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TV3 Ireland
CountryIreland
Ownership
OwnerDoughty Hanson

TV3 Ireland was the first independent television channel in the Republic of Ireland. TV3 Television Network Limited is currently owned by European-based private equity firm Doughty Hanson & Co. since the end of August 2006. The main studios of TV3 are located in Ballymount, Dublin. The channel broadcasts from 06.00 to around 02.00 each day.

History

Initial idea and setbacks

TV3, which was intended to be Ireland's third terrestrial channel, took almost ten years to bring from initial planning to debut. In October 1988 the Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC) was created to regulate new independent stations. The original TV3 licence to broadcast was granted in 1990 to a consortium including members of U2 and the owner of the Windmill Lane Studios where the group had made many of their records. Because of delays in setting up the station, the licence was revoked by the IRTC. After a court battle, the licence was eventually restored in 1993.

At this stage, an agreement was made to sell 49% of the company to UTV, the ITV franchise in Northern Ireland, to raise much-needed cash for investment in facilities. However, as TV3 were trying to convince Irish cable and MMDS carriers to replace UTV with their channel, the new shareholders pulled out in 1995. Given that UTV had the third largest audience in the Republic, the carriers declined to drop them in favour of TV3. The result was that the project was on hold again. In 1997, CanWest, decided to step in and buy a major stake in the new company.

Launch and development

TV3 finally took to the air on September 20, 1998 at 17:30. A preview of the station's programming formed the first half-hour of transmissions, followed by the first TV3 News at 18:00. As TG4 (then called 'Teilifís na Gaeilge') had been broadcasting for almost two years, this was the third Irish station; TV3 became, in fact, the fourth television station and first station which was not publicly funded, by tax or licence fees. TV3's initial on-air branding referred to the station as 'tvthree'. Although this is still part of the corporate logo, it no longer appears on screen. The Schoolhouse Rock! song, "Three Is A Magic Number", is the station's theme tune, played every day during start-up and close-down; this same tune was also used by BBC Three as its theme tune.

In September 2000, Granada Media plc (a predecessor company of ITV plc which then owned six ITV franchises) agreed to acquire 45% of the company from the original TV3 consortium. This was part of deal which gave TV3 the right to simulcast with ITV certain Granada programming. The Granada plc shareholding was taken over by ITV plc upon the merger of Granada with Carlton on February 2, 2004.

In early 2001, the station officially launched threetext, the teletext service, much of the content from Thomas Crosbie Media. Test transmissions of this service commenced in late 2000, but as early as 1999 limited programming content was provided. However, in 2004, the news and sports were dropped as part of a rebranding to an 'entertainment portal'.

On January 16 2006, Canwest announced to TV3 staff, that it was selling its stake in the channel,[1] in an effort to reduce its debt, resulting in it leaving the European market. A purchaser for this stake for (for €103 million), rights to buy ITV Plc's stake (for €103 million), and the remaining 10% (for €59 million) was announced on May 19 as Doughty Hanson & Co, a venture capital firm who are believed to be operating on the behalf of another firm. The deal is subject to regulatory approval.[2]

Also, as of March 6, 2006, TV3 began broadcasting in widescreen format on Sky Digital and subsequently on UPC in 2007 .

Analogue rollout

When TV3 went on the air in September 1998 they were broadcast only from the existing RTÉ main transmission sites and from three relays serving Cork and Limerick cities. Since then they have not bothered to add any rural relays to their network. RTÉ have been criticised for ignoring rural Ireland in their programming, while TV3 doesn't even transmit to it.

Programming

See also: List of TV3 Ireland television programming

TV3 programming has often been criticized for having no "distinctive, clearly Irish identity".[3] Apart from their news bulletins and sports coverage, much of TV3's schedules are taken up with simulcasting of ITV programmes, acquisitioned programming from the U.S. and movies.

Irish produced programming

Ireland AM has been on air since 1999 and is the only live breakfast television programme in Ireland. Broadcast on weekdays from 07:00 to 10:00, it includes regular news updates on the hour and half-hour, but is mainly features and lifestyle based. Past presenters have included Amanda Byram, Maura Derrane and Claire Byrne. The show is currently presented by original presenter Mark Cagney and Sinead Desmond.

News

Apart from the updates in Ireland AM, TV3's news service on weekdays is broadcast in two evening programmes. News @ 5.30 is anchored by Alan Cantwell and Colette Fitzpatrick. Previous anchors have included Gráinne Seoige, who moved to Sky News Ireland in 2004 and Claire Byrne, who departed for the radio station Newstalk in 2006 following a High Court battle with her bosses at TV3. Other well known former tv3 newsreaders include Gillian Ni Cheallaigh, Ray Kennedy, Brian Daly, Dimitri O'Donnell and Sharon Tobin. Originally an hour-long news bulletin was broadcast at 18:00 on weeknights. However, this attempt to compete with RTÉ News: Six One was a failure, and the bulletins were moved to 17:30 and 19:00 (later 18:30, after TV3 acquired the rights to Emmerdale and began showing it at 19:00, the same time as ITV). News @ 6.30 was eventually dropped in April 2007. For a time, the 17:30 programme was called First Edition. On bank holidays and at weekends, News @ 5.30 is the only news programme.

"TV3 Nightly News With Vincent Browne" began airing on 14 January 2008, replacing "News Tonight". It airs Monday to Thursday at 23:00. Hosted by veteran journalist Vincent Browne, the 40 minute programme includes national news headlines, in depth interviews and Ireland's only preview of the next day's newspapers. "TV3 Nightly News" airs on Friday nights.

Sports

TV3 also produces a sports round-up programme called Sports Tonight which follows TV3 Nightly News on weekday evenings. Other original sports programming includes match analysis and commentary for the football matches that the station broadcasts. The station also aired coverage of the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

In 2005, TV3 gained rights to broadcast edited highlights of Formula One Grand Prix racing. Recently launched Irish sports channel, Setanta Sports, has the exclusive rights to broadcast the races live. Also, from 2008, the channel will broadcast a selection of GAA All-Ireland Championship matches.

Other programming

Xposé, hosted by Lorraine Keane, began airing on 16 April 2007. It is an entertainment and celebrity focused show airing weeknights at 18.00. Beauty tips, fashion segments and celebrity interviews are the main components of the show.

Another of TV3's home-produced programmes is The Political Party. Airing at 17:00 on Sunday, The Political Party is a politically-themed chat show, hosted by Ursula Halligan. The guest list is unpredictable, and ranges from prominent political figures to church and business leaders.

Previous efforts into Irish made television include the short run The Dunphy Show (2003), fronted by Eamon Dunphy, which was built up to be a contender with RTÉ's The Late Late Show. In spite of the flurry of media attention, The Dunphy Show's failed to perform to expectations, and was cancelled a few weeks before the initial season was due to conclude. For the Autumn 2005 season, TV3 announced a new midweek talk show which was hosted by Brendan Courtney, which lasted for only one series.

Popcorn, which regularly billed itself as "Ireland's favourite movie show" ran for 5 years and over 200 episodes before the axe fell - giving an irreverent look at the movie releases, both at the cinema and on DVD.

2008 season

In early 2008, TV3 made a serious effort to produce more Irish programming. Shows launched as part of a new Irish focused line-up included "Me and The Big C", charting different people's struggle with cancer; "Inside and Out", a makeover show hosted by Sinead O' Carroll; "Dirty Money: The Story of the Criminal Assets Bureau", a crime documentary fronted by Paul Williams and "Diary of..." which follows six people as they go through life-changing events. Also TV3 will air Rock Rivals, a drama it co-produced with ITV and which was filmed in Ireland.

Imported programming

In its early years, the station aired a large amount of US programmes such as Sex and the City, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Just Shoot Me. TV3 also simulcast Eastenders from 1998 to 2000. Following its aquistion of a 45% share in the station in 2000, Granada allowed TV3 to simulcast several of its programmes including soaps like Coronation Street and Emmerdale as well as drama series such as Bad Girls and Footballer's Wives.

ITV reality shows including The X Factor, Dancing on Ice, I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! and Britain's Got Talent are also simulcast on the station. American Idol has been broadcast on TV3 quite close to its American airing for several years now.

With regards to its daytime schedule, TV3's programming mainly consists of repeats of Coronation Street and Emmerdale, as well as UK lifestyle shows such as What Not to Wear, How Clean is Your House? and The Jeremy Kyle Show. Fashion House is a glossy American soap, which airs daily at 15.00.

Proposed channels

TV3 (along with Eircom, Setanta and Arqiva) proposed to take control and operate the forthcoming DTT service in the Republic of Ireland, under the name of "OneVision" but it was announced that Boxer_TV_Ireland won the contract on July 21st, 2008. Along with this TV3 have proposed to launch two new channels; one entertainment channel (3XPOSÉ) and one news channel (3TODAY).[4] Other reports suggest that TV3 are set to buy Channel 6 for €10 million after UTV failed to take up on the offer.[5]

Acquisitions

On 2008-05-16, it was reported by RTÉ News, that Channel 6 was in discussions about a possible sale of the company to TV3 for a sum of approximately €10 million. The same report also suggested that Channel 6 had been in talks with a number of other possible buyers.[6]

The acquisition has now been confirmed by TV3 Ireland and Channel 6 investors on Friday 25th of July 2008.[7].It represents the acquisition of programming inventory and development of multichannel plans for TV3 in readiness for migration of viewers from analogue to the digital aerial network bringing multichannel via an upgraded terrestrial network- Digital Terrestrial Television. The deal is subject to regulatory approval. It is possible that Channel 6 may be rebranded as 3 Exposé.The channel may also include news bulletins and sports, which will give is likely to give it more mainstream appeal, potentially resulting in a better Sky EPG position, aswell as satisfying the higher Irish programming requirements of a terrestrial BCI TV license.It will also allow for cross-channel promotion and bring TV3 into multichannel enabling all segments to be catered for under the TV3 roof (i.e. sport on TV3 with entertainment on Channel 6)[2]

Criticisms

Many media commentators have criticised TV3 for the lack of original programming on the station. The view of many commentators such as Stephen Price of The Sunday Times and Tom McGurk of The Sunday Business Post is that TV3 need to differentiate themselves in the growing Irish multi-channel market by making more original programming than at present.[8][9][10]

Prime time lineup

18:00 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 22:00 22:30 23:00 23:40
Monday Xposé How Clean Is Your House Emmerdale Coronation Street Airline Coronation Street The Shield Law And Order: Special Victims Unit Nightly News Sports Tonight
Tuesday Emmerdale Canterbury's Law Can Fat Teens Hunt The Tudors Nightly News Sports Tonight
Wednesday Coronation Street All saints Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares Hell's Kitchen US Nightly News Sports Tonight
Thursday Championship Throw In Special film Nightly News Sports Tonight
Friday Coronation Street XPOSE Friday Night Special Coronation Street The Graham Norton Show Californication 30 Rock Nightly News Sports Tonight
Saturday Family Fortunes The X Factor Saturday night movie Saturday night movie
Sunday The X Factor Martin King's Commercial Breakdown Heartbeat Sunday night movie The Tudors

See also

Sources

  1. ^ RTÉ: Canwest to sell share in TV3, January 16, 2006.
  2. ^ The Irish Times, August 24, 2006
  3. ^ Irish Independent: TV3: lots of Heartbeat, but there's little pulse, January 21, 2006.
  4. ^ Sunday Business Post | Irish Business News
  5. ^ eircom net Business News
  6. ^ RTÉ Business: TV3 won't comment on Channel 6 report
  7. ^ [1]
  8. ^ "TV3 choose low budget popularity with minimum expenditure on home-made material in order to maximise profit. Far from becoming an indigenous Irish channel, they choose the formula that, for example, Ulster Television uses, making a small body of home produced programming around an existing network of popular material. UTV is simply a small regional add-on to the existing ITV network, whereas TV3 buys the mainstay of its programming on the international market." Tom McGurk, Sunday Business Post, June 30th 2002
  9. ^ "Whether Doughty Hanson continues ITV’s supply deal with TV3, it needs to understand that relying so heavily on single-source, bought-in British programming to conquer the Irish market may be a tempting strategy, but in the long run is perilous.." Stephen Price, The Sunday Times, August 27th 2006
  10. ^ A reference to TV3's simulcasting of ITV in the RTÉ review of 2003

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