 Although S4C was a "de facto" regional variation of Channel 4, it was a separate channel in its own right.During the transition to digital television, Channel 4 became available over-the-air in Wales on Freeview alongside S4C, resulting in the channel dropping its non-Welsh programming.Sky News and Sky1 also provide a variant of their stations for the Republic of Ireland, although specific Sky News coverage for the Republic of Ireland is extremely limited, due in part to the channel with Irish content closing on 3 November 2006, and Sky1's variant is purely an advertising opt-out.