The Late Late Gay Byrne Irish Television Thread

RTÉ using the audio options on Saorview for what I think is the first time to provide an alternative language for the All Ireland Football semi final .

They did it last year too.

RTE traditionally provided Irish commentary of the All-Ireland minor (U18) semi finals and finals, which are held as curtain raisers to their senior games. However in 2011 they lost the rights to the finals, which were between 2011-13 televised by TV3 with Irish language commentary on 3e. Anomalously, RTE still showed the semi finals in Irish. Finally in 2014 the minor championship rights were made a separate package which was won by TG4. This meant for the first time RTE was showing no GAA with Irish commentary, which has now changed again with this service.

I notice UTV Ireland are currently showing repeats of Dancing On Ice series 7 on Saturday nights. Desperate stuff, surely no one is watching that?

Been on air all summer - pretty odd summer filler really. Even Splash or that thinly Olympic themed show Vernon Kay did years ago would probably have been more sensible choices, or just throw out an episode of The Chase and another quiz in primetime. They are showing Go For It from next week but on Sundays at 6pm and then repeating The Durrells in The X Factor slot.

TG4 announce the appointment of BBC Alba's Alan Esslemont as Director-General.

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/tg4-announces-appointment-of-new-director-general-1.2784713

TV3 has apparently unveiled their plans for UTV but I can't read it without a subscription and I can't find any news about it elsewhere. Any ideas? I would assume the channel's staying or the headline would be different.

http://www.c21media.net/irelands-tv3-unveils-utv-plans/

I can't get access to the article, but managed to get a bit more information:

'Ireland's TV3 unveils UTV plans Irish commercial broadcaster TV3 will become a “three channel business” following the completed takeover of UTV Ireland, quashing rumours that the two broadcasters will be merged.'

Can't find anything about it elsewhere - TV3's Twitter is more concerned with the launch of their new current affairs show Pat Kenny Tonight, which debuts Wednesday.

Strange how there seems to have been no further reporting of what TV3 plans to do with UTV Ireland - you'd assume TV3 haven't only spoken to C21Media.

http://irishmusicfeed.tumblr.com/post/151392433159/media-tv3-to-keep-utv-as-third-channel-tv3#_=_

Basically this article confirms UTV Ireland will be kept, but the name likely to be dropped. Possibly a TV3 or ITV branded channel will replace the name. Aside that nothing further to report.

Thanks. Can't see them splitting Corrie and Emmerdale across two channels - they come very much as a pair and even if Emmerdale rates relatively poorly it'll rate much better alongside Corrie than elsewhere.

A childrens channel seems unlikely too. As for the daytime content - could see it being kept on UTV Ireland but I guess the main concern is how it impacts on TV3's own original daytime content. Content wise though it gives "UTV Ireland" a point in daytime at least. I think rebranding as 3U and perhaps focusing on lifestyle content would be a good option for them.

So two issues for me here - and apologies if they've already been addressed:

1. As far as I understand it TV3 has taken over a long-term deal for ITV's programming in buying UTV Ireland. In which case they may as well show them, transferring any huge hits over to TV3 and using ITV shows that are less interesting to Ireland to fill out the schedule for their less important brands.
2. To retain the prominent Saorview position does TV3 have to commit to providing the same news service as UTV Ireland? If so, I'd be surprised if they didn't try to negotiate that down after a period of time. It's somewhat odd to have 3e with seemingly no news commitment, then a channel one further down trying to provide a full news service to a relatively small population.