Suil eile? TnaG becomes TG4 - changing its image and language

When it hit our television screens in an explosion of fireworks one Halloween night three years ago, Teilifis na Gaeilge (TnaG), the State's first Irish-language television station, was greeted with both relief and excitement by an Irish-speaking community which had fought long and hard to have a State-funded service. .

Relief to see the struggle finally won, and excitement at the potential of what seemed to be a station bubbling with enthusiasm and new ideas. In fact, with its gorgeous, Irish-speaking female presenters, the birth of TnaG seemed to usher in the era of the "Gael babe". TnaG (or Tina as it was soon christened) looked set to mark a whole new chapter in all things as Gaeilge.

For the enthusiasts and optimists, there was a vitality and freshness which boded well both for the future of the station and the impact it might have on the language itself. There was a strong belief that TnaG would attract viewers who had little Irish, as well as fluent speakers, enticed by everything from the youthfulness of some of its programming to the occasional excellent documentary.

It had its critics though. From the outset there were those less than convinced that a station which transmitted its programmes in a language only a minority could understand would actually be able to compete in a world of cable which offered up everything from hardcore documentaries to pop music and all the soaps, movies and sports you could hope for in between. It was also a world on the brink of digital television which would mean, oh, so many more stations to compete with TnaG.

And there were problems. Transmission problems gave rise to sad faces in homes all around the island. After one particularly elated party in Portadown celebrating the advent of TnaG, there was quite a comedown when the party-goers headed home to watch telly, only to find that no one could actually get the station. But following improvements to transmitters, the station is now available in 90 per cent of Irish sitting rooms.

In fact, less than a year after the station was launched, the head of TnaG, Cathal Goan, said more people were watching it than any other minority-interest channel, including Sky News, Eurosport and MTV. Today the station management claims to have a daily "reach" (viewers who tune in for more than one minute a day) of around 400,000.

Why then, has TnaG had to undergo a major image overhaul? In general, if something is very successful, it is in need of little change. However, just a couple of weeks ago, TnaG became TG4. The explanation from TG4 is that the name change is a bid to have the station shifted further up the spectrum of stations on cable services, from 12, 13, or 14 where it resides now to number four on every television and establish it as the fourth national station, after the two RTE stations and TV3. The feeling was the station was lost somewhere in minority-station wasteland, only happened upon during the odd bout of mindless TV zapping.

Describing the change as a natural step, a station official said "the core values of the channel remain the same".

However, that statement has been questioned. TG4 will broadcast 12 hours a day, with four-and-a-half to five hours of programming in Irish. A year ago a TnaG council member, Donncha O hEallaithe, said that the service was not attracting a significant audience for Irish-language programmes and should be revamped either as a Gaeltacht-only service or an Irish-language commissioning agency for RTE. He said the hundreds of thousands of viewers who tuned in each evening were actually watching the English programmes. TnaGadhraic O Ciardha, said the channel had established its own distinctive national identity and that viewer ratings were strong. Funny then, that a year later the station would choose to re-invent that identity.

When the station was set up it was received State funding for only two hours of Irish-language programming a day. (RTE also provides one hour of Irish-language programming a day.) Although the amount of Irish-language programming has expanded considerably from there, the funding hasn't.

It has been suggested that in order to become commercially viable, to pay for that Irish programming, the station has to attract more viewers - and that the only way to do that was to adapt those "core values" by introducing more and more English-language programming. Even many of the ads are in English now.

Commentary on the change has been mixed, with some people complaining the original intention of providing an Irish-language station has been diluted to the extent that TG4 has become little more than another RTE 1, which also provides some Irish-language programming. Others roll their "told you so" eyeballs, watching with little hope a station they felt was conceptually doomed from the outset.

Perhaps it could be said that TG4 is less the State's first Irish-language station, and more its first bilingual station. Maybe it is having an identity crisis, maybe it is meeting the needs of its viewers, but with the advent of digital TV just around the corner, its future remains to be seen.