TG4 (; Irish: TG Ceathair, pronounced[ˌtʲeːɟeːˈcahəɾʲ]) is an Irish free-to-air public service television channel. It launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond.
TG4 was initially known as Teilifís na Gaeilge (TnaG), before being renamed in 1999. TG4 was the third national station to be launched in Ireland, after RTÉ One in 1961 (as Teilifís Éireann) and RTÉ Two in 1978. It was followed by a fourth channel, TV3 (now called Virgin Media One), in 1998.
On average 1.2m people watch TG4 in the Republic of Ireland every week. 650,000 viewers tune into the channel each day. It has a share of 2% of the national television market in the Republic of Ireland and 3% of the national television market in Northern Ireland. The daily Irish-language programme schedule is its core service: seven hours of programming in Irish supported by a wide range of material in other languages, mostly English and French.
TG4 launched its high-definition channel (TG4 HD) in 2012 on Virgin Media Ireland.
* = Have been modified recently
