TG4 has nurtured a reputation for innovative programming in film, arts, drama, documentaries, and sports. Much of TG4's programming is subtitled in English. The station has a
teletext service called . Programmes broadcast on Saorview (not Sky or internet) are at times also subtitled in Irish.
Imported programming TG4 broadcasts many popular US shows ranging from dramas to comedies.
As TnaG In the lead up to the transmissions of TnaG in the autumn of 1996, RTÉ tested transmissions with airings of
Fawlty Towers. The TnaG service provided little in the way of imports except for children's programming. TnaG provided airings of QVC during daytime hours. TnaG aired
Northern Exposure. They also dubbed into Irish a number of European, Welsh and Scottish programmes.
As TG4 TnaG re-branded in 1999 as TG4 and with this came a fresh schedule which included more imported programming. Highly critically acclaimed US programming such as
Oz,
Nip/Tuck and
The Wire aired on the channel. During this time, they extended out their range of adult and children's programming. began airing from 07:00 for pre-school children with programmes such as ,
Dora the Explorer and
Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, Cúla4 airs
SpongeBob SquarePants,
Ben 10,
The Muppet Show, and others. In 2006 a strand called began airing with teen programming such as
Pimp My Ride,
MTV Cribs,
8 Simple Rules, ''
America's Next Top Model, What I Like About You and South Park. Other series aired on the channel include Army Wives, Cold Case, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, The Starter Wife, True Blood, Two and a Half Men, Vampire Diaries, Without a Trace, Carnivàle, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Eve, Everwood, Invasion, Lipstick Jungle, The O.C., and Survivor''. TG4 often premieres such shows before other European broadcasters. TG4 previously held a long-term agreement with HBO to air the majority of their programmes on the channel. With the launch of
Sky Atlantic in 2011, they now hold first rights to European (Ireland, UK, Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland) broadcasts of HBO shows. This means TG4 now broadcasts HBO programming at a much later date than in the past. TG4 held first rights to
The Wire,
Oz,
Deadwood,
Generation Kill,
Six Feet Under,
True Blood. They also held an agreement with
AMC to air
Breaking Bad until the series concluded. The channel later signed a deal with
USA Network for exclusive rights to
Mr. Robot. In Autumn 2013, the broadcaster started moving away from US imports instead focusing on successful European drama series from the Nordic countries. On 28 August 2013, TG4 announced its new schedule for autumn/winter 2013. US imports include new seasons of
Nashville,
Breaking Bad (final season),
True Blood and new dramas
Justified and
Boss. The main news anchor for Nuacht RTÉ is
Siún Nic Gearailt, who was the main news anchor for TG4 from 2002 to 2004, before moving to RTÉ. initially was broadcast at 22:00 each night, later moving to 20:00 and finally to 19:00 where it currently remains. From 1996 to 1998,
Gráinne Seoige was the main news anchor for the channel, in 1998 she moved to
TV3 to launch their main evening news where she remained until 2004. In 1998,
Ailbhe Ó Monachain became TG4's main news anchor. With the rebranding of TnaG as TG4 the news service also renamed Nuacht TG4. In 2004,
Eimear Ní Chonaola became TG4's main news anchor. Since September 2010, Nóiméad Nuachta (News Minute) has broadcast each week day at 13:55. Each Tuesday Night
Páidí Ó Lionáird hosts their Current Affairs flagship show
7 Lá (7 Days), the name derives from RTÉ's original Current Affairs programme
7 Days. Every Sunday night,
Eimear Ní Chonaola presents , a round-up of all the major stories of the week. During the summer months they provide presented by Sinéad Ní Loideáin and Bríd Richardson. It takes a similar format to RTÉ's
Nationwide, reporting on festivals around Ireland during the summer months. TG4 provides live coverage of
Dáil Éireann each Wednesday and Thursday morning; as well as live coverage of the proceedings of key Dáil Committees from time to time. TG4 has also provided coverage of the 1997, 2002, 2007, 2011, and 2016 general elections, coverage of European and local elections 2004, 2009, and 2014 and coverage of the annual national Budgets, and coverage of
Údarás na Gaeltachta elections. During the night, TG4 airs a simulcast of
France 24 live from Paris.
Sports The channel extensively covers Irish sports, such as the secondary
Gaelic football and
hurling competitions and club championships, and women's Gaelic football (it also broadcasts
Pro14). These are events which generally do not appeal to a mass audience, but have a reasonably loyal following. Many of the events that TG4 provides coverage of are in sports in which other Irish broadcasters would not usually be interested; the channel has gained a reputation for providing coverage of minority sporting events, and repeat coverage of rugby and Gaelic games under the programming strand
Gold and
GAA Gold, showing highlights of classic games from the archives. broadcasts a round-up of the week's sporting news with a selected panel, it is hosted by
Dara Ó Cinnéide. TG4 provided coverage of
Volvo Ocean Race when it arrived in Galway in May 2009.
GAA Since 2000 TG4 has sponsored
ladies' Gaelic football's All-Ireland competition under the name
TG4 Ladies Football All-Ireland Championships (). They have provided live coverage of the men's Gaelic football league and round-up of the men's football and
hurling championships during the summer months with their GAA round up programme called
GAA – followed by the year it is broadcast, for example in 2011 it was called
GAA 2011. They also provide live coverage of the Under 21 All-Ireland competitions and club competitions. In late 2010, TG4 began to broadcast a new handball show, entitled
The GAA Handball Show.
Rugby They previously had exclusive rights to show Magner's Rugby League from 2001 to 2004. In 2004 the Irish rights were sold to
Setanta Sports, where it was broadcast exclusively from 2004 to 2010. In 2010 TG4 won back the rights for
Pro12 rugby union with
RTÉ,
BBC Northern Ireland,
S4C and
BBC Alba. In 2011 TG4 took a major coup in taking away exclusive highlights of the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup from RTÉ Sport. This led to TG4 having live coverage of the new Pro14 (a re-branding of the Celtic League) in 2011, as well as highlights of the top matches in European rugby. On top of this, the channel bought Irish-language rights to the
2011 Rugby World Cup, thus obtaining lucrative rights to re-run matches from the Rugby World Cup 2011 in the afternoon. Therefore, Setanta Ireland had all matches live, RTÉ had 13 live matches, including all-Irish matches and every match from the quarter-finals onwards. TG4 re-broadcast all the big matches in the afternoon, such as the Ireland v Australia match and England and Welsh match. In 2014, the Irish-language channel received praise for airing the
Women's Rugby World Cup. TG4 provided coverage to all of the Irish matches as well as the final and semi-final.
Football (Soccer) TG4 broadcasts highlights programme called for Spanish
La Liga which it extended to include the
Scottish Premier League in 1997. The series no longer airs on the channel. TG4 held rights to
League of Ireland with
RTÉ and
Setanta Sports. They have also broadcast UEFA Cup games in the past. TG4 did broadcast Friday night matches called
Sacar Beo which showed League of Ireland matches and cup matches, but RTÉ and Setanta retain those rights now. In 2019, TG4 broadcasts
FIFA Women's World Cup with RTÉ. TG4 broadcasts 29 of 52 matches in Irish. TG4 broadcast the first live
League of Ireland Women's Premier Division game from
Tolka Park on 2 October 2021 with hosts
Shelbourne beating
DLR Waves 1:0. Games are regularly shown live on TG4.
Tennis TG4 broadcast exclusive Irish coverage of the
Wimbledon Championships tennis tournament. TG4's coverage of the tournament began in 2005, with their coverage being viewed by on average 300,000 viewers each day in 2008. RTÉ commonly showed Wimbledon for a number of years before dropping the tournament in 2001; there was then no coverage until TG4 took over the broadcasts in 2005. This proved popular as coverage has been more than it ever was on RTÉ, and with Connor Niland becoming the first Irish player at Wimbledon in 30 years their coverage continues to grow. TG4'S coverage of the
Roland Garros Tennis began in 2008, which started with just highlights of everyday and the finals live. This proved popular so now TG4 coverage begins with highlights until the final week of the tournament when live coverage begins.
Cycling TG4 provide live coverage of
Tour de France French cycling. TG4's live coverage of the Tour de France began in 2005.
International Rules Series TG4 hold the television rights to the
International Rules 2010/2011 season and 2013/14 season. TG4 also provide a highlights package of
Australian Football League games.
Snooker TG4 for a number of years showed the Northern Ireland Trophy Snooker event from the Belfast Waterfront Hall. This started in 2005 and they showed every NI Trophy tournament until it was scrapped in 2009. This was advertised as their season of sport which started in 2005 and started with Wimbledon, le Tour de France and finished with the NI Trophy. This was firstly a non-ranking event, then became a ranking event. TG4 were the official broadcaster. Their coverage, , featured analysis from Irish players such as Fergal O'Brien and Ken Doherty and Northern Ireland players such as Patrick Wallace who were not Irish speakers and would provide analysis in English before the presenter would go back to talking in Irish. This is what usually happens in sports coverage on TG4 where links to cameras, reports and commentary are usually in Irish and interviews and analysis in rugby, football and snooker are usually in English.
Entertainment Since its inception TG4 has provided a huge amount of light entertainment programming to its Irish speaking audience, such as the chat show and the fashion/dating show . ("Matchmaker") was TG4's first attempt at a
blind date type of show. It was presented by
Seán Bán Breathnach and later by Páidí Ó Lionáird. The audience would be introduced to the contestant looking for love and then to one of their parents (generally the father of a male contestant and the mother of a female contestant), then introduced to three suitors. The father or the mother would then ask the suitors questions about how they would treat their son or daughter. The presenter would then go into the audience to talk to the suitor's friends. It would then be up to the mother or father to choose which suitor would go on a blind date with their son or daughter. This show ran for a number of years and was eventually replaced by where three boys/men select clothes for a girl, who would then choose the boy, based on the clothes that they had picked. This show was presented in the first three series by
Aoife Ní Thuairisg, and in the fourth series by Blathnáid Nic Dhonnacha and Máiread Ni Chuaig. Máiread was replaced in 2008 by
Síle Seoige. ("Key to the Heart") started airing in 2008 and is similar in format to MTV's
Room Raiders. The producers of ,
Magma Films, have since sold the rights to
Zoo Productions who will produce the series for MTV under the title
Style Date. In 1996 TG4 aired ("Hollywood Tonight"), a movie show presented by
Síle Seoige. In 2004 TG4 launched a new strand of programming called . It was presented by
Síle Ní Bhraonáin and ran from 17:30 to 19:00 each weeknight. It was similar in format to RTÉ's
Two Tube. On 24 September 2007, TG4 began broadcasting
South Park in Irish, on Síle, with the more adult content removed but also made available on Saturday nights. In 2009 Síle was replaced by . They also had a number of quiz shows, including
90 Seconds. TG4 is a great way for students in Leaving Certificate or GCSCs or A-Levels who is studying Irish to learn from. Research has shown that those who watch or listen to TG4 are deemed to have a better understanding of the language. As well as that, having Gaeilge as a
first or
second language is shown to lead to more employment opportunities.
Music TG4 have a long tradition of providing
Irish Traditional music on the channel. is filmed around Ireland, with coverage of traditional music from many pubs around the country. Repeats of Irish traditional music programmes from RTÉ feature in the schedules such as
The Pure Drop and
Come West Along the Road. TG4 presents a
six awards for Irish traditional music, celebrating and giving due recognition to the recordings, broadcasts and live performances of the recipients of the awards: •
Traditional musician of the year,
Gradam Ceoil, started in 1998. •
Young traditional musician of the Year,
Ceoltóir Óg, started in 1998. •
Singer of the Year,
Amhránaí na Bliana, started in 2001. •
Lifetime Achievement award,
Gradam Saoil, started in 2001. •
Composer of the year,
Gradam an Chumadóra, started in 2001 and presented to 2013. In 2014 a musical collaboration award was presented instead. •
Special contribution award,
Gradam na gCeoltóirí, is presented to musicians and organisations that have worked tirelessly for the preservation and dissemination of Irish traditional music. Since the mid-2000s TG4 have provided coverage of
Country and Western music. Popular music on the channel started out with ("From Top to Bottom"), which is now known as POP 4 and is presented by Eoghan Mac Diarmada, is Ireland's only Top 40 countdown chart show. It also acts as a chart request show and a launch pad for new and upcoming Irish bands. Indie music is covered on ("On The Edge"), a spin-off series of TG4 Arts strand ("Edge"). On 23 March 2015, TG4 confirmed its participation in the
Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015. Later that year, it organised a national final, produced by
Adare Productions, to select its representative at the contest, who turned out to be
Aimee Banks. It marked
Ireland's first participation in the contest and was the first time since
1972 that
Irish was heard at a
Eurovision event. In the
Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2022 Sophie Lennon represented Ireland with "Solas", which placed 4th, the highest placing of an Irish entry in a Eurovision contest since the nation finished 3rd at the
Eurovision Dance Contest 2007, and the highest placing of any Irish-language song.
Reality television (the Irish for "break", and the use of a pun on "
SOS") was one of TG4s early attempts at reality television. It followed a group of contestants in the bleakness of the
Connemara landscape, left with nothing and to fend for themselves. It was a television version of
Gay Byrne's radio experiment from the 1980s. was TG4's version of
S4C's successful show, getting celebrities to learn Irish for a week. It was presented by Aoife Ní Thuairisg. In 2003 TG4 launched their search for Ireland's next top
country and western singer. is now into its 6th successful season on the channel. Often landing the top spot on their top ten shows, it has a regular audience of 100,000 viewers. In 2008 TG4 launched their search for the best farmer in Ireland. had 12 farmers competing with each other to see who was the best. The judging panel consisted of
Maura Derrane (former
Ireland AM presenter),
Alan Dukes (former Minister for Agriculture) and Seán O Lionaird (dairy farmer from Cork). The second series of
Feirm Factor was broadcast from January to March 2010. Welsh television station
S4C has started broadcasting their own version of the show in 2010, called
Fferm Ffactor.
Underdogs searched for the best amateur football team from groups of men and women with no previous experience in Minor or Senior GAA football. The judging panel consisted of Geraldine Feerick,
Jarlath Burns and Éamon Ó Muircheartaigh. TG4 commissioned two reality talent shows for the channel from Adare Productions.
Vegas has a similar format to ''America's Got Talent
and The All Ireland Talent Show
. No. 1
has a similar format to You're a Star'' as the judges search for a Christmas number one single. The 2008 winner was Mary Lee, she released the single "You'll Never Walk Alone", with the chorus ''. In September 2009 another series from the same stable began the search for Ireland's best Irish dancing act, entitled An Jig Gig. The winners of this series were Irish Beats. A fourth season of
Vegas began in January 2010. TG4 have broadcast all series of the American version of
Survivor with an Irish-language dub. In 2015, TG4 launched a new dating show called where contestants choose a date from three potential partners based only on their car.
Drama In the early years TG4 gained critical acclaim for
C.U. Burn, a comedy series about a
Donegal undertaker, and , a comedy about a small-town
Garda station in Donegal. is TG4's long-running soap opera, which broadcast for 35 weeks of the year with two episodes each week. It is now in its 24th season on the channel. It airs Tuesday and Thursday at 20:30, with an
omnibus edition at 22:30 each Sunday. TG4 have also supported many Irish filmmakers with their Lasair short film programme fund. In 2006 TG4 commissioned
Teenage s, their first youth drama. Set during the 1980s in the Donegal
Gaeltacht, it follows the exploits of young students from Belfast going to the Gaeltacht to learn Irish. This was followed by their successful teen drama
Aifric. In 2007 TG4 won major critical acclaim for its political satirical comedy
The Running Mate and for the programme which follows the lives of seven college students in
Belfast. Their drama series (part funded by the
BAI's Sound and Vision Fund) was a major hit for the channel, becoming their second most popular show just after . Set during the week of the
Galway Races, it is a drama-comedy starring
Don Wycherley,
Ruth Bradley,
Olga Wherly,
Hughie McGarvey and
Owen Roe. TG4 broadcast its first supernatural thriller on 13 January 2010. ("Heads") is set in contemporary Ireland and revolves around a young couple (Nuala and Séan). Nuala is an artist with supernatural powers connecting her to the Otherworld and is faced with an adulterous boyfriend. Soon two young women Séan brings home for a nightcap are found dead. TG4 continued its successful drama output with their comedy ("The Crisis"), and (in 2013). This series has poked fun at the Irish economic downturn and the effects on the promotion of the Irish language. The comedy initially centred around the office of the acting-chairman of ACT (An Chomhairle Teanga/The Language Commissioner) played by Risteárd Cooper as he fought to save the organisations from . is a four-part series from TG4 starring Diarmuid de Faoite and
Maria Doyle Kennedy (
The Tudors). It was originally broadcast in early 2011. A second series aired on the channel in 2014.
Praise for TG4 drama ::"The reality is that Irish-language television dramas, no matter how acclaimed or however many awards they might win, are unlikely to show up in box set form in any DVD mega-store. TG4's viewership ranges from between 2 and 4 per cent of the population, enough to cost a politician an election but far too few viewers to send a show into the top 10 in the television ratings. ::A shame, because there are great things happening in the area. TG4's recent batch of mini-series , Paddywhackery and (not to mention Aifric, and long-running soap ) have featured outrageous plots and wacky characters, and dare to be politically incorrect: they get away with it because they are in Irish." :: "the first episode of , a new six-parter from TG4, was laugh out loud funny – interspersed with a couple of knowing sniggers."
Children's television In 1996, TnaG started its children's programming under the strand
Cullabulla (taken from
Hiberno-English). Since then they have renamed and extended the strand as Cúla4.
Factual It also actively commissions documentaries such as the acclaimed and popular series of travel programmes which launched the career of
Hector Ó hEochagáin, one of a number of TG4 presenters who have gone on to success at other channels. Others include newsreader
Gráinne Seoige. As many of these programs are subtitled in English, they are often popular with recent immigrant populations – who find spoken English very fast on Irish-produced television – as well as native Irish speakers. They dub a French-Canadian documentary series under the name .
Nello was another well received travel show looking at life in middle America. They have a documentary strand called . was a series which looked at prison escapes around Ireland. They repeat the RTÉ shows (a new magazine show) and (reports on scandals that hit Ireland).
Re-dubbed programming In the early years of TG4 the service repeated the Welsh teenage drama series
Jabas which was re-dubbed into Irish from Welsh. They also aired the French cartoon
Bouli as part of their children's schedule.
Jabas and
Bouli had previously aired on
RTÉ Television. Again the Welsh series was translated into Irish under the title In general, however, TG4 perceived that live-action series aimed at adults re-dubbed into Irish was not an attractive proposition even for fluent Irish speakers, as is the case for many bilingual northern European viewers. Some other live action children's movies such as
Scooby-Doo have been re-dubbed into Irish.
Film TG4 has a broad film policy which features a strong range of both independent and mainstream cinema. The channel places a strong emphasis on Irish films – both in the Irish and English languages – and European cinema which features films in French, German, Spanish, Italian,
Polish,
Danish and
Swedish, among other languages. These films air under the strand TG4 regularly broadcast
Westerns under the strand
An Western, typically every Friday night. Mainstream Hollywood cinema is represented by films from
20th Century Fox,
Walt Disney Pictures and
Warner Bros. among others. TG4 regularly broadcast such films on Tuesday Nights as part of their ("Movie of the Week") strand. They sometimes re-dub children's films into Irish with English subtitles, the most notable being the
Harry Potter films. TG4 became the first channel to broadcast in full
Stanley Kubrick's classic
A Clockwork Orange, a season of Kubrick's films followed, including the European television premiere of
Eyes Wide Shut. It also became one of the first channels in Europe to air the remastered director's cut version of
The Exorcist, even before the UK, as they were still only airing the edited version. TG4 has created
Cine4 (formally TG4 Film) a film department which invests in Irish-speaking films and mainstream Irish films such as the critically acclaimed
Room, , , and .
Subtitling and dubbing Adult and prime time programming TG4 do not dub live action film or television programming into Irish. Some reality television programming have the English voice over replaced by Irish-language voice over (which is also subtitled in English), however all contestants and presenters are not re-dubbed. In the early years of TnaG the channel broadcast many European programmes with Irish dubbing however this policy has since stopped in favour of US programming in English. Some non-English-language films are also subtitled on teletext page 888 in Irish. Most Irish-language programmes are subtitled on screen in English, however no live programming (such as news and sport) is subtitled into English. Many Irish-language programmes are also subtitled on teletext page 888 in Irish.
Children's and young people's programming TG4's pre-school and children's strands, and , do not have subtitles during live introductions. This was the same for their former teen strands
Síle and . Many of the Irish-language cartoons are subtitled on page 888 for parents. TG4 broadcasts any US teen programming in English, while Irish-language programming is subtitled on screen in English. TG4 have re-dubbed a number of Hollywood children's films and feature animation into Irish. ==TG4 on demand==