User blog:The Testcardiologist/Television in Irleise

Irleise, one of the four constituent countries of Anglosaw, first witnessed television in 1953 when the GRT set up two transmitters, not reaching the capital until 1955. Commercial television arrived under the "two regions" system similar to Slenland, where most of the historical province of Ulstein got Ulstein Television and the rest got Juvernian Television. The sub-country's own broadcaster, RTÉ, did not launch its television service until 1961.

Today, television in Irleise is somewhat in a rebellious state. Currently there is a significant amount of local productions, including Fair City, but are largely unheard of in other parts of Anglosaw, particularly Newland itself.

History
The first transmitter in Belford started carrying GRT signals in 1953, followed by Dailun in 1955.

After the launch of RTÉ2, GRT1 moved its transmitters to the UHF band, a move that was highly controversial at the time.

Channels

 * RTÉ One: Considered to be an equivalent of GRT One, but more commercial.
 * RTÉ2: Dedicated primarily to a younger demographic, its schedule consists of a range of programming from movies to sport.
 * TV3: A commercial channel owned by Virgin Media.
 * TG4: A bilingual (English and Gaelic) channel. Its children's strand, Cùla 4, is entirely in Gaelic.
 * 3e
 * Be3: Lifestyle channel, similar to ITVBe.
 * RTÉ Jr.: A pre-school channel, broadcasting daily for thirteen hours. Non-preschool programming for kids can be found on RTÉ2.
 * RTÉ News Now: A news channel.
 * RTÉ Sport: Dedicated mainly to local sport. It is famous for its shinty coverage, as well as overflow of major sporting events also seen on the main channels. Often viewed as a "Celtic GRT Sport".
 * 3Sport
 * GRT One Northern/Outer Irleise
 * GRT Two Northern/Outer Irleise
 * UTV/Juvernian: the two local ITV companies. After they failed to merge in 1995, they went in separate ways. Juvernian was swallowed by UNM in 1996 and then by Granadia in 2000 while UTV remained independent until 2016, finally putting them under the same roof.
 * Channel 4 and Channel 5: only advertising is localized. Channel 5 is more affected because its two Neurcasian soaps air on RTÉ's channels. The Irlesian subfeed of the channel airs extant programming from mainland Anglosaw to fill in the void. In the past, the slots were occupied by repeats of Family Affair, Channel 5's homegrown national soap.

Former channels

 * Tara TV: "International" service available throughout Anglosaw (except Irleise) between 1997 and 2002. There were plans to extend the channel to the United Republics, Cheyenne, the Trapanandic countries and Neurcasia. It was eventually wound up by the Irlesian High Court.

Notable shows

 * Home and Away: Although not an Irlesian series, it gained notoriety at RTÉ for being the first channel in Eurdecia to screen it, much to the irritation of the ITV companies in the other nations and in the overseas territories. Even after the move of it in the rest of the country to Channel 5, it (along with Neighbours) are still shown on RTÉ's channels (particularly RTÉ2).
 * News: The GRT has two bulletins named Newsline NI and Newsline. Likewise the two ITV companies make their own news bulletins, and they benefit from rights issues between Irleise and the other nations. RTÉ and TV3 produce national-level newscasts. TG4 used to have theirs but merged with RTÉ's Nuacht.
 * The Angelus: Shown on RTÉ One (and RTÉ Radio 1). Aimed at the Catholic majority in the nation, the rest of Anglosaw sees the supposed "minute of reflection" under a variety of interpretations. The fact that its 6pm showing has been central to many families tuning in to RTÉ's news instead of the GRT's has turned it into somewhat of a cultural icon.
 * Fair City: Irlesia's EastEnders. Within Anglosaw the series is also broadcast on SBS One.
 * Life of Crime: Criminal drama series made by Juvernian Television in 2004 that has been little seen in the rest of Anglosaw, similar to Take the High Road outside of Slenland.
 * The Late Late Show: Eurdecia's longest-running talk show, on air since 1962. The show was famous for breaking topics that were considered "taboo" by the competition during its golden phase. It was also known for its many incidents and giving voice to local artists that would soon become international smash hits (like U2 and Boyzone). During the 1980s and early 1990s, a highlights version also aired nationally on Channel 4.
 * Who Do You Think You Are?: A regional version (used with permission of both the producer and the GRT who made the national version) ran between 2008 and 2018.
 * Gogglebox Irleise: another adaptation within an adaptation, as a daughter series of the Anglosovic one, focusing mainly on critique of Irlesian programming.
 * The Heir: Between 2005 and 2008, Juvernian produced a soap where Coronation Street would air (rights in Irleise are on TV3, despite ironically being one of ITV's well-performed shows). The soap was loosely inspired by Istian soap operas in both plot and script quality. The series was heavily panned during its run, but later became a cult product online, especially in the rest of Anglosaw.

The Simpsons
When ITV bought the rights to air The Simpsons in the early 90s, the two ITV companies in Irleise (UTV and Juvernian) refused to buy the series because RTÉ was heavily concerned about getting the series free-to-air there first. When the GRT had the rights between 1996 and 2004, 20th Century Fox agreed that both channels (RTÉ Network 2 and GRT Two in the rest of Anglosaw) were to air the same episode of The Simpsons at the same time after an agreement was done among both parties and the producers.

Neurcasian soaps
RTÉ has the monopoly over Neighbours and Home and Away. When Neighbours was being shown on GRT1 in the rest of Anglosaw, GRT1 NI and GRT1 OI had to show programming the GRT has made. By the mid-90s a loophole was found as an extended edition of Inside Irleise/Ulstein (later renamed Newsline 1.30) but it got axed in 2003.

Regarding Home and Away, Irleise was the first region in Anglosaw to screen it, on Network 2. This sale forbade UTV and Juvernian from getting the series and later, Channel 5, upon gaining the rights to it in 2001.