UTV Ireland

Know what you mean - was always a 2 minute presentation continuity studio bulletin with no graphics, reports or captions. Editorially it absolutely amazed me that they opted out of Euro News to show the usually Sunday morning public service stuff. Happily that saw the start of a change in editorial policy when someone in RTE learned the phrase Breaking News !

I think it was a change overall in the way we consume news. Back when Diana Died the Internet wasn't mainstream. I had a mobile phone for work but most people still hadn't gotten one (2 years later almost everyone had one) If you wanted News outside of Broadcast Networks you had to look for it. Ceefax and Aertel were the breaking News places of the day.

That was still the time of Course when RTE News practically Closed Down over the Summer with all bulletins scaled back for 3 or So months and no 1 O Clock News, just News Headlines. So there were probably few in the Newsroom that Morning and Few that would be willing to come in.

Of course that was no excuse for the Presentation of the Bulletins. RTE only appeared to come out of the Stone age presentation wise (outside of Main Bulletins) over the last 10 years. You could just as easily have been watching a bulletin from 1975 that morning.

So you have the odd situation next Saturday where UTV Ireland & TV3 are showing the same programmes but different episodes / series. There will be a SNT clash (repeat episode on TV3 vs new live episode on UTV Ireland).

TV3

18:40 Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway (from a previous series)
20:00 The Cube

UTV Ireland

18:00 The Cube
19:00 Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway (the new series)

Irish Independent reporting that UTV Ireland is considering moving their early evening edition of Ireland Live to 5.30 to compete head-on with TV3.

Love the fact that there is no strategy behind UTV Ireland's scheduling strategy - they could be so much cleverer than they are being at the moment. From what I hear the ad revenue predictions for quarter 3 won't be pleasant reading

Bit of a dumb move by TV3 in my opinion on the part of the Ant and Dec scheduling - mind you wasn't aware that Ant and Dec had such a big following in Ireland - don't get the logic that viewers would watch a much older series

Wonder why TV3 don't do more cross junction scheduling which would be much more damaging.

Possibly the only move that TV3 can now make. All their other shows have tanked. UTV Ireland seem to be making mistake after mistake, but week after week since they started they've gained audience share, while TV3 are down week after week. at this rate UTV will pass TV3 in about 10 weeks.

According to Last weeks Tam figures (plus 15+ Adults) Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway was TV3's 4th most popular programme with 119,000. UTV Ireland only make 1 Home produced programme a week at the moment outside of News and it beat all of TV3's output.

What else would they put on? They've pulled new shows because they were doing so badly and They've nothing left in the programme bank.

Not renewing the Deal with ITV Studios was possibly one of the biggest mistakes any broadcaster in these islands has made.

Agree with you about the ITV Studios deal, how are tv3 doing financially at the moment ?

If I was them I'd have more tempted to counter schedule against RTE1 this Saturday - I.e. 1810 Ant and Dec, 1925 The Cube, 2025 Film

I'd agree 100% with the counter Scheduling, but they've never been the brightest when it comes to scheduling of any sort. They're going after the same audience as Coronation Street and Emmerdale 5 nights a week and totally failing. At the weekends they should have the upper hand at least half the year but the main part of that would be in September when X factor Returns. And September is a very long way off at the moment.

Financially I would assume they were okay going into 2015. However, their share of Prime time is down dramatically. They spent (or will spend) 7 million on a soap that is now reaching 102,000 viewers (+15 Adults) twice a week, compared to Coronation Street which gets about 350,000 - 400,000 5 times a week. They had to drop the 7.30 show (life) and remodel a daytime show for 7 O Clock as they don't appear to have the cash to do both a 3.30 and a 7.00pm show.

Judge Judy has 5 places in their top twenty (she does between 80-90,000) Most of their Prime time shows don't make 80,000 viewers and they've spent a lot of money on some of them.

Advertisers will follow where the viewers have gone and they seem to have all headed off in UTV Ireland's direction. It wouldn't surprise me if they cancel the soap as soon as they can (which might be as soon as the summer) and they sell off the secondary rights to the Rugby World Cup. They paid 3 million for those in a Alpha Management moment. They would have been better off giving the GAA the extra million and expanding those rights instead.

I'm not actually sure how TV3 can survive on current viewing figures. UTV are projecting large losses in year one with figures higher than TV3 currently have and RTE2 is protected by the license fee.

There is a way out here for TV3 but it would mean a total shake up of their operation and really forgetting about the 18-49 Housewives.

UTV have their set up costs though - new channels usually take a few years to break even.

Of course you're right but they don't plan to break even on day to day costs until year two at the earliest. It takes time to build a station, contary to popular belief, it's UTV Ireland that's the new kid on the block as such, TV3 on the other hand have had 17 years to build in the republic and have people used to pressing 103 or 3 to get the station. That's why TV3 should be worried, UTV Ireland are already ahead in share of audience in prime time and it's TV3's audience that UTV are after. UTV figures should improve as the months go by (it's already happening) especially when they start showing new programmes instead of all the repeats that are currently on. I'm not too sure what TV3 do to improve viewing figures outside of Britains Got Talent and Champion's League Football. Plus the Summer is looking very bare when Red Rock Disappears for 3 months and Vincent Brown goes on Holidays.

TV3 are now lying?