Television in Ireland - History

History

Television was first received in Ireland from 1949, following the opening of high power BBC transmitters at Sutton Coldfield and later Holme Moss, giving marginal reception along parts of the East coast. The first transmissions on the island of Ireland began with the launch of BBC in Northern Ireland (BBC Northern Ireland) when it began broadcasting television programmes in 1953, followed in 1959 with the launch of Ulster Television (now known as UTV).

Throughout the 1950s the governments of Ireland were worried about the influences of British television and the popularity of the medium. By the end of the 1950s 60% of the population could receive BBC 1 and the UK's Channel 3 franchise from spillover from Northern Ireland, Wales and the west of England. Throughout the 1950s the Irish government would discuss the provision of an Irish television service, this was headed up by Leon O'Broin, the secretary at the Department of Post and Telegraphs. The Department of Post and Telegraphs had responsibility for Radio Éireann, Ireland's Radio service. In 1950 O'Broin established his own committee on Irish Television and bought a television set to receive broadcasts from the BBC. The Department of Finance at this time were worried of the cost of setting up a new television service and dismissed the possibility on several occasions during the 1950s. By March 1951 O'Broin would press for the inevitable establishment of an Irish television service in the state. In a Memorandum to Government the Department set out four possibilities for the ownership and control of a new service:

1. Owned by the state directly
2. Owned by a public corporation (similar to that of the then Radio Éireann)
3. Owned by private enterprise
4. Having a combination where transmitters would be owned by the state and content would be provided by private enterprises

The Department of Finance were incensed with this and asked the government to tell O'Broin to resubmit the proposals through the Department of Finance according to the formal procedures of the Civil Service, John A. Costello, the Taoiseach, did so and returned the memo to the Department of Post and Telegraphs. The Minister for Finance refused to look at TV calling it a "luxury service". However, through this means O'Broin was able to get funding for the research he had asked for.

In Ireland television first became available in 1959. The public service broadcaster, RTÉ Television, opened in 1961, followed by an additional channel RTÉ Two in November 1978. TG4 launched on 31 October 1996 as a free-to-air public service broadcaster that targets Irish language viewers.

On 20 September 1998, TV3 launched as the first independent commercial broadcaster in Ireland. Since the 2000s television in Ireland has expanded with the launch of Setanta Ireland (in difficulty), Bubble Hits (now defunct) and 3e (originally C6 on Cable, later added to Sky), which are available through PayTV cable and satellite services. TV3 purchased C6 and rebranded it 3e. Only with Launch of Saorview (FTA DTT) was 3e available Free to Air.

Ireland commenced its switch over to its free-to-air digital terrestrial television (DTT) from October 2010. This provided viewers with greater viewing opportunities with an increase in public service channels, i.e. of commercial services with the possibility of more public service channels from existing public service broadcaster and possibly two new channels, the Houses of the Oireachtas Channel and the Irish Film Channel, subject to finance from the government for the last two. The current Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte aspired to have a complete DTT service rolled out by 31 December 2011.