The Late Late Gay Byrne Irish Television Thread

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.

Re the Saorview position, the reason 3e gets away with little or no news is that, after TV3 took it over, they handed back its own contract and entered into an arrangement with the BAI whereby 3e is effectively regarded as being provided as part of the TV3 contract. Quite what the legal basis for the BAI to do this was, I don't know, but nobody objected to it at the time.

Presumably, once the UTV deal is through, TV3 will seek to enter into a similar arrangement with the BAI for it. Having pulled it off once I imagine they'll get away with it a second time. Once that happens there'll be no more need for news on UTV Ireland.