New look 3News in Ireland

The colour scheme for the set looks the same from BBC Newsnight & for RTÉ Prime Time. It is a big change after it takes a break from having the virtual backdrop for TV3 News at Ballymount. I suppose that's something that is positive from the viewers point of view.

The quality of the news production and the website at 3 News Ireland has to rapidly improve though for more viewers to tune into it & to provide a proper online news service. The news website really has been a shambles for years. It just shows the news bulletin from the current day's news bulletin & nothing else. The execution of their news website is an appalling joke for the standard of a Irish news provider. And right now they are trying to become that could be equal to Ireland Live from their former competitors UTV Ireland.

It will be a miracle if they have something that resembles a proper news service that count's as a rival to RTÉ News.

Where is the new studio located? Is it at the former UTV Ireland newsroom?

From the window it looks like it's in the old building and the studio has had a refurb... now you can see the newsroom through that window.

As far as I know it's the original studio.

The UTV Ireland building was to be vacated.

The 3 News Ireland newsroom is in TV3 HQ in Ballymount.

And here's the promo for this coming Monday...

Very exciting chapter, about to begin @3NewsIreland
The BRAND NEW 3 Ireland News Hub will go LIVE from Monday on @TV3Ireland & @be3Ireland pic.twitter.com/pxD1AV94mw

— Zara King (@ZaraKing) September 1, 2017

RTE making it very easy for TV3 to claim all day news coverage from first in the Morning to last thing at night. RTE seems to have scrapped any live TV news after 9.30 at night. It's RTE News Now service is only useful if news events take place Monday to Friday between 10am and 9.30pm...

And with the announced cuts today from RTE who knows what's going to be happening in the future. This could be a good opportunity for TV3 to get their nose in front.

However, while TV3 might now be winning the quantity battle, they still have a long way to go before they get near RTE in the quality battle.

RTE seem to live in the 1970s era where radio was more important. They protect Morning Ireland on RTE Radio 1 and have no interest in providing a proper alternative breakfast news programme on television.

Remember the "Morning Edition", an attempt by RTE at a morning news show, they scheduled it at 9am-11am, why? So as not to interfere with Morning Ireland's ratings. RTE still have not grasped that this is 2017 and not 1977.

What's the point of scheduling such a show for after people have left home for work? And don't TV shows generally get higher ratings than radio? If people are using the radio for news, it's likely because they're driving to work, not because they prefer it to TV.

It feels to me like RTE news is exceptionally dry. There is room for a competitor to come in and make the news much more accessible than RTE provides, even on youth station RTE 2fm.

Having said that, much like with the BBC, never doubt the power of the heritage of channel 1, or the tradition of going to it when a big story breaks.