THE RTÉ website, RTÉ.ie, was the most-visited Irish media website in the period July 2007 to June 2008, according to the latest figures from the Joint National Internet Research (JNIR) survey released yesterday.

The figures showed that 454,000 users had visited the site in the period. This represented 25 per cent of all internet users aged more than 15 years.

The same figures showed that 230,000 users had visited Ireland.com, the website operated by The Irish Times.

Subsequent to the period under review, the Ireland.com website was relaunched at the end of June this year.

At the same time, The Irish Timeslaunched a new site, www.irishtimes.com.

Independent.ie, the website run by Independent News Media, was visited by 222,000 users in the same period.

Breakingnews.ie, the website run by the Thomas Crosbie group, publishers of the Examiner, had 152,000 users who visited the site during the period.

Overall, the JNIR figures show that 1.798 million people aged over 15 years connected to the internet - 51 per cent of all adults.

The research found that 22 per cent of all adults log on to the internet every day and 13 per cent most days - a total potential online daily audience of 1.265 million adults.

The research found the majority of internet users (54 per cent) have made at least one online purchase in the past month.

The most significant online purchases were: flights (29 per cent); concert/cinema etc tickets (18 per cent); hotels/accommodation (18 per cent); CDs (10 per cent); books/magazines (9 per cent), Government services (8 per cent) and mobile phone top-ups (8 per cent).

The research is based on twice-monthly surveys of 1,000 people aged more than 15 years.