Everything about Rt Two totally explained
RTÉ Two (
Irish:
RTÉ a Dó) (known from 1988 to 2004 as
Network 2,
RTÉ Network Two,
RTÉ2 or
N2) is
Ireland's second-oldest
television channel, operated by Irish state broadcaster
RTÉ. RTÉ Two is almost universally available throughout the island of
Ireland on the
VHF and
UHF bands, and is also available via
satellite (
DVB-S) to
Irish subscribers of
Sky Digital.
Programming
RTÉ Two's main emphasis is on programmes for children and young people together with sports and acquired imported programmes. The channel's children's strand,
The Den runs from 06:00 to 17:30 each weekday, followed by its youth strand,
TTV (formerly
iD Two) from 17:30 to 19:00.
RTÉ News on Two airs each weekday after 22:45.
The channel also has a number of other strands, including
Two Wild,
Two Extreme, and
RTÉ Sport on Two. Films are also regularly aired on the channel especially European cinema and International cinema.
After 19:00, RTÉ Two airs its primetime lineup. This includes such imported shows as
Lost,
Desperate Housewives,
24,
Prison Break,
Ugly Betty,
Law & Order,,,,
Grey's Anatomy, etc., and such home-produced shows as
No Experience Required,
How Low Can You Go?,
The Podge and Rodge Show,
The Panel and
Dan & Becs. RTÉ Two also airs premier movies under the name
SCREEN TWO and has first run rights to
Irish rugby and
soccer.
RTÉ Two has a reputation for airing many US shows such as Lost, Desperate Housewives,
24,
Ugly Betty, etc., before many other networks in Europe.
RTÉ Two's schedule is carefully made so as to maximise the viewing figures for RTÉ Two but not at the expense of its sister channel,
RTÉ One.
History
There had been much debate in the 1970s about the choice of channel for the second television transmitter network in the State. Initially, it was favoured using the network for
BBC One Northern Ireland, but after much discussion (and lobbying from RTÉ), it was decided that the second channel would be from RTÉ instead.
The channel started broadcasting on
2 November 1978 as RTÉ2. The channel was opened with a gala ceremony from Cork. Due to a technical fault, audio from
BBC Two's was played during the countdown instead of the proper soundtrack, and when the channel commenced programmes, there was no audio for the initial 15 seconds or so. Originally the channel broadcast only from in the evening. It broadcast much live programming from the
BBC and
ITV. However the channel in its initial format wasn't considered a success.
Network 2
In September 1988, RTÉ2 was given a major revamp and became Network 2. In addition to the launch of a new vivid red, blue, and green logo, the channel now came on air at 14:30.
The Den was moved to the channel, along with most youth and children's programming.
Jo Maxi was launched as the youth strand.
Sports Stadium took up the entire Saturday afternoon schedule, and all sports programming was aired on the channel, along with
Irish language programming. A late night news bulletin,
Network News, was also added.
This relaunch was a big success, and Network 2 remained stable until the mid-1990s. A new logo - referring to the channel as RTÉ Network Two (though the "RTÉ" part wasn't referred by announcers), was launched with the new RTÉ logo in 1995. By this time, RTÉ Network Two broadcast from mid-morning onwards, with educational programmes during the day. Also during this era, the channel experimented with late night broadcasts at weekends, under the
Night Shift brand, anchored by Barry Murphy.
The "N2" era
There was another major relaunch in 1997, the channel was visually rebranded as "N2", though announcers continued to refer to "Network 2". N2 brought about perhaps as big a change as the original relaunch, RTÉ branding was dropped from the station almost completely, with home produced programmes now being referred to as "N2 Productions" (foreign imports were "N2 Presentations"). A futuristic logo along with a series of unusual graphical
idents were developed. In-vision announcing returned. More importantly, the channel's line-up was completely refreshed. The late night schedule was completely revamped, with the launch of
News 2 - a tailored bulletin for young people - followed by a talk show,
Later on Two. Monday nights became comedy nights, with the launch of home-produced comedy such as
Don't Feed The Gondolas. Elsewhere theme nights became a regular fixture, particularly on Fridays and Saturdays.
The Den was now broadcast all day until 6pm and was renamed
Den 2.
Not all the changes were universally welcomed, with the "N2" era, RTÉ cancelled its long running Saturday sports programme,
Sports Stadium. Since then, RTÉ hasn't regularly aired live sports (or at least, as part of a regular schedule) on Saturday afternoons, though major events are still covered.
RTÉ Two
Many of the innovations of the N2 era had faded out by 2003. The idents had been replaced by simpler creations, the in-vision continuity had been scrapped again.
Later on Two had more-or-less ended (one of the strands continues as
The View on
RTÉ One). In September 2003, News 2 was reverted back to the regular RTÉ News format (as
RTÉ News on Two).
From September 2003, continuity announcers and trailers began to refer to the channel by the fuller title of "RTÉ Network Two", in line with a new RTÉ initiative to promote the corporate branding. The main channel
idents never changed, and said merely "N2" (although a newly-introduced on-screen
DOG said "RTÉ N2".).
RTÉ decided that the channel needed another revamp to keep it fresh. The channel's name was reverted to RTÉ Two on the morning of 2nd October 2004, with a themed evening of programmes called "Farewell Network 2" beginning at 20:00, featuring
Podge and Rodge (see
The Den). The new logo is similar in style to the current
RTÉ One logo. The new branding is designed to promote the Irishness of the station, green is the dominant colour. New strands were developed. In particular, the number of Irish made programmes has increased, though some of this is made up of a new strand of early evening repeats.
The latest change has been a complete rebrand and relaunch of
The Den, on Saturday
17 September 2005, with the id Two strand becoming
TTV on the following Monday.
Referenced in media
- Saturday Night Live has mentioned this station on two occasions:
- The recurring sketch "Top O'The Morning" hosted by two barflies Patrick Fitzwilliam (Jimmy Fallon) and William Fitzpatrick (Seth Meyers) is said to be broadcast on RTÉ Two.
- A one-off sketch parodying reality shows that focus on remodeling houses called "You Call This A House, Do Ya?" is also said to have broadcast on RTÉ Two
RTÉ News on Two
RTÉ News on Two is
RTÉ's late evening
news programme. The program is broadcast Monday-Thursday on the channel. It doesn't have a regular time slot, but is usually broadcast at some point between 22:45 and 23:30. It runs for 22 minutes.
RTÉ News on Two takes a different agenda to other
RTÉ News programmes. Its content is customised for a younger audience, and presenters and journalists tend to use more informal language on the programme. Since October 2006 the bulletin has been presented by Eileen Whelan, following the departure of Anthony Murnane who was with the programme from the beginning. John O'Driscoll is the programme Editor.
Since March 2007 RTÉ News on Two is now
streamed live on the
internet and archive shows are available to view through the RTÉ
website. On Fridays an extended late summary on
RTÉ One is broadcast instead of RTÉ News on Two. There are no weekend news programmes on RTÉ Two other than summaries.
Sport
RTÉ Two broadcast the majority of RTÉ's sports content. Most
Gaelic Athletic Association,
rugby and
football fixtures are aired on the channel. These include
The Premiership and
Six Nations Championship.
George Hamilton is the station's main sports
commentator. RTÉ Two also gives a small amount of coverage to the
FAI League of Ireland. The
Gaelic Athletic Association fixtures are aired under the names
Match of the Day,
The Saturday Game and
The Sunday Game. RTÉ Two also covers some smaller sports such as
Athletics,
Australian rules,
Baseball,
Basketball,
Combat sports,
Cricket,
Cycling,
Extreme sports,
Golf,
Hockey,
Racquet sports,
Scuba diving,
Snooker,
pool,
Target shooting,
Triathlon, and
Water sports. RTÉ Two also covers the
Olympic Games.
RTÉ Two main analogue transmitters
» Main article: RTÉ Network Limited
| UHF |
VHF |
Location |
| 24 |
G |
Mullaghanish |
| 57 |
G |
Truskmore |
| 65 |
H |
Kippure |
| 56 |
H |
Maghera |
| 34 |
I |
Mount Leinster |
| 26 |
- |
Holywell Hill |
| 33 |
- |
Three Rock |
| 43 |
- |
Cairn Hill |
| 56 |
- |
Clermont Carn |
| 57 |
- |
Spur Hill |
» Source: (External Link
) (Accessed
18 October 2006)
Sources
(External Link)
Irish TV.com
Irish Cable & Digital Guide
RTÉ News (16 Jan. 2006) (External Link). Retrieved Jan. 16 2006.
”Irish Viewers to get a '6' Sense Soon.” (9 Feb. 2006). The Irish Independent Business p10Further Information
Get more info on 'Rt Two'.
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