The Late Late Gay Byrne Irish Television Thread

whats the chance of Liberty Global buying out UTV?

Unlikely at this point - remember UTV are a public company and any takeover goes through the usual offer process etc. It's a different kettle of fish to buying a privately held company from a willing seller. I know a lot of people seem to want to see UTV and TV3 come under common ownership but it's not happening any time soon.

Today's Sunday Independent has reported that now that Liberty Global has bought TV3, the station will now become debt-free. It is also reported that Doughty Hanson will receive €45 million from the sale of TV3 to Liberty Global.

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/doughty-hanson-will-get-less-than-half-of-tv3s-87m-sale-price-31352049.html

This is such a good deal for TV3 and for it's chequered reputation that happened in the past.

Do Liberty Cool just run the cable platform in Ireland or do they have any channels of their own?

They used to own Chellomedia, best known in the UK & Ireland for the CBS (previously Zone) branded channels. They sold that to AMC last year and since then haven't been involved in channel operation until now. Strangely, the CBS channels were never available on UPC Ireland, despite their co-ownership! They are on Sky though.

Reports in the Irish Independent and Belfast Telegraph hinting of a possible merger between UTV Ireland and TV3.

So the company would be a joint venture?

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/news/utvs-irish-channel-to-be-merged-after-losses-31370925.html

UTV'S broadcast operation in the Republic - UTV Ireland - faces a near inevitable merger with rival TV3 after a dismal first six months' trading, according to a leading UK Media Analyst.

Despite a resurgent Irish television advertising market, UTV Ireland recently announced that it expected to lose as much as €16m (£11.5m) in its first year, four times what it originally estimated.

Alex DeGroote, media analyst at UK Investment Bank Peel Hunt, said that given the situation that UTV Ireland sees itself in, the station is unlikely to survive past its first year.

"The solution that we think is plausible is to merge UTV Ireland into TV3, with UTV becoming a minority partner," he said.

Liberty Global, which is the parent company of broadband and digital TV provider UPC, purchased TV3 last week in a deal that put the value of the station at £62.5m.

The analyst estimates that the merged company would be worth £86.3m and would make the deal worthwhile for TV3.

DeGroote said that if something was not done about the struggling station soon, it could become a threat to the broader UTV business.

"There is a lot of regard for the management team in UTV. No one argues that exposure to the Irish TV ad market's year-on-year growth is a bad thing, and the decision to enter the Irish market directly was still probably the right one, but the execution has been poor to say the least.

"The problem is that if the losses are allowed continue at this rate, they risk obscuring UTV products which are doing really well," he added.

Would it be to the advantage of TV3 though to merge - wouldn't they be better off just to let UTV Ireland not survive?

As has been pointed out elsewhere Alex DeGroote has as much knowledge (and probably less) about the situation than those on this or other boards. It's a solution that makes no sense for anyone, especially TV3's new owners. The figures they come out with are pie in the sky. It might make sense for Liberty to Buy the Whole of UTV plc, but going into a joint venture would be plain Daft. First Rule of Media in Ireland, Don't trust what the papers say. Remember they were the one's that repeated TV3 management claims that TV3 was worth 160 million euro for months. They have gotten 80 Million and that's not even what it seems. When you look at the details of the actual Deal, TV3's current Owners will only be getting 40million Euro. The rest is to pay off bank loans. It's tied into the price to make it look good.

Having said that Media decisions in Ireland make no real sense. After All TV3 has lost appox Quarter of a Billion since Start up in 1998, Has truly awful viewership figures, and it's programme cupboard is bare at this time. Yet it sold. The Ego's of Irish and Irish-American Want to be Media moguls are handy to have around.

TV3 HD is now testing on Satellite with the following frequency on Sky Ireland:

11758 H 29500 3/4 DVB-S2 QPSK

SID is 3881.

First time an Irish channel has gone free to air on Sky satellite I believe?

Currently showing Sky Movies Premier HD minus audio.