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RTÉ AND VIRGIN Media both announced their seasonal TV programming schedules today with Tommy Tiernan and Mrs Brown leading the charge for the national broadcaster, while Virgin Media has plenty of Christmas specials to keep you busy.
Following on from the success of his RTÉ chat show, Tommy Tiernan is back with a one-off special interviewing with people from all walks of life, some well-known personalities, some lesser so, and like Tommy we’ll find out who they are on the night.
Mrs Brown’s Boys is also back with two more episodes on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve in what has become an expected festive tradition at this stage. This year Agnes is recruited to the church choir under strict instructions, while a Christmas tree shortage causes Buster to get more creative than usual.
A new animated short fronted by Toy Show favourite Adam King, Adam Saves Christmas, will air on RTÉjr on Christmas Eve. Look out for Ryan Tubridy as the voice of Santa Claus.
There will also be an Ireland’s Fittest Family celebrity special over Christmas in which celebrities – including The Happy Pear’s Flynn twins and comedian Neil Delamere – will be put through gruelling physical challenges.
There’ll also be a new one-hour family entertainment show hosted by Dermot Whelan and Doireann Garrihy. RTÉ says Big Night is one of its “biggest gifts” to Irish families this season with celebrity pranks, studio games, and audience surprises all promised.
Meanwhile, The 2 Johnnies will be ringing in the New Year on RTÉ One live from Dublin Castle with guests from the world of sport and entertainment.
There is also a raft of new original documentaries coming up this month including Steps of Freedom (the story of how Irish dance became a global phenomenon), and How Ireland Rocked the 70s (the evolution of the festival circuit in Ireland during the 1970s).
Other highlights include A Grand Year which sees award-winning filmmaker Ross Whitaker tell the remarkable tale of Rachael Blackmore’s rise to the pinnacle of horse racing and her historic year. While Daniel at Sixty promises to be an “entertaining and honest insight” into the life of the Donegal crooner as he turns 60 with exclusive access to O’Donnell, his family, and friends as they take a trip down memory lane.
And if you’re a fan of Fair City, this Christmas expect to see Lucy’s unconventional relationship with Dolores and Tyler come to a head as the Gardaí close in on cracking the case of Ritchie Lennon’s murder in Carrickstown.
The schedule wouldn’t be complete without movie listings, so here are the highlights:
These classic films are also on the schedule though no word yet on when they’ll be airing exactly: Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually, The Greatest Showman, Die Hard, Braveheart, Back to the Future trilogy, E.T., the Indiana Jones series, Home Alone 2 Lost in New York, Casablanca, Singin in the Rain, The Big Sleep, and Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang.
Over on Virgin Media, they’ve got a number of new Irish Christmas specials airing this month along with all the festive specials fresh from the UK.
Idris Elba sits down with Paul McCartney on Monday 20 December at 9pm, while Piers Morgan is joined by Good Morning Britain presenter Kate Garraway on Tuesday 21 December at 10pm for his final Piers Morgan’s Life Stories. Graham Norton is also back on New Year’s Eve with his annual show at 11.55pm on Friday 31 December featuring a host of celebrities.
On Christmas Eve from 6pm you can watch The Celebrity Chase Christmas Special, The Cube Celebrity Special and Alan Carr’s Epic Gameshow.
Battle of the Christmas Lights sees two Cork families as they go head-to-head to create the best possible Christmas on their street. It airs at 7pm this Saturday.The Restaurant Christmas Special returns on 14 December at 9.30pm as Marco Pierre White and Rachel Allen put Mary Black through her paces in the kitchen.
On Christmas Day, Don’t Look Back In Anger will be revisiting some of the biggest news stories of the year and everything in between at 5.30pm. You can also catch special hour-long episodes of Emmerdale and Coronation Street from 7pm on Virgin Media One on Christmas Day.
A new music series showcasing Irish talent, Fanning at Whelan’s, airs on Virgin Media Two from Saturday 4 December at 10pm. Each episode will feature live performances from acts like Inhaler, Kodaline, Paddy Casey, Lyra and Mick Flannery.
Virgin Media also has a line-up of festive flicks and the odd favourite thrown in too. Virgin Media One will be showing Finding Jack Charlton (Saturday 27 December at 10pm), Bad Santa 2 (Saturday 18 December 9.30pm), Madagascar: Escape to Africa (Christmas Eve 4.05pm), and Central Intelligence (Christmas Eve 10pm).
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I’ve had an account since they launched in Ireland, it was €7.99 then. I’ve accepted every pay increase, and I’ve kept the top tier subscription the whole time because my parents and partner also use it. I live with my partner now but my folks still share the account and I pay for the privilege as far as I’m concerned. If Netflix stop allowing account sharing between addresses they’re not going to get an extra sub out of my parents, instead I’ll just cancel mine out of spite and use my plex server full time.
Piracy (not that I would do something so illegal) became less attractive for many people with services like Spotify and Netflix making it VERY convenient to consume media for a low price, but as they get greedier and less user friendly they’re going to start pushing people away from paying and back to the high seas.
@Ribeard Ó Fiachna: yeah, exactly same boat here. Bunch of folks using my account so I’ve accepted the price increase and I’m happy enough to let them continue scrounging. Like you said, I also haven’t been using Plex too often , apart from some of the latest movie releases and/or TV shows I’d like to watch that are on subscription services I don’t subscribe to :)
@Ribeard Ó Fiachna: Hmm, but sharing an account between different households is against their T&C, so it’s piracy?
@Ribeard Ó Fiachna: Sure would it make more sense to share the top tier subscription of €21 between the 4 of ye for a total of €5.25 each?
@Ribeard Ó Fiachna: plex is the only job
Not impressed with it, I spend more time looking for something to watch than watching . I’ve had it for years. I might be just about ready to unsubscribe.
@Mary Fitzsimons: Im the same, i got rid of it for that exact reason.
It’ll probably be the next subscription to get the chop
They’re taking the buscuit with their latest price increases. I downgraded as a result. While I love using it, if it goes up any higher it will get the chop
Cancelled it after the latest increase in prize. It doesn’t make sense to pay that much when Amazon Prime gives a lot more, for a lot less.
@P. Hansson: prime is awful! sometimes there are seasons missing, other times randomly episodes are unavailable mid season! cancelled it because of that.
@P. Hansson: have no enjoyed prime. Feels light years behind Netflix in terms of user experience. But Apple TV is pretty good.
@P. Hansson: The only show I really had any interest on Prime was The Boys.
@Pete Gilmartin: try Goliath too
Have it but most likely I’ll cancel it soon
@Darren Lynch: same. Im currently watching locke and key, but once in finished that, I’ll be cancelling, as there’s nothing else currently that I’m interested in.
I cancelled a few months ago. Price keeps going up and not enough good new content.
I do not have a Netflix subscription. Instead, I have a life.
@Dick Barrett: what are you doing on here ?
@Dick Barrett: Imagine people thinking you have no life because you have a netflix subscription… lol
@James Lough: The simplest retorts are still the best. I enjoyed this one James!
If you have a Sky account make sure to pay your Nextflix sub through them as it’s only a 6.99 a month add on.
@David: when I spoke to sky they were going to charge me €7.99, deducted monthly, instead I paid direct to Netflix for a full year and got it for €79. In effect 2 months free by committing and going direct
@D. Memery: How do pay annually for Netflix?
I only see monthly option on my account.
I pay annually for Disney+
@David: i was going to do that but i only have 1 sky box so i wouldnt be able to watch netflix in bed on tv
@Sue OB: You can still use it on a device as well as TV.
Already cancelled it after they hosted paedophilic movies like Cuties.
Netflix is societal degeneracy dressed up as entertainment.
@Credalytics ☘️: How do you know so much about that particular movie?
@Ken Fallon:
How do you know so little ?
@Credalytics ☘️: you really missed the point of that movie. It was an expose of the rampant sexualisation of youngsters, not a celebration of it.
@Sandra Duffy: he misses the point quite often tbf.
Have Netflix since it became available in Ireland, latest price increase had me informing them that I said no to it and cancelled my subscription, so come 28th of this month, Goodbye. Have a Firestick so I have what Netflix has on my movie apps and no subscription, also use a free VPN and can watch up to date movies and series for free.
Subbed to it for a long time but the latest price rises have it reaching a point where it’s becoming too much, especially with the rise of other competing services like Disney+, Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
I think in future I might just rotate between the different streaming services each month.
@Rochelle: I pay for Prime on my broadband bill, but when it comes to Netflix I subscribe for a month, cancel it for two and then subscribe for another month. There is not enough new content on it to keep paying for it every month so I binge the new stuff I want to watch, for the month I have it. And particularly with the new “weekly” episodes, rather than the whole series, it’s not worth it.
I use 7 illegal movie apps which show tv shows so would never pay for Netflix
No I don’t use any of these DRM services. The odd few fillims I watch in the year I just torrent
I’m already teetering – I share it with my kids, and it’s only 1-screen at a time. In reality even they don’t use it that much. But, if Netflix go down the rabbit hole on this they won’t get any subscription and I’ll cancel and they see how they like them onions.
The last price increase was the end of my subscription, equally as good much less expensive options out there.
I watch a lot of the korean stuff (with subtitles) on netflix which I can’t see anywhere else legally (vpn doesn’t work most of the time) so that’s the main reason I keep it. paying for HD/2 screens because that’s still decent quality on a 4k monitor/TV.
I do but I don’t pay Irish prices. Signing up through Turkey the top plan is less than 5 euro a month and you get same Irish content, that’s with a 41% increase just after being added on recently.
Its handy for the kids but If this way gets cut off I wont be paying 20.99 a month.
Have plenty with Amazon Prime!
Use my brother’s one. Thanks, lad.
@Fred spins kdb: Same here. Think it is very selfish of him canceling his subscription. Trying to get him to subscribe to Disney plus which you can also share..It will also be cheaper for him. Can’t understand why he is like a dog with me at the moment.
I get a month’s subscription when I have the money to pay for it, I then immediately cancel. I definitely don’t do a rolling subscription.
@Jane Alford: That’s what I do too. I subscribe for a month, binge on the new content and seasons then cancel it and subscribe again two months later, when there’s enough new stuff to watch.
I cancelled mine a few months ago and opened a prime acc instead. Cheaper and there’s more on it.
No opinion for no because the new price is insane? I’d pay more for a bundle of services but to have each is not financially viable
I used to have one, but didn’t think it was worth the money.
I will be cancelling my subscription soon, as soon as hubby has finished watching Ozark.
I probably have too many subscriptions, Netflix, Prime (poor PrimeVideo Ireland version) and Starzplay – all because of maybe one series per streaming service that I’d actually watch.
How will this new control work? I have no Wifi or broadband at home (barely even a phone signal to be honest), I usually download a show or series when I do have access to connection, then watch later. I saw on The Six O’Clock Show on Virgin Media last evening, they said it was going to be restricted to your home broadband account – I don’t have one.
have your say