UTV Ireland to become Be 3

One thing is for certain they are going to need a lot more finesse around their scheduling if they are going to compete and succeed as a three channel network

They talk of a tailored news service for each of the channels - 3 News Ireland. Let's hope for a new studio to replace that horrid grey virtual thing they use for The 12.30/5.30.

There will be a new studio but not till April. I presume we'll get a new virtual set in the same studio until then.

I wouldn't be confident there will be news on all theee channels in the longer run. Certainly I'd expect hat there'll only be one 5:30pm bulletin, on TV3, and that only one of News at 8:00 and the what is currently the 10;00pm Ireland Live will remain.

Incidentally Ireland live is currently scheduled to continue to run until 30th December at least.

If they could get away with no news they probably would. The only reason that they introduced that 8pm Bulletin was because all the new shows they made for that spot spectacularly tanked and once they were taken off there was nothing to replace them. The day they got back the soaps, the 8.00pm Bulletin was thrown off TV3 and onto 3e. Not something you do if you believe in News and your News coverage. The funny thing is that the only shows that retained their Pre 2015 audiences during the last two soapless years Were the 5:30 News, and Vincent Browne. They were the most watched shows on the channel most weeks... If you exclude Judge Judy.

I would assume that the BAI would have something to say about dropping any more bulletins at this stage. They were Burnt a few years ago when they allowed TV3 to stop their Weekend News service because TV3 management said that they couldn't afford it. However, when things improved economically for TV3 in 2013 and 14, the News service did not return.

However, TV3 has New owners and some new management so perhaps this time things will be different but I won't be surprised if efforts are made to get rid of some News at some point and the lack of License Fee money will be used (as well as evil RTE, etc, etc)

Wow, the TV3 and 3e logos have gone from simple and charming to overbearingly tacky- very Channel 5 :S

I really didn't rate the current on air logo either. The original 3 logo stood out the best... just like Channel 4's does... but not as clever.

The original TV 3 logo was great. The new logo certainly looks more polished, but it's still bland and uninspiring.

I still love the opening/closing video they had every day (it was in colour, but for some reason this is in black and white):-

Probably the best piece of presentation any Irish TV station has ever put out. It was the very first thing aired on TV3 and lasted through several rebrands - it was still being used as late as 2009 when the purple 3 logo was adopted though I don't know if it still is at this stage and if so when it finally bit the dust.

The irony of that start up though, was, I'd wager, every soundbite came from the Irish national archives - and therefore originaly recorded by Radio Eirenn/RTE..!

So BBC3's intro theme wasn't exactly original then.

The original was black and white so it can be used as a matte - enabling them to change the colours as they see fit.... but they never did!

It came originally from a US show called Schoolhouse Rock, so it wasn't even original for TV3.