The following is a list of events relating to television in Ireland from 2015.
Events
January 1 January – UTV Ireland, the country's first new commercial broadcaster since the launch of TV3 in 1998, goes on air at 7.25pm. The opening night includes an hour-long episode of Emmerdale and a New Year special presented by Pat Kenny. The Station Promo Voice Was Paul Kennedy, he can be heard every day on Coolfm and Spirit radio The Graham Norton have moved from TV3 after UTV Ireland secured their broadcasting rights from its rival. 4 January – Charlie, a drama about the private life of former Taoiseach Charles Haughey, debuts on RTÉ One. The first episode is watched by an audience of 724,000. 5 January – RTÉ One begins We Need to Talk About Porn, a two-part documentary looking at the extent and impact of pornography consumption in Ireland. 5 January – UTV Ireland's national news service, Ireland Live, launches. 7 January – New soap Red Rock begins on TV3. 8 January – The Guarantee, Colin Murphy's film about the Irish banking crisis, receives its world television premiere on TV3 at 9.00 p.m. 10 January – New National Lottery game show hosted by Nicky Byrne, The Million Euro Challenge, starts on RTÉ One. The show is later cancelled after just one series. 12 January – Figures indicate that RTÉ broadcast the 20 most watched television programmes of 2014. 15 January – Figures indicate RTÉ broadcast the 20 most watched sports programmes of 2014. 18 January – The Sunday Independent reports that the decision by Sky and UPC Ireland to increase their prices may have had a negative impact on UTV Ireland's launch because price rises coincided with the launch. UPC's decision to allocate UTV Ireland the same channel formerly occupied by Northern Ireland's UTV may also be affecting the channel because some of the content available through UTV is not shown by its counterpart. 21 January – Sean Haughey, the son of the late Taoiseach Charles Haughey, criticises the portrayal of his father in RTÉ's drama Charlie. 27 January – The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland publishes a new code of programme standards designed to promote responsible broadcasting. 28 January – John Whelan, chair of the support group Advic, criticises TV3 for what he feels to be a juvenile press release about State Pathologist Marie Cassidy's appearance in an edition of the channel's The Restaurant. The press release begins by suggesting that Cassidy "hopes to knock 'em dead on TV3's 'The Restaurant'", which Whelan feels is inappropriate when her office deals with cases of murder and manslaughter. 28 January – In Cork, an edition of Vincent Browne's Peoples Debate descends into uproar when a member of the audience miss-chooses his words while discussing the upcoming same-sex marriage referendum, then goes into a rant about the morals of Ireland's political parties when his error is pointed out to him. Footage of the debate subsequently becomes popular on YouTube. 30 January – TV3 axes its afternoon show Late Lunch Live in favour of an evening chat show. The 7 O'Clock Show will air from 16 February, and will be presented by Late Lunch Live presenters Lucy Kennedy and Martin King. 30 January – UTV Ireland secures a deal with ITV to show Good Morning Britain after complaints from viewers who had watched the show on UTV via UPC. The programme had been absent from the platform since UTV Ireland's launch.
February 1 February – Stephen Fry appears as a guest on RTÉ One's religious affairs programme The Meaning of Life during which he makes controversial comments about God, of whom he says is "utterly evil, capricious and monstrous". 2 February – Good Morning Britain debuts on UTV Ireland, but viewing figures give it an average audience of 2,700, compared to 61,000 for TV3's Ireland AM. 4 February – Sky reports an increase of more than 200,000 customers in the UK and Ireland in the second half of 2014, its highest growth for nine years. 4 February – The National Lottery midweek draw is postponed until the following day because of a computer glitch that stopped the ticket machines working. 4 February – It is announced that Jeff Ford will leave his role as TV3's Director of Content in April to take up the position of General Manager at Fox International Channels UK. 4 February – Viewing figures for TV3's new soap Red Rock have halved from 323,000 to 165,000 during its first three weeks of broadcasting. However, TV3 remains pleased with the soap's performance, saying that its viewership has surpassed expectations. 4 February – TV3 presenter Sybil Mulcahy announces she is leaving the channel after 16 years. 5 February – RTÉ2 confirms it will air Eurovision's Greatest Hits, a concert celebrating 60 years of the Eurovision Song Contest, which will be shown throughout Europe over the Easter weekend. 9 February – Setanta Sports announces that it has gained exclusive live broadcasting rights to Champions League and Europa League football for three years from 2015 to 2016. However, RTÉ has retained the television and online rights to show Wednesday Champions League matches, while TV3 will show Tuesday Champions League matches. 9 February – A man who appears in the TV3 documentary series Prison Families is given a suspended sentence at Dublin's Circuit Criminal Court after his trial was told that a robbery and an attempted robbery he committed took place at the time of other offences, and should have been considered at a previous trial. 12 February – Viewing figures released by Tam Ireland and Nielsen indicate UTV Ireland had an average audience of 5.5% through January, with an episode of Coronation Street featuring a storyline involving a bus crash having the most number of viewers, with 597,000. 13 February – UTV Ireland announces its intention to air highlights of the Ireland cricket team's 2015 World Cup campaign, beginning with their opening match against the West Indies on 16 February. 14 February – Vodafone unveil plans to launch a TV service to compete with UPC, Sky and Eircom. 15 February – UTV Ireland considers a move for its 6.30pm bulletin of Ireland Live to take on TV3's TV3 News at 5.30pm because of poor viewing figures, which were as low as 2% for the first two weeks of January. 16 February – Laura Whitmore announces that she is leaving MTV News after seven years. 18 February – The BBC Northern Ireland current affairs series Spotlight wins "Scoop of the Year" at the Royal Television Society Awards for its programme A Woman Alone With The IRA, an investigation into how the IRA handled sexual abuse allegations against a suspected member. 18 February – UTV Ireland confirms it will be showing Carl Frampton's prize fight against Chris Avalos on 28 February after UPC viewers, whose access to UTV ended with the launch of its all-Ireland counterpart, expressed concerns it would not be available. 19 February – Taoiseach Enda Kenny uses Prime Time to submit to a rare live television interview but must wait as an episode of British soap opera EastEnders concludes. 20 February – Ryan Tubridy's tone and choice of questions when interviewing Anti-Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy in relation to the campaign against the implementation of a water tax on The Late Late Show is much criticised. 23 February – Undecided on whether to renew The Voice of Ireland for a fifth series, RTÉ are looking for an alternative to replace the programme for its Winter 2016 schedule. But after considering other options, the broadcaster announces in June that The Voice of Ireland will return for a fifth series in January 2016. 25 February – Paramount Pictures Ireland announce a collaboration with the Gaelic language television channel TG4 that will see The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water made available in the Irish language in cinemas, the first collaboration of its kind. 26 February – The TV3 Group confirms plans to launch TV3 HD on both UPC Ireland and Sky Ireland in August. 26 February – TV3 confirms its intention to air all 48 matches from the 2015 Rugby World Cup. 27 February – Singer–songwriter Molly Sterling is selected to represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "Playing with Numbers". Sterling, who at 17 is Ireland's youngest Eurovision entry, is knocked out of the contest during the second semi-final on 21 May.
March 1 March – The Sunday Independent reports that RTÉ and TV3 are allowing representatives of commercial brands to appear on daytime chat shows to sell their products as part of package deals ranging from €1,000 to €15,000 per appearance. The sale of "editorial airtime" is prohibited by the broadcasting regulations. 1 March – Writing in the Sunday Independent, GAA analyst and former All-Ireland winner Joe Brolly expresses his concern over the 2014 deal that allows Sky Sports to air some matches on a pay-per-view basis, saying that it "exemplifies the disregard for the lifeblood" of the GAA. However, speaking to RTÉ the following day, the new president of the Association, Aogán Ó Fearghail says that the deal has not hurt viewing figures and broadened the reach of Gaelic football by allowing it to be aired to a greater audience, but suggests that now there may be too many televised matches and the number may have to be reduced. 4 March – TV3's Red Rock tackles the issue of arranged marriage with the arrival of two Asian characters, a father and daughter in conflict over the topic. 4 March – RTÉ launches RTÉ Player International, an online service making the broadcaster's content available to international viewers. 5 March – As figures reveal that audience figures for UTV's Ireland Live dropped from 1.5 million in January to 1.3 million in February, Kevin Bakhurst, the managing director of news and current affairs at RTÉ, tells the Evening Herald UTV face a "hard slog" to improve their audience numbers. 5 March – John Martin, a member of the New Land League, says he will make an official complaint to Gardaí following a confrontation with broadcaster Vincent Browne outside a repossessed property in Killiney the previous day. Gorse Hill Manor has been occupied by the group since it was seized by the High Court. Brown was accompanied by a camera crew and journalists, and used footage of his visit on that evening's edition of his show, Tonight with Vincent Browne. 5 March – TV3 announces it is axing the live element of its entertainment series, Xposé, which will return to being pre-recorded. The decision will allow the broadcaster to develop The 7 O'Clock Show as a live show with a similar format to BBC One's The One Show. 7 March – The Irish Independent reports that the Commercial Court is to hear a case brought against TV3 by RTÉ for non-payment of transmission tariffs through 2013 and 2014. The tariffs relate to unpaid fees to 2RN, a subsidiary company of RTÉ that manages the transmission system. The case is scheduled for Monday 9 March. 7 March – A group of 150 protesters gather outside RTÉ's Donnybrook headquarters to demonstrate against their coverage of water protests and austerity measures. 8 March – The US drama American Crime debuts on RTÉ2, just three days after making its US television debut on ABC. 8 March – Mary McAleese narrates a documentary about the women's organisation Cumann na mBan on TG4. 9 March – At the Commercial Court, RTÉ is seeking €1m from TV3 for the non payment of digital transmission tariffs through 2013 and 2014. 10 March – In celebration of St Patrick's Day, UTV Ireland launches its "Bringing U Home" campaign, which encourages Irish people living overseas to submit greetings videos to friends and relatives, with entries having a chance to win return air tickets to Ireland from wherever they are currently living. 11 March – Analysis of All-Ireland matches from the past five seasons has indicated that Sky Sports succession as second provider of GAA games has had little impact on the majority of supporters as many county matches are not shown live.