Favourite General Entertainment Channels

Elmo

So this comes from the complaints about what is terrestrail V non-terrestrial. IMO RTE ONE, TWO, TV3 and TG4 are Irish terrestrail channels available FTA (Free to Air) via Aerials across most of the republic unlike the NI or Welsh varients of BBC, ITV and C4. I grew up in 2, then 3 and then 4 TV land.

So the poll

RTE ONE
RTE TWO
TV3
TG4
BBC ONE
BBC TWO
ITV 1/STV/UTV
Channel 4/S4C

Reasons to go for each

RTE ONE

Provides pleanty of good news and current affairs programming, some good feature programmes and some excellent documentries i.e True Lives, Art Lives, Would You Beleive.

RTE TWO

Children's TV and Sports with a mix of the best of American imports.

TV3

ITV stallworths, getting better with their American imports, some good Licence fee paid for Documentries coming from Ireland. With a helpful splash of LCD programming. And now more sports coverage.

TG4

The irish language service that is their to inform, educate and entertain as Gealige. Provides coverage of sports that the others would go near, some good Irish Drama from Ros Na Run to Seacht to The Running Mate. With a mix of alternative European cinema and westerns. To some interesting HBO US imports such as Oz, The Wire and some bazzare dubbing of the Muppets and Southpark (Not only to they translate but the make the some of the jokes Irish!)

BBC ONE

Well its the bbc do I need to explain! Good Drama, Comedy and Documentry. News and Current affair

BBC TWO

The old alternative, with BBC THREE and FOUR robbing most of their alternative stance in more recent years. But still good for documentries, news night, sport and entertainment

ITV 1/ UTV/ STV

See TV3

Channel 4

Even there logo is good pity about Big Brother but it remains alternative and new.

Sorry I forgot five!

Elmo

No it was just what I was about to say.

This is the ultimate poll IMO.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Good thread, Elmo.
Finally we might get a more accurate result.
Agree with what you said about most of the channels and don't worry about Five not being in the poll - I don't think a lot of people in Ireland have access to that channel - it's not accessible via ariel and it's not available on Sky Digital (at least it wasn't two weeks ago).
TG4 ftw.

Deedsie

Teilifis Na Gaeilge for me. The best terrestrial station in Ireland.

Bushalicious

ha i love the amount of nationalism coming through. everyone is afraid not to vote for tg4 yet no one watches it.

BroomBurner

BBC for me, but both BBC1 and 2, oh and 3. BBC have some excellent programmes - Masterchef, Animal Park, Horizon (that ole chestnut!), etc.

Actually, it would be a good mix, I don't favour one channel over any other tbh. All offer something interesting at times.

dodgyme

outta the list I would have to pick bbc1 or c4 but I voted for TnaG

Elmo

Bushalicious wrote: »

ha i love the amount of nationalism coming through. everyone is afraid not to vote for tg4 yet no one watches it.

It isn't nationalism at all. The service is a good service. I watch it because it provide good documentries, good drama from time to time and some good entertaining shows. It has taken on many sports that would otherwise be ignored by the majority of TV stations in this coutry. And it also has some good american imports just as good as the ones on RTE, TV3, C4, ITV or BBC.

It is run on a shoe string budget. Now if TV3 did all of these things I would have great respect for them but I don't.

The problem with a poll of this kind is that you really can't compare, RTE with the BBC, ITV with TV3 or C4 with TG4 due to budgets etc.

But TG4 comes out on top regardless of nationality, as it actually does a job of commissioning TV not just rebroadcasting it. It has nothing to do with language or nationality.

Perhaps you should watch the channel sometime before coming to such flippent remarks.

Of course you also have to take into account that those who voted for TG4 here where the ones complaining in the other poll that it wasn't their, the rest may not be bothered to vote.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Bushalicious wrote: »

ha i love the amount of nationalism coming through. everyone is afraid not to vote for tg4 yet no one watches it.

You clearly live under a rock mate. The most successful Irish shows abroad at the moment are Ros na Run and Seacht.
The BBC are even paying loads to co-produce Seacht, because the first series was so successful. The only other Irish show I can think of that has been anyway successful abroad is Father Ted (which was produced by Channel 4 - a British network). Ros na Run and Seacht are the only shows that have come in any way close.
If no one watched TG4 - it wouldn't have lasted 13 years and wouldn't have gone completely independent of RTÉ in 2007 if it wasn't able to make it on its own.

Tristram

TG4 is hands down the best station in terms of programming.

SoupyNorman

Bushalicious wrote: »

ha i love the amount of nationalism coming through. everyone is afraid not to vote for tg4 yet no one watches it.

Have you never watched Irish Paint Magic!


For me, my favorite shows are Prime Time and Questions and Answers as they consistently keep their appeal over long periods of time. My favor with other shows and channels peaks and troughs (good example is Friday Night With Jonathon Ross) although BBC is a good all rounder.

RTE1 by a nose followed by BBC.