The Late Late Gay Byrne Irish Television Thread

I do agree it should have got to air before they lost the other soaps, or at the very latest on New Years Day to try and make it the big TV event of the day, rather than the launch of UTV Ireland. Does it do any better on one night than the other - would running it in a one hour slot give it a better chance?


People also need to remember that TV3 have still got their ace cards to play with Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor (plus Downton I think) - they will probably help at least balance the books. One thing TV3 though definately need to try and do is take an hour out of primetime - could Vincent Brown be bought forward an hour allowing cheaper repeat filler afterwards. It seems his show already started before 11pm some nights (tonight it's at 10.30pm).

They would be crushed at 10 with News there. The Marketplace is already Crowded with UTV Ireland's News, RTE One's offering (which will almost always come out on top) and BBC1 News at Ten plus all those that are still watching ITV News at Ten on Satellite or Spillover. Vincent's 10pm show did only 70,000 last week.

The big opening in the Market is between 7 and 9 when there's no News or Current Affairs going out on any other Irish Station (and only Channel 4 news from the UK) but that would mean going after a totally different audience. TV3 really, really like the 18-49 Housewife's, unfortunately they don't fancy TV3 any more.

Really at this stage UTV Ireland aren't competing any more with TV3 primetime During the Week. They already have the audience's attention, they just need to get them to hang around for the 9.00pm slot. New Drama over the coming months should do the trick. The weekends are a different matter but it appears UTV Ireland won't even start to pay proper attention to them until the autumn (probably after the Rugby World Cup)

You're right that a One Hour slot would give it a better chance. Up to two weeks ago Wednesday was doing a lot better than Thursday. That's actually still the case but figures are both shockingly low at this stage. It would be better off at the weekend when they still have some sort of audience.

They do have Britain's got Talent but that's perhaps 15 good nights between now and September, they don't have anything else and I mean nothing else, no home produced programmes that bring in an audience and nothing bought that will bring in even half decent figures. In the Autumn they would have the weekends with Xfactor and Downton Abbey and Tuesday Nights with Champions League, plus the Rugby world cup. But September is a very long distance away. Plus 13 good weekends won't pay for major losses in the previous 40 weeks.

Despite the appalling numbers, Red Rock is still ahead of UTV in its timeslot.

Yes, you're correct but UTV Ireland have paid almost nothing for Surprise, Surprise, on the other hand that half hour of Red Rock costs TV3 Just under 90,000 That works out at more than euro an adult.

Moving Vincent Browne to 10:00pm permanently is a non-runner, though that's not to say earlier editions won't be a more frequent presence. However making it permanent essentially removes their ability to show post-watershed films and long form dramas Monday-Thursday. It would also leave them with a similar problem to ITV on Champions League nights in that they'd have to split the "highlights show" component of the coverage (which is part of their UEFA contract, or at least the present one) and run it later in the evening.

The reason UTV's news is at ten is quite simple: its where ITV's is and it make sense for them scheduling wise.

If they were going to move Vincent they should really go for it and move him to 8 where there would be no competition Current Affairs wise. That way they could run films or such Like from 9 and go towards Entertainment while everyone else is going towards News and Current Affairs. They should also cut the 7 O Clock Show by half an hour and put a News Bulletin on at 7.30. It would be cheap enough to do.

However, none of this is likely to happen, they'll just keep aiming at the same audience that has all but disappeared and then blame RTE/UTV for their failure in 6 or 12 months time. They're already moaning that RTE are trying to kill off Red Rock with Operation Transformation. (A show that's been on for years) At this stage it's pretty clear that TV3 need no help losing an audience.

At the end of the day, it's pure economics that will determine 3's fate. Losing the soaps has cost them dear - about 40% of their primetime audience and possibly more in terms of advertising share.

Cut backs in programming (and sadly staff) will inevitably happen over the coming weeks or months, but I still think they can just about survive.

I'd leave Vincent where he is for now - he at least gets an audience in his timeslot.

I agree the housewives have abandoned them in the early evening, so 3 need to find a new audience there. Perhaps aiming for men with a mix of factual and sports highlights programming (Sports Tonight?) might work? Whatever it is, they won't have much money to spend.

Sadly I think they'll need to scale back their ideas for more home produced shows as the budget simply won't be there.

I agree with all of this, especially a change of focus between 7 and 9. I also think they will survive in some form but not as they are at the moment. Scaling back Home produced shows might hurt those that lose jobs, but the audience won't miss them in general as no one is watching (with the exception of Vincent Browne, Xpose and the News)

Jason Byrne has been in the papers today saying that it's the first show he's done where he's gotten no abuse online. That's because almost no one has seen the show after 2 episodes. The very best and worst material will get abuse on the internet. At least if someone is complaining someone is actually watching.

The relative success of Vincent Browne is, to me eyes, baffling.
Having watched his show, he seemingly takes issue with everything, disagrees with most of his studio guests (who, because I only watch the show sporadically glancing up on a hotel room tv, I assume turn up on a fairly regular basis) and when you get some viewer opinions, barely comments on them.
And in October last year (when I last watched), they were using the greenscreen HD studio set, and very tight camera angles that weren't the most flattering to anyone appearing on the show.

I assume, in TV3 terms, his 'good' viewing figures are propped up by the repeat showing at 6am the following morning, when at that time, it's a choice of Tellyshopping (RTE1) EuroNews siml-cast (RTE2) Good Morning Britain (UTVi) or some repeat of the wonderfully expressive, but unfathomable Gaelic language programme on TG4.

Then you have the wonderful Ireland AM - where you are never more than 5 minutes away from some very awkward presenting team banter, and a commercial break.

I take it the reason why there are so many breaks per hour, is because pretty much all of Ireland AM's yearly budget is bankrolled by the Proctor and Gamble (or it could be Unilever) sponsorship? So for TV3 it's over 20 hours per week of programming content for virtually 0 euro.

Vincent is both an acquired taste and the only show in town at that time of Night. His Good figures are based on just the First showing. However they are all over the place from 40,000 to 135,000 and more depending on the mood of the country and the time of year. If TV3 put on a half hour news bulletin and Sports tonight at the same time you'd see roughly the same numbers but it would cost them a lot more. He can be entertaining in small amounts but I'd pity anyone who watches him every night.



Again the only reason they've been successful up to this point is that they were the only show on at that time of the morning. It does come close to breaking even but Good Morning Britain/Lorraine has been slowly gaining. (and that's a very slow gain) It only needs a drop of about 10,000/15,000 viewers to become uneconomical in the long run roughly where UTV Ireland Breakfast offerings should be at next year, so it's likely there will even be trouble in this particular stronghold in 2016... if TV3 is still on air at that stage.

TV3 to start broadcasting in HD in August on the SKY and UPC platform. It now appears they are showing all 48 games of the Rugby World Cup on TV3

http://www.tv3.ie/rwc2015_article/12/TV3-confirms-exclusive-Rugby-World-Cup-coverage

No meantion at all for Saorview. They'll lose a lot of Viewers to ITV HD if they're not HD on Saorview.