Irish fans miss Street

Big in Ireland: Coronation Street has switched channels

An Irish MP has taken up the case of Coronation Street fans who can no longer watch the soap since it switched channels.

Viewers in a mountainous area near the coast of County Mayo have been unable to watch the series since New Year's Day when the state-backed RTE network lost the rights to the soap.

Independent network TV3 now owns the rights to Coronation Street, but its signals cannot be received in parts of Mayo.

Local Fine Gael representative Michael Ring has asked TV3 to consider putting a new transmitter near Belmullet, County Mayo, to serve the soap's fans.

Mr Ring said: "Since Coronation Street moved from RTE, I have been inundated with calls from dissatisfied viewers. Thousands of homes in the region cannot get TV3."

The show, seen in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK on ITV, has been broadcast at the same time on RTE One for many years.

But it switched to TV3 after its producers, Granada, bought a 45% share in the channel in September.

TV3 says it can be received by 90% of the Irish population, and will extend its transmission network when it is "financially viable".