The programme began as
Newsnight in 1978 and was usually the last programme of the day during RTÉ 2's first ten years on the air. It was largely an international news service with reports from
BBC News,
ITN,
ABC News,
CBS News and other American networks. On 3 October 1988, RTÉ 2 relaunched as Network 2, and their news programme was relaunched as
Network News. It was a regular
RTÉ News bulletin but the new name reflected the new name of the channel it was broadcast on. In 1997, as part of RTÉ's revamp of Network 2 as "N2", the programme was completely changed and renamed
News 2.
News 2 was presented by
Sharon Ní Bheoláin (who had presented
Nuacht RTÉ for a number of years) and Anthony Murnane. Both presenters would present alternating weeks, with another presenter for the sports news. Unlike RTÉ News on RTÉ One,
News 2 was presented from a
green screen studio, the presenters sat on high stools, the main news presenter would sit on the right with the sports presenter on the left at different desks. In 2003, RTÉ began another rebranding exercise and choose to highlight what channels they own, hence N2 was relaunched as RTÉ N2 (however continuity referred to the channel as RTÉ Network 2). The RTÉ Network 2 news programme was restored to the regular RTÉ News look and branding (as
RTÉ News on Two), and now broadcasts from the regular RTÉ News studio, but many of the innovations of
News 2 and the younger agenda remain. For example, the presenter usually stands to introduce the first story. The series was replaced by two early evening bulletins called
News Feed on 22 September 2014, which ran until January 2017. Late-night news programme aired on both
RTÉ One and
RTÉ News Now on Friday and Saturday nights after the final prime time programme of the evening (e.g.
The Late Late Show,
Kenny Live,
Tubridy Tonight). There are no morning or late night news bulletins on any RTÉ channel. ==See also==