TV Wintertime Blues
The first month in 2021 sees Irish TV drop by 4% month-on-month and by 1% year-on-year. With Dancing With The Stars put on hiatus due to COVID restrictions RTÉ ONE managed to pull in a normally high audience for this time of year. Ireland's Fittest Family took the place of DWTS to help RTÉ's Sunday night line up, with the return of The Tommy Tiernan Show also helping weekend viewing on the channel. Virgin Media one's line up of returning ITV reality shows helped them to retain an 11% share. Overall RTÉ held 27% of the audience, while their nearest rivals Virgin Media Television held on to 17%.
TG4 had an audience share of 2%.
RTÉ ONE saw a monthly increase in audience of 6%, it had an audience share of 21%, no change from January last year.
RTÉ2 saw its share halved from last month, achieving just 4% share, it was down by 12% from January 2020.
RTÉ ONE +1 and RTÉjr had 1.16% and 0.34% respectively. RTÉ2 +1 had 0.2% in January 2021.
Virgin Media one audience share was 11% in January, no change from December, and a 7% drop year on year.
Virgin Media TWO has a 3% share, down 5% from last month and no change from January 2020.
Meanwhile, Virgin Media THREE was at 3%, up 29% from December and up 66% from January 2020. Virgin Media one +1 had an audience share of 0.3%.
eirSport1 saw its audience increase to 0.25%, while Virgin Media Sport had just 0.04% as their rights issues continued.
English channels had 55% share of the audience in January 2021.
| Channel | January 2021 | Monthly Change | Yearly Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| RTÉ ONE | 20.94% | 6% | 0% |
| RTÉ ONE +1 | 1.16% | -9% | 5% |
| RTÉjr | 0.34% | -6% | -39% |
| RTÉ2 | 3.88% | -46% | -12% |
| RTÉ2 +1 | 0.2% | -17% | 18% |
| RTÉ Total | 26.82% | -8% | -2% |
| VMT one | 10.6% | 0% | -7% |
| VMT one +1 | 0.30% | 3% | -9% |
| VMT TWO | 3.36% | -5% | 0% |
| VMT THREE | 2.52% | 29% | 66% |
| VMT SPORT | 0.04% | -67% | -20% |
| VMT Total | 16.82% | 2% | 1% |
| TG4 | 1.78% | -11% | -10% |
| eir Sport 1 | 0.25% | 317% | 14% |
| Total | 45.37% | -4% | -1% |
| Other | 54.63% | 4% | 1% |
| Channel Group | January |
|---|---|
| RTÉ | 26.52% |
| Virgin Media TV | 16.82% |
| Sky | 7.28% |
| BBC | 6.32% |
| Channel 4 | 4.52% |
| Viacom | 3.20% |
| UKTV | 2.67% |
| TG4 | 1.78% |
| Discovery | 1.57% |
| Eir Sport | 0.25% |
| Other | 28.93% |
Full list of channels by broadcaster
BBC includes BBC1 and BBC2
Channel 4 includes Channel 4, Channel 4 +1, More4, E4, E4 +1 and Film4
Viacom includes Comedy Central, Comedy Central Extra, MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr, Nicktoons, Nick Jr Too, CBS Reality, CBS Justice and CBS Drama
Sky includes Sky Comedy, Sky 1, Sky Replay, Sky News,Sky Sport Main Event, Sky Sports Football, Sky Sports Golf, Sky Sports Premier League, Sky Sports News, Sky Witness, Sky Atlantic, Pick and Challenge
Discovery includes TLC, Discovery, Discovery ID, Really and Food Network
UKTV includes Dave, Gold, Alibi, W and Drama
Others include RTÉ News, BBC News, UTV/ITV, BBC4 along with any other channels not listed above.