Thunderbirds (TV Series) - Current Broadcast

Current Broadcast

Today, the series is frequently repeated on BBC Two in the UK and RTÉ Two in Ireland; the ITV regions also repeated the series in the 1980s. Thunderbirds is also quite popular in Japan, where it was first broadcast in 1966 by NHK. For approximately three years (2000–2003) the satellite channel Boomerang UK broadcast uncut episodes daily, meaning that the complete run of 32 episodes was screened about 34 times. Thunderbirds was also syndicated on the now defunct US cable television network TechTV from 5 August 2002 through 20 June 2004. The Tech TV broadcast, however, split episodes into 30-minute portions, and were filled with on-screen "pop up trivia" and arrows pointing at spots on the screen. In Australia, the Channel 9 Network screened the series many times over from the 1970s until as recently as 2007 during the Saturday morning timeslot, and on weekdays during school holiday periods. Thunderbirds is currently airing on Channel 9's second digital television station GO! on Saturday mornings. The original (uncut) series was also re-broadcast several times on the Australasian Foxtel cable network in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Australasian Foxtel cable network now plays Thunderbirds on the new Sci-Fi Network on weekdays. It is currently shown in the US in High Definition on Family Room, one of the VOOM television networks.