I have that weird chorus package they do for flats where your landlord just pays for the whole building but you only get RTE, TV3, TG4, Sky One and two other channels that they change every month. RTE and TV3 seem to be nothing but soaps and TV3 news is comically bad. Sky One is mostly crap, but at least you get the simpsons a lot! TG4 is great from time to time. At the moment chorus are giving us the Discovery Channel and its great, Lots of documentaries about tanks and warships and other cool things that blow stuff up! They do seem to be worryingly obsessed by war though, wheres the documentaries on art history, the lives of common people or just non-military technology. Its like every second one is about WW2 and the third reich, bit worrying really.

Completely agree with you, I don't even own a telly and haven't done for a long time now, on the odd occasion someone may have something on and it's just so mind-numbling boring....soaps, reality TV, crap american comedy, crap american reality tv, soap stars on reality tv...pure bulls**t!!! Bring back the days when their were actually actors and comedians doing excellent shows. This is a generalisation as of course there are good shows on the TV, but they are the very small minorty!!

Can't disagree with you there. But I reckon MTV has to be the worst offender. Now there is a channel that has got lowest common denominator stamped all over it. Watching idiots hamming up their idiocy

Believe it or not, I used to work in television and as part of my work I had to got to the annual television markets. The following are the top three, fav subjects for television documentaries. 1) Sharks 2) Nazis 3) Aliens Notice a connection. Yep, Spielberg.

haha, thats sooo true about documentaries Jules. I love the way all those shark documentaries are billed as things like "KILLERS FROM THE DEEP" or some other dramatic B-Movie type title, then they documentary tells you "well actually sharks are misunderstood and not that aggressive really".

Reality TV is the worst though isn't it? I mean there isn't anything real about it. These shows on E4 and what have you with the "twist" at the end, it's the 21st century equivalent of Beadles About or Game For A Laugh. And RTE's handle on the genre is always cringe worthy, they have a new one out soon The Dinner Party I think it's called. So we'll see how that one goes.

"KILLERS FROM THE DEEP" / "well actually sharks are misunderstood and not that aggressive really". yeah i love that one - "we have to remember we are invading their environment" is another peach. it seems a prerequisite for these salty sea-dog documentary makers to get a lump of themselves bitten off, so that they can then become driven to understand what it was that prompted the misunderstood shark to strike in the first place. was it the current? was it the backwash? was it the weird electrical current from my super-duper scuba watch? how about the fact the f**ker was just hungry?!!!

the irish are only good at seerious television making, we pushed all the funny lads away to c4 and such, meanwhile we let that phuckin dope des bishop do a show about crap jobs which fair enough is an interesting issue he just wasnt up for the task of picking out the things that mattered in it. and i hate him because he got offended on other peoples behalf, is there anything more arrrogant? a55hole. the ultimate documentary: "alien killer sharks with nazi belief systems" how the feck do we get sharks to be racist though?

I think the reason for so many Nazi WW2 documentaries on Discovery is due to the fact that the channel's main man is none other than Anthony Semitischtein, a suspected Nazi sympathist and collaborator even. One of my sources informs me that he is using Discovery as a propaganda tool. Don't believe me? Well, think of all the programmes that show Tiger tanks destroying Russian, British and US ones. Or Battlefield's love of Rommel "The Desert Fox". The list goes on my friends. Mr Semiticischtein is planning on launching his Fourth Reich from where one cannot fight back...from inside your own TV in your own home. You have been warned.

Yes, have to agree with you there. Got rid of my tv three months ago: just got sick of the whole "How Clean Is Your Soft Porn House" style of programming. Haven't looked back since. Miss it sometimes (Sopranos, Curb Your Enthuasiasm etc.), but anything half-decent tends to come out on DVD and I can rent them and watch them on the PC. Plus, none of that guilt/fear of getting caught by the mythical TV licence inspector (never had one) and getting lots of reading done, too. I reckon it's the way forward.

Hmmmmm. I'm going to dissent from this and say I LOVE my TV. Yes there is a lot of bollocks but sure that's always been the way. On the other hand, we also have: Six Feet Under The Sopranos Oz ER NYPD Blue Curb Your Enthusiasm And Channel Four show some great documentaries from time to time like "Despatches" and so forth. THe Channel Four news is good too, it's the only mainstream TV news programme that dares to offer some kind of critical analysis of the establishment. Oh God, I'm starting to sound like f**king Ben Elton. :rolleyes:

Channel 4 is strange, it has both the best and worst TV out there. This is the channel that brought us big brother remember!

It always bothers me to hear people bash RTE's output. Sure it's occasionally a bit thin but there are a few reasons for this : 1 - The Demographic ( RTE provides perfectly fine programming for the rural minded (( That some on this board may not appreciate )) , the Religous and the elderly. They can't suddenly fill the airwaves with 24 Hour Sopranos or whatever. 2 - Revenue - The suggestion that a foreign owned station that has little or no self made programs ( TV3 ) should share in the licence fee is ridiculous. TV3 Is a blight on this nation. Dumbing down everything and shamelessly promoting it's parent companies output. I mean how ridiculous is it to find yourself watching ' Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway ' on TV3!? RTE may benefit from having licence fee's and advertising revenue but remember : It still costs the same for a station with 30 Million viewers to make an hour of news as it does a country of 3 million. This is why RTE should not be castigated for needing more money. RTE has consistently provided this country with the first showing this side of the Atlantic, of numerous popular American shows and Movies. It;s dedication to Sport is, in the face of Sky Sports, astounding. Oh and Paths to Freedom was fairly good BTW

im with jules mostly here i think. how much did no disco/songs from a room actually cost versus what it could be worth to them in advertising time etc. Compare this little bit of maths to the cost of paying those "suckers of satan's co£$"(thanks Mr. Hicks) to out do each other in imatating that fat guy Simon Powel or whatever his name is. There are bands in this country would pay to get on a show on RTE like songs from a room. It doesnt make sense. Baffling. But hey, what are you going to do? RTE news coverage is my favorite (shame the Irish Times can sometimes be a repeat of it the next morning though!). I must interject with an interesting fact that serves to sum up alot of what people have to say about the people in charge of public money in Ireland. The Luas works began in 1995. The first one travelled in 2004. Ladies and gentlemen, with a government like these lads, who needs foreign invaders and crazy inflation rates?

I have been watching The God Channel recently and have come away converted. Unfortunately, I have come away converted to Satanism.