05-11-2016, 08:06 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-11-2016, 08:11 PM by Mike Watterson.)
BBC2 in N.I.
I don't think people ignored BBC2 in Eastern N.I. anyway (Divis and later relays). Not everyone had a dual standard set. Colour a few years later by rental meant nearly everyone had it. We certainly watched BBC2 from when it launched on Divis. Similarly C4 in Nov 1982 (I think).
We moved to MidWest of Ireland from UK in Feb 1983. Going from four mostly decent channels with perfect reception to about "one and a half" channels with fringe reception (RTE1 was not as much hours as BBC1 or ITV and RTE2 only ran from mid or late afternoon to about midnight!) was a shock! Bosco was the only decent Kids TV.
No surprise that EVEN BEFORE BBC ditched Sky "Solas" card on Satellite that Pay TV had reached 82% penetration in Ireland. ITV was 75% in Ireland due to big masts and cable and MMDS before Satellite FTA was available. Channel Five was FTA on Sky Analogue, but initially all the main UK channels except S4C where unavailable in Ireland unless you had a UK (inc N.I.) address for a Solas card.
Third Channel in Ireland:
TV3 is "officially" the third channel, but started two years after TG4 (called TnaG then, Gaelic Television)
TG4 is mostly in Gaelic. It might be better and more distinctive than S4C, though Wales has local councils that use Welsh, no Irish council meets in Gaelic. Non-Irish speakers will watch the sport!
RTE1 & RTE2 are mostly English and became more so after TG4 started.
Unfortunately it was easiest to receive in "Western Britain" (South Dublin) which by then was all cabled and all UHF off air. Ironically Three Rock works with indoor aerials. Though badly on indoor aerials in North Dublin, and north of Blanchardstown (I solved that with a Yagi on the balcony rail). Dublin was the most cabled city in Europe then.
Out in Gaelic speaking areas the RTE1 was Band I or Band III and RTE 2 was Band III. They had to get a UHF roof top aerial, and reception was terrible (as you'd imagine with TX sites chosen for maximum Band I coverage!). Gradually relays were added (with four channels UHF, but TV3 was never on them as they refused to pay!)
So ironically TG4 was most welcome outside of cabled Cities (only free Satellite was Five and the German stations, even with an analogue Sky sub no main UK channels) but where it was most wanted you needed a new roof aerial and even then you might not get it.
There was never UK level of signal quality of reception or coverage in Ireland before Digital (Roll out mostly 2010 to 2012). RTE's claimed coverage assumed a massive yagi (or two or three!) and acceptance of noise.
Here only 13km from the TX I needed a big outdoor aerial for the four analogue channels (100W per channel!). The DTT is some KW per mux and HD works on 4" of wire on aerial socket.
As well as DTT, RTE1, RTE2 and TG4 are on Irish Spots of Ka-Sat (FTA), so people in the 1% to 2% of no terrestrial reception can get TV FTA (TV3 won't pay to be on it, maybe the new owners will).
Still, BBC maybe has more viewers on average than TG4, but some programs are popular.
I don't think people ignored BBC2 in Eastern N.I. anyway (Divis and later relays). Not everyone had a dual standard set. Colour a few years later by rental meant nearly everyone had it. We certainly watched BBC2 from when it launched on Divis. Similarly C4 in Nov 1982 (I think).
We moved to MidWest of Ireland from UK in Feb 1983. Going from four mostly decent channels with perfect reception to about "one and a half" channels with fringe reception (RTE1 was not as much hours as BBC1 or ITV and RTE2 only ran from mid or late afternoon to about midnight!) was a shock! Bosco was the only decent Kids TV.
No surprise that EVEN BEFORE BBC ditched Sky "Solas" card on Satellite that Pay TV had reached 82% penetration in Ireland. ITV was 75% in Ireland due to big masts and cable and MMDS before Satellite FTA was available. Channel Five was FTA on Sky Analogue, but initially all the main UK channels except S4C where unavailable in Ireland unless you had a UK (inc N.I.) address for a Solas card.
Third Channel in Ireland:
TV3 is "officially" the third channel, but started two years after TG4 (called TnaG then, Gaelic Television)
TG4 is mostly in Gaelic. It might be better and more distinctive than S4C, though Wales has local councils that use Welsh, no Irish council meets in Gaelic. Non-Irish speakers will watch the sport!
RTE1 & RTE2 are mostly English and became more so after TG4 started.
Unfortunately it was easiest to receive in "Western Britain" (South Dublin) which by then was all cabled and all UHF off air. Ironically Three Rock works with indoor aerials. Though badly on indoor aerials in North Dublin, and north of Blanchardstown (I solved that with a Yagi on the balcony rail). Dublin was the most cabled city in Europe then.
Out in Gaelic speaking areas the RTE1 was Band I or Band III and RTE 2 was Band III. They had to get a UHF roof top aerial, and reception was terrible (as you'd imagine with TX sites chosen for maximum Band I coverage!). Gradually relays were added (with four channels UHF, but TV3 was never on them as they refused to pay!)
So ironically TG4 was most welcome outside of cabled Cities (only free Satellite was Five and the German stations, even with an analogue Sky sub no main UK channels) but where it was most wanted you needed a new roof aerial and even then you might not get it.
There was never UK level of signal quality of reception or coverage in Ireland before Digital (Roll out mostly 2010 to 2012). RTE's claimed coverage assumed a massive yagi (or two or three!) and acceptance of noise.
Here only 13km from the TX I needed a big outdoor aerial for the four analogue channels (100W per channel!). The DTT is some KW per mux and HD works on 4" of wire on aerial socket.
As well as DTT, RTE1, RTE2 and TG4 are on Irish Spots of Ka-Sat (FTA), so people in the 1% to 2% of no terrestrial reception can get TV FTA (TV3 won't pay to be on it, maybe the new owners will).
Still, BBC maybe has more viewers on average than TG4, but some programs are popular.
