RTÉ: What We Made in 2021
Young People
In addition to the delivery of engaging and educational series, 2021 also saw us bring thought-provoking documentaries, entertainment series, podcasts, animations, drama, art and culture, nature, sport, climate change and even survival skills, all available to view cross platform and on-demand, to our younger audiences.
2021 was also all about improving ease of access to our content. Our education portal www.rte.ie/learn/ became a go-to resource for both kids and teachers and amassed over 1.6 million page views across 2021.
We launched a brand-new kid’s website www.rte.ie/kids – a one-stop shop for all our content – two new YouTube channels, RTÉ Kids and RTÉjr, and delivered a huge variety of award-winning podcasts for our younger listeners to enjoy.
Connecting through Outreach
We launched This Is Art, a national digital art competition, in collaboration with Creative Ireland Programme. The theme was ‘This is Now ‘and culminated in over 10,000 entries.
Next came Ireland’s Future Is Mine, working alongside Minecraft Education Edition and Dream Space TV. This nationwide primary school competition challenged kids to interrogate and build a more sustainable future for Ireland using Minecraft as a tool.
RTÉ Kids (TRTÉ)
As the year dawned with school closures on the horizon, RTÉ responded with Home School Hub 2021, which brought your favourite teachers and fun learning into living rooms daily until kids were allowed return to their classrooms.
In September 2021, RTÉ Kids welcomed the intergalactic popstar Nova Jones and the crew of the Jefferson to our screens. This incredible series created by Jam Media and co-produced with CBBC wowed audiences right from the start and we are expecting big things from Nova and the crew in 2022.
Right on time for Halloween, A Breath of Fresh Scare saw us screen seven two-minute films created by seven wonderfully talented Irish animation companies. These are available on RTÉ Player.
Brand new to RTÉ Kids was the groundbreaking art/animation series Will Sliney’s Storytellers. This series taught budding young artists how a pencil can unlock the imagination, by combining drawing lessons with the animated tale of fearless young Viking map-maker, Freya.
Our favourite cute furry animal families were back watching nature documentaries on Critters TV, a hilarious series full of fun and learning for all the family.
Royals Next Door also debuted on RTÉ. In this comedy series for 7-12-year-olds we met Crown Princess Stella and her family who have just moved from their castle into a regular suburb, while in November we launched Bush Kids across our channels where we followed four families into four challenging habitats as they learned to fend for themselves off grid.
Christmas on RTÉ Kids was a real treat for everyone. We were delighted to once again partner with Junk Kouture to deliver the Junk Kouture Grand Final, a real celebration of creativity, sustainability and glamour.
The Ace My Space team, Tailored Films, delivered two brilliant Christmas makeover episodes for two deserving community groups. First up they transformed the Reco in Ballymun into the ultimate Zen Den, before converting Lee Heights Youth Club Wexford into the ultimate Hobby Hub.
For Christmas Eve we kept it country as we met the next generation of Nathan Carters and Cliona Hagans in a special film, Kids’ Country Christmas produced by Ronin Films, and the big finale Home School Hub: A Christmas Cracker which allowed us to finish the year as we started, bringing the Home School Hub team back together in this wonderfully festive celebration.
RTÉjr
RTÉjr offered a fantastic mix of live action and animation for our audience of 0-6 year-olds with some returning favourites alongside some fresh new series for our youngest viewers.
The intrepid Mya Go was back with her ‘can do’ attitude in a brand-new series in English and as Gaeilge.
Bóin agus Beach/LadyBird & Bee premiered on RTÉjr in March and no better way to usher in springtime than with the cutest two beasties you will ever meet.
In September 2021, we met Alva and her family for the first time in Alva’s World, an important, funny and engaging animated series with online resources that explores how to stay safe and have fun online.
Let’s Find Out was back on our screens with a brand-new series and a brand-new presenter, Amy Hassett, for Science Week on RTÉ in November 2021. Zoom and Mark also returned answering the trickiest of science questions and wowing us with amazing experiments.
We wrapped up the year on RTÉjr with a big bow on top with Adam Saves Christmas, a heart-warming tale in which Adam, Speedy, Bubby and Zuzu need to figure out what’s happening with the Northern Lights or Santa won’t be able to deliver his presents to all the children across the world.
RTÉjr Radio and Podcasts
2021 proved to be another hectic year in kids’ audio as RTÉjr Radio continued to broadcast 14 hours a day despite all our DJs recording remotely.
The second lockdown brought the need for more quality educational content, and we delivered on both the station and online with the Home School Hub podcast, including Maths Matters, Five Word Fun and the ever-popular Big Kid’s Quiz wrapping up the week.
We broadened our playlist to incorporate ever more diverse genres in Fizzwhizzle and Musical Chairs and added new DJs to our roster. DJ for a Day, our weekly music show, put children in control of the musical selection and led to an all-out kids takeover for World Children’s Day in November that saw our listenership increase eight-fold for its duration.
RTÉjr Radio was nominated for Station of the Year in the CMAs, while the channel was awarded in the Best Drama Category at the IMRO Awards for Emperor’s New Duds, with Ecolution taking silver in the Best Podcast category for the second year running.
And podcasting was at the centre of our 2021 plans with the launch of That’s Animal with Dublin Zoo, our child-fronted football show, Two Halves, Adventures of a Young Pirate Queen, Maddie and Triggs, made with the NCBI, and continuing series from We Love Books, Mothertongues and Ecolution.
From a single feed in 2019, we now have 16 podcast series.
