The Republic of Ireland

Abstract

The Irish television landscape has been dominated by the public broadcaster, Radio Telefís É ireann (RTÉ), which provides a comprehensive service in both English and Irish. RTÉ ’s main national channel is RTÉ One (broadcast from both Cork and Dublin), while RTÉ Two (formerly known as Network 2) is the secondary national channel. Both channels broadcast in English, but a third (TG4 — Teilifis na Gaeilge) broadcasts in Gaelic. RTÉ competes with the British TV channels which are widely available to most parts of the Republic via various means (terrestrial, cable, satellite or MMDS — Multipoint Microwave Distribution System). The presence of the British channels constitutes an important obstacle to the development of domestic private television channels.¹ The first Irish national commercial broadcaster, TV3, was licensed as late as in September 1998. Entertainment-led TV3, the only indigenous terrestrial competitor to RTÉ, is backed financially by the Canadian TV company Can West Global (also present in Australia and New Zealand) and the British media group Granada Media, which dominates the ITV network.