BBC Choice Northern Ireland was the national variation for

BBC Northern Ireland BBC Northern Ireland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcasting, public broadcaster in Northern Ireland. It is widely available across both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. BBC Northern Ireland is one of the four BB ...

of the

BBC Choice BBC Choice was a British digital television channel which was owned by the BBC and was launched on 23 September 1998. It was the first United Kingdom, British TV channel to broadcast exclusively in Digital television, digital format, as well as t ...

service, that was broadcast by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. As with the local variants of BBC Choice in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and Wales, BBC Choice Northern Ireland carried much of its content from the network BBC Choice service originating in London, but split off most evenings for around two hours a night (generally around 10pm to midnight) of local programming to Northern Ireland. When the ''

EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a British television soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London, the ...

'' rebroadcast aired at 10pm, local programming would begin at 10.30pm. After around midnight, programming would revert to the network service until closedown.

Broadcasting

The service was available on the ONdigital/

ITV Digital ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners ...

terrestrial service and cable in Northern Ireland only, and on the Sky Digital satellite service across the UK – listed as channel 160 on Sky in Northern Ireland and at the rear of the programme guide elsewhere in the UK; this was as part of a system to allow the correct regional variant for the viewer's area to be accessed from the primary channel number.

History

The BBC Choice Northern Ireland service launched alongside the other BBC Choice variants on 23 September 1998 and ceased broadcasting on 30 March 2001 and it was replaced by a fully networked

. The channel was then itself replaced from 2003 by

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

, which has never had any regional variants. None of the BBC's other digital services offer variants (whilst BBC One HD currently offers a single UK-wide service based on the Network schedule, with local programme out-outs in Scotland, Wales, NI and the English regions currently available in SD only.) Following the closure of BBC Choice's regional variants in 2001,

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

's variants for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were made available to digital viewers (previously a single UK-wide version of BBC Two had been available on digital platforms). Following the closure of BBC Choice Northern Ireland in 2001, a 'digital version' of

BBC Two Northern Ireland BBC Two Northern Ireland is a Northern Irish free-to-air television channel owned and operated by BBC Northern Ireland as a variation of the BBC Two network. It is broadcast via digital terrestrial transmitters and from the SES Astra 2E satell ...

launched which was separate to that available on analogue; it carried many of the NI-specific programme opt-outs as on the analogue service, but also carried some additional digital-only programmes, in the main carried over from BBC Choice NI. This dual-service continued until October 2006, when it was decided to recombine the two BBC Two services for Northern Ireland into a single schedule, which is the service now available.

Programmes

* '' Newsline Extra'' * '' PK Tonight'' * '' The Maternity'' * '' Choice Cuts'' * '' XIth Hour'' * '' Awash with Colour'' * '' Spotlight'' * '' Greenfingers'' * '' Comic Asides'' * '' The DIY Show'' * '' Straight Talking'' * '' Chosen Words'' * '' Big Houses'' * '' Saints and Scholars'' * '' Rankin Challenge''

Presenters

* Kathy Clugston * Jennie Browne * Michael Selby

References

{{BBC Television Television in Northern Ireland Television stations in Ireland Television channels and stations established in 1998 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2001 1998 establishments in Northern Ireland 2001 disestablishments in Northern Ireland Defunct BBC television channels BBC Northern Ireland