Euro 2016 is something of a different beast for Irish sports fans from a viewing perspective. In past tournaments, we've had to accept RTÉ and RTÉ alone. And we've been absolutely fine with that. Bill was there so who's going to argue. This year however, is a bit different. Not only do we have to soldier on without Bill but the cost of high level broadcasting is such that the national broadcaster simply can't take it all on their shoulders anymore.
With the 1916 commemorations and the Olympics eating up a fair old chunk of budget, a media partner was needed to help show us all what we really wanted to see. TV3 were happy to step into the breach and they've done a bloody good job so far.
Aprés Match may disagree with that but there'll certainly be no complaints from us about the standard of TV3's coverage. The group stage had been sorted out in advance with the knockout rounds to be decided at a later date. Now that we know Ireland will be involved, the big question is, what channel is Ireland vs France on?
As part of the original agreement, RTÉ had first choice on the knockout stages so, obviously enough, that's where you'll be watching overcome France on Sunday.
.@rte to live broadcast #IRL v #FRA #EURO2016 #COYBIG https://t.co/KnlzsgTamT pic.twitter.com/uSN9LrwrZQ
— RTÉ (@rte) June 23, 2016
TV3, for their part, have a couple of the juicier second round fixtures with Croatia vs Portugal and Italy vs Spain both bing hosted by Tommy Martin and co.
CONFIRMED: #EURO2016 LIVE on @TV3Ireland
Saturday 7.30pm #CRO V #POR
Sunday 7.30pm #HUN V #BEL
Monday 4pm #ITA V #ESP#TV3EURO2016— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) June 23, 2016
The full second round TV schedule is as follows:
Saturday June 25th
- Switzerland vs Poland, 2pm – RTÉ
- Wales vs Northern Ireland, 5pm – RTÉ
- Croatia vs Portugal, 8pm – TV3
Sunday June 26th
- France vsIreland, 2pm – RTÉ
- Germany vs Slovakia, 5pm – RTÉ
- Hungary vs Belgium, 8pm – TV3
Monday June 27th
- Italy vs Spain, 5pm – TV3
- England vs Iceland, 8pm – RTÉ
