Television
- Category: Northern Irish Television
The BBC began broadcasting television programmes in Northern Ireland in 1953. This was the first regular television broadcast station in Ireland. In 1959 Ulster Television (now known as UTV) began broadcasting as part of the ITV Network.
Today BBC Northern Ireland operates two television channels with local content, BBC One and BBC Two. The UTV Group still operates the same "ITV Ulster" licence. Channel 4 has broadcast to Northern Ireland since 1982 but (apart from advertisements) does not broadcast Northern Ireland-specific programming. As part of the Belfast Agreement the Republic of Ireland's Irish language television station TG4 has begun transmitting from a limited number of locations in Northern Ireland.
To date, Ofcom has licensed two local television channels. The first, C9TV (Channel 9 Television), started in 1999 and broadcasts to Derry and the surrounding districts of Limavady, Coleraine and Strabane. In Belfast, NvTv (Northern Visions Television) started in 2004.
Read more about this topic: Media In Northern Ireland
Famous quotes containing the word television:
“Television is an excellent system when one has nothing to lose, as is the case with a nomadic and rootless country like the United States, but in Europe the affect of television is that of a bulldozer which reduces culture to the lowest possible denominator.”
—Marc Fumaroli (b. 1932)
“It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy’s edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create “one world.” Instead of one world, we have “star wars,” and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet’s dead.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“In full view of his television audience, he preached a new religion—or a new form of Christianity—based on faith in financial miracles and in a Heaven here on earth with a water slide and luxury hotels. It was a religion of celebrity and showmanship and fun, which made a mockery of all puritanical standards and all canons of good taste. Its standard was excess, and its doctrines were tolerance and freedom from accountability.”
—New Yorker (April 23, 1990)