The Late Late Gay Byrne Irish Television Thread

Well as you say they have issues and this won't solve them, but at the same time presentation wise it does need to be redone. It's a good first step. (assuming the revamp is decent)

I don't think people watch TV for the idents to be honest - if the programming is decent the idents aren't so important. The phenomenon of TV3 counterprogramming with repeats of the same programmes has been mentioned a lot this week though I think it may be overstated. They are between a rock and a hard place in that they have tied themselves to the ITV mast but that limits their capacity to respond and they are missing large parts of the peak time schedule. At the same time if they try to be less like ITV that increases the clammer for the return of UTV NI to UPC. Some people have voted with their feet and moved to Sky where UTV is available via Other Channels.

Their NI presentation is laughable. If anything, they should rebrand the whole networks looks, not just the Ireland sister channel.

I also hate how they are still pushing that whole "Part of U" tagline when they have vastly reduced their local programming since DSO. You hardly see anything made in NI shown on UTV any more, it is just ITV with a different name. I'd actually prefer it if it just became ITV Northern Ireland now. At least their idents and presentation is a lot more slick and modern than 1980's UTV.

I agree with you that people don't watch TV for the idents but the idents do represent something. For example if I see an ident for a certain station I'm more likely to switch off. UTV Ireland seems to have that issue at this stage. (Many I know switch on UTV Ireland on Saorview, see a show they want to watch and then see if it's on ITV on Sat in HD) The important bit here is actual programmes and EPG placement, neither which UTV Ireland have gotten right.

They should really consider the following..
Name Change so people don't expect ITV schedule
Expansion of News to Weekends (it's mad to spend so much on an operation and not have some sort of service at the weekends)
Go to HD on Saorview.

Some are saying that it might leave Saorview but that would be madness. It's more than likely that outside of the soaps the majority of their viewers (and TV3's for that matter) are saorview only households.

There are plenty of other things that they should do, like more Irish programming and more programme rights purchases, however both of those will take time.

Unfortunately they'll never be able to do anything about the EPG problem - the only way they'd get 103 is if they buy TV3 (which now looks like it will be taken over by LibertyGlobal). The absolutely daft (but Comreg mandated) rate card effectively prevents anyone except RTE going HD on Saorview - since it ultimately doesn't matter what 2rn charge RTE as they are their sole shareholder.

The name isn't changing AFAIK - if they do it will be to drop the "Ireland" bit (the whole point of the rebrand seems to be to tune down the Irishness). I'd expect them to change to the normal blue and yellow UTV logo.

It's true about the EPG of course. A huge amount is now riding on Liberty Global, if they take over TV3 they're likely to put money into it and change management plus the future would look bright in the sense that there's a lot of co-operation between themselves and Discovery. Quite possible Olympics will be on TV3 from 2018. This would then mean that UTV would have years of tough competition which they didn't count on.

On the other hand if Liberty Global don't buy TV3 it would be a very bleak future for the station, it's viewership figures are way below UTV Ireland in primetime and only just above UTV Ireland overall. If UTV can even have moderate increases in viewership over daytime and weekend they'd be in a clear second place. If UTV are losing so much money with their share of the audience, how much is TV3 losing? It appears UTV are willing to give this another 12 to 18 months. TV3's current owners are on record saying there's to be no more investment.

So UTV Ireland's possible future profits are really in the hands of someone who likes to buy irish companies, not because they're profitable but because of his Irish Heritage. Not the place they thought they'd be 6 months ago.

Deal done between TV3 and Liberty Global this afternoon it seems, €80m.

Yes, good news for TV3, probably secures the station for a good few years. Bad News for UTV Ireland, as TV3 will probably have more reserves available in the long run.

Liberty Global are the owners of UPC (formerly ntl Ireland) a cable TV supplier here in Ireland.

They also own Virgin Media in the UK. I hear that UPC Ireland could be renamed Virgin Media in the near future.

That is apparently the plan. Within Liberty Global, UPC Ireland is now managed as a part of Virgin Media now.

More new idents from TV3. A total of 6 idents based on the We Entertain promo are airing alongside a updated main ident:

http://www.presentationarchive.com/tv32014/brand-d.jpg
Media Brand of the Year ident

http://www.presentationarchive.com/tv32014/news-b.jpg
http://www.presentationarchive.com/tv32014/entertainment-b.jpg
http://www.presentationarchive.com/tv32014/showbiz-c.jpg
http://www.presentationarchive.com/tv32014/news-h.jpg

Full coverage here (Images from Presentation Archive)