected.

Anyway I’ve just streamed the news, a sports programme and a soap called Fair City without interruption using NordVPN. However I still suggest testing it out first and seeing if it works ok for you, please feel free to leave a comment with your own experiences.  Fortunately they have a 30 day money back guarantee so you can try it out first.

Another post for those missing their favorite TV channels just because they are outside their home country. This ones about accessing RTE from the US, or in fact anywhere that’s outside the Irish Republic.   RTE player is a great little site linked to the Irish National broadcaster – RTE (Raidió Teilifís Éireann). people-ireland

As usual though if you’re not actually in Ireland when connecting to the website then it won’t work for you, although you can access some of the radio content and sometimes the Irish news.  I always think this is a bit strange as the people who will want to watch things like RTE and the GAA over the internet will mostly be Irish people living in places like the UK and USA!   Fortunately there is a solution, read on to see how to watch RTE player abroad.

So How Do I Watch RTE in USA /UK?

It’s not actually that hard to do, when you connect to RTE player the site determines your location. It does this by checking the location of your IP address – if it’s an Irish IP then fine but anywhere else and you get redirected to the international version of RTE player which blocks most of the decent shows and all the sport like GAA.  The RTE player international version is ok, but the majority of shows and sports are not available on this site, you can watch most of the local news broadcasts though.

So all you need to do is change your IP address to an Irish one. It’s actually not that easy to change your real IP address as it’s controlled by your ISP and is linked to the country you connect from. Fortunately there is another way, and that is connecting via a VPN or proxy server, when you do this the web site see’s the servers address and not your real one. So if the VPN server is in Ireland, you will also appear to be in Ireland and all Irish only resources like RTE Player will work just fine.

There are quite a few companies who offer these services, but only a handful worth considering especially if you need an Irish IP address. Here’s the one I use it’s a security program called NordVPN –  I like it because it’s well priced and has lots of fast servers in different countries which is useful for accessing sites like BBC iPlayer, Hulu etc which also block access from outside countries.

RTE Player Live Stream

So here’s the little program called NordVPN which sits in the taskbar on a PC and you simply select the country you need to connect to –

RTE in USA

So for RTE we’d obviously select one of the Irish servers and then press connect.  You then open your browser as normal, and when you visit the RTE player site, you’ll get the Irish version of the site rather than the International one simply based on your IP address.   In fact you can enjoy any Irish TV stations plus lots of other sites restricted by location.

how to watch irish tv in usa

Using the Irish server you can watch anything on the site as RTE considers your location to be Ireland, have a go all the channels should be available from rté one and you can also watch RTE player live sport.

It’s extremely easy to use and the servers are very fast which is essential if you’re going to watch RTE live stream feeds across them.   You can also access some fantastic sites in other countries simply by selecting the matching country – try Hulu by using a USA proxy, BBC iPlayer in the UK or there’s some great online TV stations in Canada and France for example.

They’re all included in the subscription which only costs a few dollars – here’s the program in action.

Here we see the PC version working on my laptop but there are applications for most devices.  You can install the Nord App on your smart phones and tablets too just using the same subscription which supports up to six devices.

If you want to access RTE in the US or learn to watch Irish TV from anywhere in the world including the US  then give them a go.  NordVPN has thousands of servers all over the world including plenty of them in Ireland too.  Indeed you don’t have to be limited to RTE in fact you can watch online media and TV stations from virtually anywhere on the planet.  There’s plenty of great free stations in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia for example which broadcast all their content in English.