Sad news, but at the same time it will be very interesting to see how it works. It's very unusual for a main terrestrial channel to have a complete name change (in the UK and Ireland anyway). It certainty shows that Virgin are here for the long term, it is a far better brand than TV3. Virgin has very good recognition in Ireland and whilst TV3 does too, it still has a perception of being cheap. To improve things Virgin will want to invest more in its programming in addition to the rebrand, especially with 3e and Be3, repeats of Ireland AM and Tonight Show on a youth channel is very poor. No clues on how each channel will be named yet. Virgin 1, 2, 3? Virgin 3, Virgin 3e, Virgin Be3?
Sad news, but at the same time it will be very interesting to see how it works. It's very unusual for a main terrestrial channel to have a complete name change (in the UK and Ireland anyway). It certainty shows that Virgin are here for the long term, it is a far better brand than TV3. Virgin has very good recognition in Ireland and whilst TV3 does too, it still has a perception of being cheap. To improve things Virgin will want to invest more in its programming in addition to the rebrand, especially with 3e and Be3, repeats of Ireland AM and Tonight Show on a youth channel is very poor. No clues on how each channel will be named yet. Virgin 1, 2, 3? Virgin 3, Virgin 3e, Virgin Be3?
Virgin 1, 2 and 3 is most likely. A bit dull. I'll always think of Virgin1 as that failed UK channel on freeview though.
Sad news, but at the same time it will be very interesting to see how it works. It's very unusual for a main terrestrial channel to have a complete name change (in the UK and Ireland anyway). It certainty shows that Virgin are here for the long term, it is a far better brand than TV3. Virgin has very good recognition in Ireland and whilst TV3 does too, it still has a perception of being cheap. To improve things Virgin will want to invest more in its programming in addition to the rebrand, especially with 3e and Be3, repeats of Ireland AM and Tonight Show on a youth channel is very poor. No clues on how each channel will be named yet. Virgin 1, 2, 3? Virgin 3, Virgin 3e, Virgin Be3?
Virgin 1, 2 and 3 is most likely. A bit dull. I'll always think of Virgin1 as that
failed
UK channel on freeview though.
First of all, it is sad to see that TV3 is being transmogrified into Virgin in Ireland - but I do think it will be interesting to see how Virgin Media Ireland overhaul the channels from programming to presentation.
As for the Virgin 1 channel that existed in the UK - it was moderately successful, but it almost always never beat the likes of Sky One in the ratings, and even Dave (which came two weeks after V1 launched) did much better.
They don't seem that convinced themselves considering the "we'll see how that works" quote. Would be better off to test the waters by going the UKTV route initially at least and keep the branding, but introduce references to them being part of the Virgin network.
They don't seem that convinced themselves considering the "we'll see how that works" quote. Would be better off to test the waters by going the UKTV route initially at least and keep the branding, but introduce references to them being part of the Virgin network.
I guess they are worried about ditching the TV3 brand as it is so well known.
As long as they don't overhaul the schedule too much then the audience should get used to the transition quickly.
This could be a complete disaster for TV3/Virgin if it is not implemented in the right way for their audience. It could become a headwrecking process for it's audience yet again. Since UTV Ireland had been set up here; it caused numerous headaches when they gave word to their new audience that all of the ITV shows that were broadcast on TV3 before were shifted to UTV Ireland. After UTV Ireland eventually closed down; the audience shifted back to TV3 and made huge percentage of their audience at a time when they already established in this country for a significant amount of time before UTV Ireland came to the Irish broadcasting landscape.
Now TV3/Virgin are now going to risk that significant audience yet again because of an entire 3 TV channel rebrand to Virgin. Why?
What TV3 could risk here is that their audience could be further diminished if they are to follow this news with an intention of possibly having these channels be an exclusive to the Virgin platform in Ireland or being scattered around on other TV providers in The Republic of Ireland. What I am asking here is why do Virgin continue taking on that risk if they were bothered with it in the first place?
They don't seem that convinced themselves considering the "we'll see how that works" quote. Would be better off to test the waters by going the UKTV route initially at least and keep the branding, but introduce references to them being part of the Virgin network.
End caps of in-house productions already have the '3' logo and Virgin together.
I’m not sure TV3 was ever regarded as a well loved brand in Ireland. Well known perhaps, but loved? In their early days they were essentially a cross between Sky One and Channel 5. Then came the Granada deal in 2000, though that was still pre-ITV plc days, and they had access to some of the ITV schedule. While that became most of the ITV schedule after 2004, they never really made the most of it at that stage, since they were mostly interested in Corrie and Emmerdale.
Fast forward past the UTV Ireland era - which will possibly be looked back as a “golden age” of Irish programmes on TV3 - and they are now, once again, most notable as ITV’s Irish affiliate. In fact they now not only have access to more of the ITV network schedule than they ever had before, but are showing most of - albeit now across three channels instead of just one.
Some mention has been made of Virgin 1. Remember what Virgin 1 was, a “taster” channel whose role was to attract customers to subscribe to pay TV to access the VMTV pay channels. Remember also that it actually survived its entire time in Virgin Media ownership, and was only shut down after a sale to Sky (and a very brief rebrand as Channel One) at a time Virgin wanted out of the content business. It’s not comparable with TV3 at all.
I still think they shouldn’t change the name mind you, because why would you dump the brand equity at this stage? But they want to cross promote the carriage and content plays and obviously think this is the best way to do it.
They have talked about doing that in the past, but only in the same way ITV used to do in the 2000s when they thought it might get them released from some of their PSB obligations or when cutting PSB related programmes, as a sort of not very veiled threat to the regulator.
They won’t do it, because it will cost them advertising revenue, and because it will prevent them bidding for listed sports rights.
