A good signing given that it will fill a huge portion of its schedule over summer. It should do fairly well for them and go towards bridging that gap between BGT and The X Factor.
Well it will provide a lot of programming for the Station over the summer. Probably 6 hours a day. (2 hours on TV3, Two Hours repeated and Two hours on 3e repeated) However, I don't know if it'll be a ratings winner. Nothing else is on the station, even BGT has been a disappointment for them as they should have added far more viewers not having UTV on Cable for the first time.
Time will tell if this was a wise buy but the last 2 years have been a masterclass in how not to run a TV station, it's unlikely they've gotten this right either. The station is very likely to close if it hasn't been sold by the end of the year. TV3 owners Doughty Hanson have lost confidence entirely in the station and are doing all in their power to sell it before the World Cup is over.
It appears TV3 has now dropped its neon 3 ident in favour of multiple short cuts of the 'New Dawn' advert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O9YN5oWHvY Some of the clips in the advert are too short to be idents meaning they have been stretched out leaving a very low frame rate and slideshow like appearance. Previously only the Gardaí clip was used as an ident for Red Rock. The clip of the bus stop is now used before Xpose, the Keith Barry clip is used before Judge Judy and there is also a sport ident. Not sure if Vincent Browne sitting in a bedroom is a good way to introduce the news!
It appears TV3 has now dropped its neon 3 ident in favour of multiple short cuts of the 'New Dawn' advert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O9YN5oWHvY Some of the clips in the advert are too short to be idents meaning they have been stretched out leaving a very low frame rate and slideshow like appearance. Previously only the Gardaà clip was used as an ident for Red Rock. The clip of the bus stop is now used before Xpose, the Keith Barry clip is used before Judge Judy and there is also a sport ident. Not sure if Vincent Browne sitting in a bedroom is a good way to introduce the news!
That New Dawn Advert actually shows how long 5 months can be in a TV stations life. Some of the programmes featured have changed (Late Lunch has become the 7 O Clock Show, Xpose isn't live any more) Some shows flopped and were pulled or put out close to midnight. (Snaptastic and The Algorithm) and Some shows are not going ahead. (A new season of Brain Hacker is unlikely) Hopefully the last shot of the lights going out on Vincent isn't a reflection on what's going to happen to the station in the next 5 months.
Having Britain's Got Talent and Big Brother is providing TV3 with some interesting scheduling - they're putting both on TV3 where possible and if there is a clash, Big Brother gets demoted to 3e. For consistency I don't know why they don't keep BB on 3e all the time, rather than bouncing it back and forth between the two channels.
The Europa League final got demoted to 3e this year because of Britain's Got Talent, though matches were usually shown on 3e unless it was particularly big anyway. That brings to an end TV3's coverage of the competition after six years.
Until something is signed, sealed and delivered I would have to have my doubts about anything to do with TV3 and takeovers. It's been up for sale now for over 2 years and actively for sale since the start of the year. UTV looked at the books in 2013 and ran in the opposite direction. Most of the press coverage allegedly comes from TV3 leaks (or sources close to TV3)
Liberty Global are the latest in a long list that were supposed to be interested. I have no idea why they would buy it as TV3 on it's own would be a liability in the long run rather than an asset. But... if say they were interested in taking over the UTV Media Group as well it would then make a lot more sense.
UTV Ireland to ditch the scenery idents and replace them with "people" idents and a reworked logo in September, according to today's Sunday Times. I'm not sure if that's the cure for their issues, but there you go.