Anyone living off the island of Ireland will not be able to watch live news bulletins or listen to any RTÉ radio station on RTÉ.ie during the Olympic Games because of strict rules imposed by the IOC.
The governing body of the Olympics told all members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) that no audio or video material gathered inside the accredited area could be streamed outside their home country.
The EBU disputed the restrictions earlier this year but was not successful.
While it is common to restrict worldwide streaming of actual sporting events, the depth of these restrictions are highly unusual.
For instance, if Ryan Tubridy was to interview an Irish person via a mobile phone and they happened to be in an official Olympic car, the IOC requires that interview is blocked.
As such, live streams of all news programmes including the Six One News, the 24 hour newschannel RTÉ News Now and radio stations like RTÉ Radio 1 will not be accessible off the island.
'This is an unfortunate policy given the size of the Irish Diaspora,' says RTÉ.ie News Editor Joe Zefran. '45% of our users come from outside of Ireland which means almost half of our audience will be underserved during the Olympics.'
