Saorview channel list

Saorview has 16 free TV channels, three of them in HD, plus six radio stations: RTÉ One HD is on 1, RTÉ2 HD on 2, Virgin Media One on 3 and TG4 HD on 4, and the rest run up to Sky News on 23. The full list with numbers is below, and it costs nothing beyond the TV licence you’re already paying.

The TV channels

Saorview’s own site lists the channels but not their numbers. The numbers below are from RXTV’s list, reviewed in January 2026, cross-checked against Saorview’s launch announcements for Virgin Media Four (7), Challenge (8), TG4+1 (14), Cúla4 (18) and Sky News (23).

Saorview also carries digital Aertel, RTÉ’s text service, on the channels that support it.

Which channel shows which match is a different question from which channel exists. For sport, our watch guides say who has the rights this season, including which games are free on RTÉ and TG4.

The radio stations

Your telly is also a radio. These are on Saorview as of the January 2026 list:

What’s gone. RTÉ closed five digital radio stations on 31 December 2025: RTÉ 2XM, RTÉ Pulse, RTÉ Jr Radio, RTÉ Chill and RTÉ Radio 1 Extra. According to Saorview’s updates page they played a recorded message until 16 January 2026 and then left the platform. UCB Ireland left earlier, in March 2025. If your box still lists any of them, a retune tidies the list.

The two bundles, and why it matters when channels vanish

Saorview sends its channels out in two bundles, called multiplexes, each on its own frequency. According to RXTV’s list, the first carries RTÉ2, Virgin Media One and Two, TG4, RTÉ News, Oireachtas TV and most of the RTÉ radio stations. The second carries RTÉ One, Virgin Media Three and Four, Challenge, the two RTÉ +1 channels, RTÉ KIDSjr, Sky News, RTÉ Gold and Radio Maria.

That’s handy for troubleshooting. If a whole group of channels disappears together while the rest are fine, the TV is probably getting one frequency and not the other. That’s a signal problem at the aerial, not a fault in the TV, and our retune and no-signal guide walks through it.

What a dish adds

Saorview is the Irish channels. The British public service channels aren’t on it, but they are broadcast free-to-air from the Astra 28.2°E satellite, the one Sky’s dishes already point at. With a dish and a satellite or combo box you add, among others:

• BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three and BBC Four, all in HD, plus BBC News, BBC Parliament, CBBC and CBeebies.
• ITV1 HD, ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4.
• Channel 4 HD, E4, More4, 4seven and Film4.
• Channel 5 HD, 5USA, 5Star and 5Action.
• Talking Pictures TV, Quest, TLC and GB News.

No subscription, no card. The full list and the recent changes that caught out older boxes are in Free satellite channels. A combo box puts both lists on one remote, which is what most households in the “just the normal telly” camp actually want.

Getting every channel on this list

1. Check your TV has Saorview. Most sold here in the last decade do. Two-minute test.
2. Run a scan with the aerial plugged in and the country set to Ireland. How to retune.
3. Count the channels. Sixteen TV channels, with RTÉ One, RTÉ2 and TG4 in HD, means you’re done.
4. Fewer than that, or blocky pictures? It’s almost always the aerial. See Aerials and what a fitter costs.

Sixteen channels for nothing. Not bad for a lump of aluminium on the chimney.