Unfortunately the Saorview rate card makes it uneconomical for one channel to go HD - there'd have to be a group of them launching at the same time (chicken and egg scenario writ large).
With the demise of ITV from UPC it more or less guarentees TV3 a huge audience in the urban areas where rugby union is most popular that no longer have access to ITV's coverage and have no option except TV3.
It means a large audience indeed for TV3 but Not as big as it could be. two thirds of Houses can still get ITV or UTV Ulster via Satellite or Overspill. I'm also not quite sure what TV3 expect Viewer Wise. There will be approximately a third of the Matches that will bring in large audiences, but the other two thirds will vary from mediocre to almost no one watching at all. I can see them making back their 3 million if Ireland Get to the semi-final Stage. Anything less and it's another red mark on their accounts. There's a strong chance that 3e will have been replaced by TV3 +1 on all platforms by the time the World Cup comes around.
Well TV3 are going to give the News a go at 8pm. It's a clever move, it can't do any worse than everything else they've tried and to be fair it's their most watched show already. Their 5.30 bulletin usually beats everything else on their schedule number wise. It might also help Red Rock and other shows. Plus there's no competition at that time from other stations. You never know it might just work.
No competition? But the soaps are on at 8pm. I just looked at http://www.rte.ie/ten/listings/television/ and I see that UTV Ireland (whose logo isn't shown, sort it out RTE!) would have Emmerdale against it on Thursday, and RTE One has Eastenders against it on Monday and Friday and Fair City on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. If Ireland likes their soaps as much as UK viewers do, then sorry, but 8pm does have competition on other channels.
No competition? But the soaps are on at 8pm. I just looked at http://www.rte.ie/ten/listings/television/ and I see that UTV Ireland (whose logo isn't shown, sort it out RTE!) would have Emmerdale against it on Thursday, and RTE One has Eastenders against it on Monday and Friday and Fair City on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. If Ireland likes their soaps as much as UK viewers do, then sorry, but 8pm does have competition on other channels.
Sorry, didn't make myself Clear. There's No competition when it comes to News at 8 at that time. Obviously the Soaps and various other shows on UTV Ireland and RTE/ BBC would be the ratings winners. However, up to now TV3 have gone after almost exactly the same market at that time with shows that would never appeal to that Market. They have pulled several shows from their Schedule since they lost the soaps because they were doing so badly in the ratings.
The News has a different Audience to the soaps generally. An 8pm News will also appeal to a Male demographic. Having said all that this is pretty much last throw of the dice time for TV3. They have tried almost everything else and failed. Their ratings are very low and UTV Ireland are Neck and Neck with them in the ratings already. If UTV Ireland are projecting a 6 million plus loss this year with a lower cost base, How much will TV3 lose? Plus I doubt the owners of TV3 will put up with losses for more than a few months before layoffs or even closure.
Just to point out that Ireland likes it's ITV/BBC soaps far more than the UK. If Coronation Street had the same share of the Market in the UK as it does in Ireland it would still be reaching 10 million viewers a night.
:-(
A former member
TV3 has BGT shortly, so it will help solve its problems short term.
TV3 has BGT shortly, so it will help solve its problems short term.
Not really, It'll sort out it's problems for One Night a week, and of course for 1 week before the Summer, but it's lost about 40% of it's viewers and One half Decent night a week isn't going to keep the bank Manager happy. Plus then you go into the Summer when they have practically Nothing From June until the 18th of September when the World Cup Starts. Red Rock will be off for the summer, I have no doubt they'll repeat the old episodes of course. Vincent will be on Holidays so I'm not sure how they get enough in to keep going. They have to make 3 million in Advertising on the World Cup just to pay for the rights. Over half of those Matches will have very low ratings. Tonga v Namibia at 5pm on a Tuesday Afternoon will probably bring in quarter the viewers that Judge Judy Gathers.
Now they do have Lynda McQuaid coming in as director of content. She really can't do worse than previous Management who basically had a ridiculously bad 2 years. They might turn it all around, but Their Owners in London have been trying to sell the station for years now with no buyers. I doubt they'll be happy with losing millions over the next 12 months. With UTV Ireland setting up and getting a PSB licence TV3 has little of value left. If I didn't know better I would think that was UTV's plan all along. Put pressure on TV3 to the extent it has to change or close, and UTV Ireland Picks up the rest of the ITV rights that TV3 currently hold. UTV Ireland then goes into profit because it has much lower overheads and outside of News very few Irish produced shows.
No competition? But the soaps are on at 8pm. I just looked at http://www.rte.ie/ten/listings/television/ and I see that UTV Ireland (whose logo isn't shown, sort it out RTE!) would have Emmerdale against it on Thursday, and RTE One has Eastenders against it on Monday and Friday and Fair City on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. If Ireland likes their soaps as much as UK viewers do, then sorry, but 8pm does have competition on other channels.
It's complementary scheduling though - no point fighting soap with soap, and current affairs content against the soaps have held their own here for years.
They're keeping the 5:30 as well. It's probably the only sensible option at this stage. News and Vincent Browne are the only two bright points on the schedule. (and to be fair Xpose does the job it's supposed to do as well) If they had any cop on they'd scrap the 7' O Clock show which seems to have been a pet project of previous management. It didn't do well at 2.30, only slightly better at 3.30 and at 7pm it's totally in the wrong place. They'd be better off putting on Current Affairs at that time.
Interestingly with the move of Late Lunch Live to the Seven O'Clock Show, this gives a three hour Irish programming block each evening on TV3, which is a quite progressive move from a station that for many years you would have been pushed to find any Irish programming between 6:30pm and 11:00pm, Midweek and the odd Traveller-related-documentary notwithstanding. It's all studio based programming and almost all live, but still worthwhile.
I wonder will we see a revamp? They've decided to call the new show "TV3 News at 8" though in the advanced listings the earlier news bulletins are still listed as "The 12;30" and "The 5:30". I wouldn't be surprised if these revert back to "TV3 News at...." though.
Yes there is that but TV3 are to stop Xpose being a live programme.
I heard from the Indo that TV3 are changing Xpose again to become a recorded hourly edition instead of being shown live to cater for a live team to broadcast the 7 O'Clock Show.