Cúla4 ( ga, Cúla Ceathair) is an

Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

programming block and a stand-alone television channel for Irish speaking children in the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. It is operated by the Irish broadcaster

TG4 TG4 ( ga, TG Ceathair, ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television network. The channel launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was formerly known ...

. On 11 April 2022, Cúla4 was rebranded, with a new logo.

Development

The strand was first established in 1996 as Cúlabúla; with the rebrand of TnaG to TG4 in 1999 Cúlabúla was renamed "Cúla4". As of 1 September 2009 Cúla4 is available as a separate channel to Virgin Media Ireland customers on channel 602. A new schedule coincided with the launch on UPC. The majority of programming is a mixture of homegrown and international programmes which are either dubbed or subtitled in Irish. Cúla4 works with international broadcasters to produce Irish versions of hit TV series which are seen on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

and

Discovery Family Discovery Family is an American cable television channel co-owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and Hasbro Entertainment. The channel was originally launched by Discovery Communications on October 7, 1996 as Discovery Kids, a spin-off of Discover ...

. It also works with homegrown animation companies to produce localized series. Cúla4 offers something unique in an already saturated kids television market in Ireland with the existence of RTÉjr/

TRTÉ ''TRTÉ'' is an Irish children's television program that airs on public service broadcaster RTÉ2. Its target demographic is people between 7 and 15 years of age. On some networks — Virgin Media Ireland, eir Vision and Vodafone TV—TRTÉ is ...

and the

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...

. Cúla4's programming is either in Irish or in Irish and English, unlike its competition where the majority of their programmes are entirely in English.

''Cúla4 ar Scoil''

An educational programme, ''Cúla4 Ar Scoil'' ("Cúla 4 at School"), was created in April 2020, in response to the closure of all schools during the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic A pandemic () is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. A widespread endemic (epidemiology), endemic disease wi ...

in the

in 2020. This followed

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

's launch of its ''

Home School Hub ''RTÉ's Home School Hub'', or simply ''Home School Hub'', and its companion show ''Home School Extra'', was an educational television programme which was created in response to the closure of all schools during the COVID-19 pandemic in the R ...

'' in March 2020. It is recorded in Connemara, with teachers Caitriona ni Chualain and Fiachra O Dubhghaill presenting daily lessons for the 30-minute show. A second series began in September with teachers

Orla Ní Fhinneadha Orla Ní Fhinneadha is an Irish singer, teacher, television presenter and former child actor. A gaeilgeoir she has been a weather presenter and teacher on the Irish-language television station, station TG4. She is an accomplished Sean-nós sing ...

and Micheál Ó Dubhghaill. ·

Cúla4 Channel

In November 2021 TG4 announced that it planned to make Cula4 as a channel avail across all of Irish TV providers. The channel is set to launch in 2023.

Programming

Strands

*Cúla4 Na nÓg: Aired between 07:30 - 09:00, it was a programming block targeting pre-school children ages 2 to 5, and aired series such as

Elmo's World ''Elmo's World'' is a segment that is shown at the end of the long-running American children's television program ''Sesame Street'' which premiered on November 16th, 1998, as part of a broader structural change to the show. It originally lasted ...

, Sesame Street, Dora the Explorer (in Irish, teaching Spanish), Ni Hao Kai Lan,

Franny's Feet ''Franny's Feet'' is a children's animated television series created by Cathy Moss and Susin Nielsen. The show was produced by Decode Entertainment (now WildBrain) with the participation of Family Channel and in association with Channel Five ...

Inui is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Daichi Inui (born 1989), Japanese association football player (J1 League) *Emi Inui (born 1983), Japanese Olympic softball player *Kurumi Inui (born 1963), Japanese novelist and m ...

, Helen's Little School, Rev and Roll,

Timmy Time ''Timmy Time'' is a British preschool stop-motion clay animated television programme created and produced by Jackie Cockle for the BBC's CBeebies and produced by Aardman Animations. It started broadcasting in the United Kingdom on 6 April 20 ...

, Olobob Top, Kid-e-Cats,

Florrie's Dragons ''Florrie's Dragons'' () is a children's animated television series that was produced by Wish Films and Clockwork Zoo and animated by Studio 100 Animation. The series is based on a children's book named ''Dear Dragon''. The series was created by A ...

, Wow Wow Wubbzy, Zou, Dive, Olly, Dive,

Mouk ''Mouk'' is a French animated television series produced by Millimages, adapted from the work of Marc Boutavant, and directed by François Narboux. 62 episodes were produced. The show has aired in Canada and the United Kingdom, as well as othe ...

, and The Mr. Men Show. All programmes were in the Irish language. The block was discontinued on 11 April 2022 following Culá4's rebrand. *CÚLA4: Airs in the afternoon between 14:00-16:50, targeting 6 to 11 year olds. Programmes include Ben 10, Johnny Test,

SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It chronicles the adventures of the title character a ...

Scaredy Squirrel ''Scaredy Squirrel'' is a children's book series written and illustrated by Canadian author Mélanie Watt. The first book of the ''Scaredy Squirrel'' series was published in March 2006 by Kids Can Press. A television series based on the books ...

Back at the Barnyard ''Back at the Barnyard'' (also known as ''Barnyard: The Series'') is an American CGI animated television series based on the 2006 film ''Barnyard''. The second and final installment in the ''Barnyard'' franchise, the series aired from Septemb ...

Eliot Kid ''Eliot Kid'' is an animated children's television series composed of two seasons and 104 episodes produced by Samka Productions, Safari de Ville, and CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British f ...

, The Mighty B!, Skunk Fu, Bog Stop, Fanboy & Chum Chum and

Clarence Clarence may refer to: Places Australia * Clarence County, New South Wales, a Cadastral division * Clarence, New South Wales, a place near Lithgow * Clarence River (New South Wales) * Clarence Strait (Northern Territory) * City of Clarence, a loca ...

. *PONC: Aired between 16:50-19:00, targeting 12 to 18 year olds, PONC hosted a number of live action drama series such as

Aifric ''Aifric'' () is an Irish-language TV series aimed at young adults, co-created and written by Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin and co-created and directed by Paul Mercier. The show has won multiple IFTA awards for "Best Children's/Youth Program". The fir ...

(which is also shown in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

BBC Alba BBC Alba is a Scottish Gaelic-language free-to-air public broadcast television channel jointly owned by the BBC and MG Alba. The channel was launched on 19 September 2008 and is on-air for up to seven hours a day with BBC Radio nan Gàidheal s ...

), and international shows such as ''H₂O'', Life with Derek,

8 Simple Rules ''8 Simple Rules'' (originally ''8 Simple Rules... for Dating My Teenage Daughter'') is an American sitcom television series originally starring John Ritter and Katey Sagal as middle-class parents Paul and Cate Hennessy, raising their three chi ...

, Pimp My Ride, My Super Sweet 16, The Hills, The City, Gossip Girl,

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...

, One Tree Hill,

Dance Academy ''Dance Academy'' is an Australian teen-oriented Dramatic programming, television drama produced by Werner Film Productions in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and ZDF. Series one premiered on 31 May 2010, and series tw ...

, Switched at Birth, Wipeout and What I Like About You. It also showed a number of

extreme sports Action sports, adventure sports or extreme sports are activities perceived as involving a high degree of risk. These activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion and highly specialized gear. Extreme tourism overl ...

shows such as

Planet X Following the discovery of the planet Neptune in 1846, there was considerable speculation that another planet might exist beyond its orbit. The search began in the mid-19th century and continued at the start of the 20th with Percival Lowell's ...

and Groms Tour. This programming block was hosted by Máire Treasa Ní Dhubhghaill and Colmán Mac Séalaigh. It was discontinued sometime in the early 2010's.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cula4 Children's television networks Irish-language television shows Television channels and stations established in 2009 Television programming blocks in Europe Television stations in Ireland TG4 original programming