28 April – Reports emerge that RTÉ has asked the
Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment for permission to reduce the
Aertel teletext service on the grounds that it has been superseded by more recent technology.[4] For legal reasons, RTE has to get permission from the Minister to make significant changes to Aertel.[4]
May
7 May – RTÉ announce plans for a timeshift channel for
RTÉ2.[5]
June
6 June – Ireland's Got Talent will make its UK television debut on
5Star.[6]
July
1 July – ITV closes UTV's
Havelock House studios and UTV begins broadcasting from a new broadcast centre at City Quays 2 in the Belfast Harbour Estate.[7]
August
30 August – TV3 is rebranded as Virgin Media One, while its sister channels
3e and
be3 become Virgin Media Two and Three respectively. A fourth pay TV sports channel,
Virgin Media Sport, launches on the Virgin Media platform.[8]
September
1 September – To coincide with the rebranding of TV3 to Virgin Media One, the Saturday AM and Sunday AM breakfast programmes are renamed as "Weekend AM".[9]
30 November – The Late Late Toy Show is livestreamed on
RTÉ Player, where anyone anywhere in the world can watch live as it is not Geo-blocked.[20] It is also broadcast on RTÉ One, and goes on to become the most watched programmes on Irish television in 2018.[21]
31 December – Norma Sheahan and her family win the 2018 Christmas celebrity special of Ireland's Fittest Family, and €10,000 for their charity of choice.[24]