What is an RSS feed?

Background: the problem

Internet users often find themselves with one major problem: staying up to date with the many websites they're interested in.

If there were only ten websites on the internet, and they all updated promptly at noon, there wouldn't be anything to worry about -- but of course there are millions, and they all update at different schedules. And unlike broadcast media, web site content doesn't come to you, you have to go to it.

RSS: the solution

RSS feeds were invented to solve this 'staying up to date' problem.

When a website provides an RSS feed, it's undertaking to keep an up-to-date catalogue of all its content.

RSS feeds aren't meant to be read by humans, they're meant to be read by computers. All they contain is brief information about the website's content and links to each item.

For example, if you're interested in environment-related stories, you can subscribe to a feed of all RN's stories about environmental issues.

Then you'll automatically be notified when those stories appear, instead of having to search for them, or visit programs one by one.

How people use RSS feeds

Most people use a program or website to keep track of their chosen RSS feeds.

Having found an RSS feed, you 'subscribe' to it. By subscribing, you tell your chosen software to check the feed regularly.

This saves you the trouble of visiting the site to check for changes.

Typically the program allows you to sort, annotate, and save the items in the feed, and of course, to keep track of which ones you've read and which ones are new.

How to find our RSS Feeds

RN programs link directly to their feeds from the right-hand column of the front page (look for "PODCASTS AND FEEDS"). There are normally at least two feeds, one for text and one for downloadable audio of the program.


Our feeds of stories on a particular subject can be found on the Subjects page.

Automatic detection of feeds

Some browsers will automatically detect the feed and show a link to it, using an orange icon, at the right of the URL bar.

Desktop software

You can read RSS feeds with desktop software, i.e. software you download and install on your computer, for instance:

The Firefox browser also allows you to subscribe to a feed as a 'Live Bookmark'.

Online services

You can also read RSS feeds through your browser by signing up to online services:


There are some dedicated applications for the iPhone and other mobiles/smartphones, but the web services mentioned above all have specialised versions to suit mobiles.