[chinamug]

In reality, this is another RTE problem too - RTE should have been there at the start, ready to get the Irish rights for the show - it should have been airing on Saturday nights on RTE 1 simulcast with BBC 1, considering RTE 1 shows no home produced programming after their Saturday early evening news, just usually movies.

It seems also BBC Studios and Disney are also at fault, as when the deal was signed for the international rights of the show, the Republic of Ireland was overlooked - in fact one media insider told me, they just forgot about Ireland, as they thought BBC iPlayer was available legally in the Republic of Ireland, and then too late when they discovered it wasn't, hence the botched RTE deal rushed into place, and of course RTE being in dire financial straits, I bet they couldn't afford the simulcast deal

Poor showing, but sci fi television in Ireland was never a success apart from Star Trek which the original series and Next Generation pulled in decent ratings for RTE in the day

I'd be the last to defend RTE but it's not an RTE problem. Doctor Who for whatever reasons has never been big in Ireland. There's hasn't been a mention anywhere about the lack of access to the series on streaming services. I'm sure one or two people have been put out by the situation, but if you really want to watch it, it's not hard to access. I'm sure it'll appear on the RTE Player with little publicly just like the Specials last year.

Sci fi in Ireland has been a success in Ireland, RTE showed a fair share of Sci fi over the years, and Stations like Sky One were the go to place for Sci fi fans both in the UK and Ireland since the 90's. The main exception to the rule is Doctor Who which tended to have poor audiences when broadcast on TV3 and TG4.