Table Of Contents
- Why Show RSS Feeds on a Screen?
- Popular News RSS Feeds
- Popular Business and Finance RSS Feeds
- Popular Technology RSS Feeds
- Popular Sports RSS Feeds
- Popular Weather and Local RSS Feeds
- How to Put These Feeds on Your TV
- Choosing the Right Feeds for Your Venue
- Mixing Feeds Into a Playlist
- Common Mistakes With RSS Screens
- Troubleshooting RSS Feeds on a Screen
- RSS vs Other Ways to Show Live Content
- A Short History of RSS
- Frequently Asked Questions
The most popular RSS feeds for TV screens come from big news sites, business publications, tech blogs and sports networks. Below is a curated list you can copy straight into your signage dashboard to keep any screen fresh with live headlines.
Why Show RSS Feeds on a Screen?
RSS feeds update themselves the moment a new story is published, so your screen always has something new without anyone editing slides. They work brilliantly as a scrolling ticker along the bottom of your own content, or as a full-screen headline list in waiting rooms, receptions and staff areas.
Think of RSS as the digital equivalent of a newspaper that restocks itself. Nobody has to drive to the shop, and nobody has to remember to throw out yesterday's copy.
Popular News RSS Feeds
- BBC News:
feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml - CNN Top Stories:
rss.cnn.com/rss/edition.rss - Sky News:
feeds.skynews.com/feeds/rss/home.xml - Reuters:
feeds.reuters.com/reuters/topNews - The Guardian:
theguardian.com/uk/rss - NBC News:
feeds.nbcnews.com/nbcnews/public/news - ABC News:
abcnews.go.com/abcnews/topstories - CBS News:
cbsnews.com/latest/rss/main - NPR:
feeds.npr.org/1001/rss.xml - Al Jazeera:
aljazeera.com/xml/rss/all.xml
Popular Business and Finance RSS Feeds
- Forbes:
forbes.com/business/feed - Bloomberg:
feeds.bloomberg.com/markets/news.rss - CNBC:
cnbc.com/id/100003114/device/rss/rss.html - Financial Times:
ft.com/rss/home - Wall Street Journal:
feeds.a.dj.com/rss/RSSWorldNews.xml - MarketWatch:
feeds.marketwatch.com/marketwatch/topstories - Business Insider:
businessinsider.com/rss - The Economist:
economist.com/rss - Yahoo Finance:
finance.yahoo.com/news/rssindex - Investing.com:
investing.com/rss/news.rss
Popular Technology RSS Feeds
- TechCrunch:
techcrunch.com/feed - The Verge:
theverge.com/rss/index.xml - Wired:
wired.com/feed/rss - Ars Technica:
arstechnica.com/feed - Engadget:
engadget.com/rss.xml - CNET:
cnet.com/rss/news - Mashable:
mashable.com/feeds/rss/news - ZDNet:
zdnet.com/news/rss.xml - Gizmodo:
gizmodo.com/rss - Hacker News:
news.ycombinator.com/rss
Popular Sports RSS Feeds
- ESPN:
espn.com/espn/rss/news - BBC Sport:
feeds.bbci.co.uk/sport/rss.xml - Sky Sports:
skysports.com/rss/12040 - CBS Sports:
cbssports.com/rss/headlines - Yahoo Sports:
sports.yahoo.com/top/rss.xml - Sports Illustrated:
si.com/rss/si_topstories.rss - The Athletic:
theathletic.com/rss - Goal.com:
goal.com/feeds/en/news - NFL:
nfl.com/rss/rsslanding - NBA:
nba.com/rss/nba_rss.xml
Popular Weather and Local RSS Feeds
- National Weather Service:
weather.gov/rss_page.php - BBC Weather:
feeds.bbci.co.uk/weather/rss.xml - AccuWeather:
accuweather.com/rss - Your local newspaper's feed, usually at
yourlocalpaper.com/feed - Your council or city news feed for community screens
- Your own company blog feed
- Your industry's trade publication feed
- Your school or church news feed
- Your event's official blog feed
- Your favourite podcast feed for audio screens
Feed addresses change from time to time, so if one does not load, check the site's footer or feeds page for the current address. Websites redesign themselves more often than some people redecorate their living rooms, and RSS addresses occasionally get caught in the crossfire.
How to Put These Feeds on Your TV
- Install the free PosterBooking app on your Fire TV Stick, Android TV, Windows PC or Raspberry Pi.
- Pair the screen with your PosterBooking dashboard using the code on the TV.
- Add the RSS feed as content and choose a scrolling ticker or full-screen layout.
- Mix the feed into a playlist with your own images, videos and promotions.
For the full walkthrough, read our guide on how to display an RSS feed on your TV.
Choosing the Right Feeds for Your Venue
Not every feed suits every business, and a reception screen full of stock market tickers can look oddly out of place in a hair salon. It helps to match the feed to the room.
| Venue type | Suggested feeds |
|---|---|
| Office reception | Industry news, company blog, general headlines |
| Medical or dental waiting room | General news, local news, weather |
| Gym or leisure centre | Sports news, weather |
| Restaurant or cafe | Local news, weather, lighter lifestyle feeds |
| Coworking space | Business and finance news, tech news |
| Retail shop floor | Usually best kept feed-free, with promotions instead |
A good rule of thumb: pick two or three feeds that genuinely interest the people waiting, rather than filling the screen with everything on this list at once.
Mixing Feeds Into a Playlist
RSS feeds work best as one ingredient in a wider playlist rather than the whole meal. A ticker along the bottom of the screen while your main promotions play above it keeps attention on your own content while still offering something fresh to read.
- Ticker plus promotions. Headlines scroll along the bottom while your offers rotate above.
- Full-screen rotation. Headlines take over the whole screen for thirty seconds between your own slides.
- Themed blocks. Morning news feed, afternoon sports feed, evening entertainment feed, scheduled automatically.
Common Mistakes With RSS Screens
- Adding too many feeds at once. Ten feeds rotating together just becomes noise nobody reads.
- Choosing feeds nobody in the room cares about. Finance headlines rarely land well in a children's dentist waiting room.
- Forgetting to check the feed still works. Sites occasionally retire or move their RSS addresses without warning.
- Making the ticker too fast. If people cannot finish reading a headline before it disappears, it might as well not be there.
- Ignoring screen contrast. Pale text on a busy background photo behind it is a classic way to make a perfectly good headline unreadable.
Troubleshooting RSS Feeds on a Screen
| Problem | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Feed shows nothing | Feed address changed or retired | Find the current address on the site's footer |
| Feed is stuck on old headlines | Screen lost internet connection | Check Wi-Fi and restart the player device |
| Text is too small to read | Layout not suited to room size | Switch to a larger ticker or full-screen layout |
| Too many stories at once | Feed set to show full article list | Limit the number of headlines shown per rotation |
RSS vs Other Ways to Show Live Content
RSS is not the only way to keep a screen current, so it is worth knowing where it fits against the alternatives.
| Method | Updates itself | Setup effort | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| RSS feed | Yes, automatically | Low | News, weather, headlines |
| Social media embed | Yes, automatically | Low to medium | Reviews, Instagram, community content |
| Manual slides | No | High, ongoing | Promotions, menus, pricing |
| Live dashboard | Yes, automatically | Medium | Sales figures, KPIs |
RSS wins on simplicity. You paste one address and never touch it again, which is more than can be said for most office equipment.
A Short History of RSS
RSS has been quietly powering the internet's background hum since the early 2000s, long before social media feeds existed. Podcasts still rely on it today, which is a nice reminder that old technology does not need to be flashy to keep being useful. It is the digital equivalent of a reliable kettle: nobody talks about it, but everybody would notice if it broke.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are popular RSS feeds like BBC News and Reuters free to display on a screen?
Yes, popular RSS feeds such as BBC News, Reuters and Sky News are published free by the sites themselves and can be displayed on any TV with signage software. There is typically no licensing cost for showing public RSS headlines, since the feeds are designed to be read by apps and devices.
How often do RSS feeds update on a TV screen?
RSS feeds update on a TV screen as often as the signage software checks the source, which is usually every few minutes. New headlines appear automatically as soon as the publisher adds them to the feed, without anyone needing to edit the screen manually.
Can I display more than one RSS feed on the same screen?
Yes, most signage software, including PosterBooking, allows several RSS feeds to rotate within the same playlist. This lets a single screen mix news, sports and weather feeds, switching between them on a schedule you set.
What devices can run RSS feeds on a TV?
RSS feeds can run on a TV through a Fire TV Stick, Android TV, Windows PC, Chrome device or Raspberry Pi, as long as signage software like PosterBooking is installed. Any of these low-cost devices can turn an ordinary television into a live headline screen.
What happens if an RSS feed address stops working?
If an RSS feed address stops working, the screen typically keeps showing the last headlines it successfully received until the feed is corrected. Swapping in the publisher's current feed address, usually found in the site's footer, resolves the issue in most cases.
Which RSS feeds work best for a waiting room?
General news and local weather feeds tend to work best for a waiting room, since they suit a wide audience without requiring specialist interest. Industry-specific feeds are better suited to offices and coworking spaces where visitors share a common professional interest.
Is it free to put RSS feeds on a screen with PosterBooking?
Yes, it is free to put RSS feeds on a screen using PosterBooking, since the software is free for the first 10 screens. The only ongoing cost is typically the small device, such as a Fire TV Stick, used to run the screen.
Ready to put live headlines on your screens? Create your free account and start with your first 10 screens free.