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TV3
CountryIreland
Ownership
OwnerTV3 Group
The TV3 Group
Company typePrivate/Limited
IndustryBroadcasting
Founded20 September 1998
FounderOssie Kilkenny, Paul McGuinness, James Morris[disambiguation needed] and John Kelleher[disambiguation needed]
Headquarters
Ballymount, Dublin
,
Ireland
Area served
Ireland and Northern Ireland
Rest of the world (via internet, satellite, digital and analogue services)
Key people
David McRedmond, CEO
ProductsTelevision services
transmission e-publishing (teletext & web)
commercial telecoms services
Revenue€54.3 million (2009)[1][2]
OwnerDoughty Hanson & Co
Number of employees
216 (2008)[1]
Website[1]

TV3 is a commercial free-to-air television broadcaster in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland which launched on September 20, 1998.[3] It was the country's first independent commercial broadcaster. TV3 is operated by the TV3 Group which also consists of television channel 3e and the online service tv3.ie. The main studios of TV3 are located in Ballymount, Dublin.

Broadcasting Policy

TV3 broadcasts a wide range of programming which in its early years depended heavily on international acquisitions. In 2008, the TV3 Group produced a three-year strategy to increase the amount of homegrown productions on the channel. Under their contract with the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI), TV3 are required since 2008 to have 30% of their programming coming from Ireland though TV3 now produces 40% Irish produced content (Most of this content comes from in studio productions such as Ireland AM and Xposé). In 2010 TV3 announced a target of 50% Irish programming by 2012. TV3 has also confirmed its plan to build a major new studio in 2011 which will be fully HD capable with audience capacity [4].

They have a small staff of 200 employees to run two television channels and one on-demand online service. On average, TV3 spend about €10 million on internal productions which are generally for daytime viewers. They do not have a history of strong prime-time content: generally their home produced programmes consist of at least one independently produced programme, e.g. The Apprentice, a number of internal documentaries such as Ireland Undercover and a number of BCI licence fee-funded independent products such as School Run,Diary of... and Modern Ireland.

As of October 2009, TV3 claim they are the most watched television channel by people aged 15–24 years old. This group was previously captured by RTÉ One.[5] This is an important group to capture as it is often these viewers whom advertisers wish to target.[6] In reaction to this press release from TV3, RTÉ rebutted their claims stating that RTÉ One outdoes TV3 in far more demographic categories and that TV3's press release, "In terms of the selective audiences focussed upon by TV3 in their release, it's clear this is a recent phenomenon and only pertains to a narrow sub-demographic of young viewers in this country. By contrast, the year-to-date equivalent (1 January - 20 October), all day national share, sees RTÉ One with a 16.2% share of the 15-24s; TV3 with a 13.3% share." [7]

Budget [8]

In 2009 TV3 had revenues of €54,300,000. In the previous year (2008), TV3 received €62 million in advertising revenue. Increases in programme cost during 2008 included new sporting contracts with the GAA and UEFA, the first renewal of their contract with the British broadcaster ITV for shows such as The X-Factor and Coronation Street, a small but significant increase in programmes commissioned from independent producers and their takeover of Channel 6 (now 3e). They also increased their investment in online technology, with their online service earning a profit for the first time.

In 2008, TV3 received €3 million in funding from the licence fee for independent productions on the channel.

In 2009, two rounds of redundancies reduced TV3 staff to 213 people. Staff savings have been augmented by agreed reductions in wages. The 200 staff working in TV3 now provide seven hours of live television five days a week, an increase of two hours and a staff reduction of 50 since 2007.

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. Initially it was envisaged that the station would only broadcast on cable and MMDS but it was later decided that the station should broadcast on terrestrial UHF also. 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.

File:TV31989LOGO.PNG
Logo in 1989 at the IRTC announcement of a 3rd Channel [9]

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 20 September 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. TV3 was the fourth national station to be launched in Ireland; after RTÉ One in 1961 (as Teilifís Éireann), RTÉ Two in 1978 and TG4 in 1996 (as TnaG). It was the first Irish station which was not publicly funded.

TV3's initial on-air branding referred to the station as 'tvthree', although this was part of the corporate logo up to 2009 it was dropped from their on-screen brand in 2001. The Schoolhouse Rock! song, "Three Is A Magic Number", was the station's theme tune, played every day during start-up and close-down.

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 2 February 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 16 January 2006, Canwest announced to TV3 staff, that it was selling its stake in the channel,[10] 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 19 May as Doughty Hanson & Co, a venture capital firm.

The channel began broadcasting in widescreen format on Sky Ireland from 6 March 2006 and subsequently on UPC in 2007.

In January 2009 TV3 relaunched under the corporate name of The TV3 Group (Officially they remain TV3 Television Network Limited). The TV3 Group consists of TV3, 3e and tv3.i.e.

Analogue rollout

Upon its launch TV3 broadcast only on the existing RTÉ main transmitter masts and from its three relay services in Cork City and Limerick City. In the 12 years since launch TV3 have not added any other relay stations, resulting in poor coverage in rural areas, notably Counties Donegal, Kerry and Cork.

Many rural areas are reliant on satellite reception of TV3 via the Sky service, however this option is not free and requires a subscription.

RTENL who are in-charge of the public DTT service within the Republic of Ireland aspire to have the public broadcasters such as RTÉ, TG4 and TV3 available to 90% of homes through the digital terrestrial service by late 2010, with further growth of 98% by 2012.[11]

The TV3 Group

TV3 purchased cable and satellite station Channel 6 in summer 2008. Following this the channel was rebranded in January 2009 as 3e, with a logo and schedule designed to compliment that of its parent channel.

In November 2008 tv3.ie website was rebranded, with the intention to develop it into an entertainment portal. Catch up facilities, as well as exclusive content is available for TV3 programming as are news, weather, sport and entertainment updates. A dating section has also been established on the website.

With the launch of the website and rebranding of Channel 6, TV3 as a television channel became part of the TV3 Group in January 2009.

TV3 HD

TV3 are currently working towards delivering TV3 in HD by 2011. TV3 Confirmed its plan to build a new studio in 2011. By the end of 2011 the studios will be ready for HD broadcast but also for audiences, something that has been lacking in TV3's studios since 1998.[12].

TV3 iPhone App

On Friday, September 24, 2010 TV3 launched its iPhone application[13]. The service costs €1.59 to download and offers TV3 viewers the opportunity to watch TV3 content including news, showbiz and sport. It also supplies audiences with an on-demand catch-up service which allows its viewers to watch streamed content[14].

Irish-produced programming

See also: List of TV3 Ireland television programming

TV3 programming has often been criticised for having no "distinctive, clearly Irish identity".[15] In spring 2008, a major effort was made by the station to change this situation. In general TV3 spend around €10 million on their Irish productions each year, in 2008 they significantly increased the number of prime time shows produced in Ireland, TV3 are required by law to use 15% of its total Irish production budget for Independent Productions. Since 2004 Independent Productions for TV3 have been able to avail of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland's (BCI) Sound and Vision Fund, a fund provided to the BCI from RTÉ. In 2008 Independent producers received €3million from the Sound and Vision fund for programming that they produced for TV3.

News and Current Affairs

Main article: TV3 News

TV3's News and Information department looks after all of TV3s in-house productions, from Entertainment to Current Affair. Andrew Hanlon is TV3's Director of News, he has held that position since the channel first began airing. At its launch TV3 had 2 main news programmes News @ 6 and News Tonight. The news team includes Alan Cantwell, Colette Fitzpatrick, Elaine Crowley and Vincent Browne, as well as weather presenter Martin King. TV3 News on weekdays consists of three main bulletins - Midday, News @ 5.30 and Nightly News.

Nightly News with Vincent Browne was extended for a full hour on 23 March 2009 replacing Sports Tonight. Nightly News is to be rebranded as 'Tonight with Vincent Browne'[16] this September airing each weekday night from 23:00 on Monday to Thursday and replaced with Nightly News on Friday night. It returns on 7 September 2009.[17] The BCI have sought assurances that Tonight with Vincent Browne will be less current affair lead due to the sponsorship deal with Bank of Scotland (Ireland). Tonight with Vincent Browne must change its focus from Current Affairs to Magazine type content due to the traditional in Irish Broadcasting of not allowing News or Current Affair to be sponsored by a single commercial advertiser and also the EU's Audiovisual without Frontiers Directive which states "News and current affairs programmes may not be sponsored".[18][19]

Ireland AM has been on air since 20 September 1999 and is the only live breakfast television programme in Ireland.[20] Broadcast Daily from 07:00 to 10:00, it includes regular news updates on the hour and half-hour, but is mainly features and lifestyle based. The show is currently presented by original presenter Mark Cagney and Sinead Desmond.

The Morning Show with Sybil and Martin began in 2009. It is a one hour programme that broadcasts between 11:00 and 12:00, Monday - Friday. The show runs one hour after TV3's breakfast show, Ireland AM and is co-presented by Sybil Mulcahy and Martin King. It reflects issue such as relationships, children, parents, health and wealth.[21] It is followed directly by Midday.

Midday, is a live weekday chat show and takes a lighter look at the everyday issues of viewers, with a mixture of round table discussion with guests and interaction with viewers. The show was launched in September 2008 and is hosted by Alan Cantwell, Colette Fitzpatrick and a number of special guest speakers. The new season to air in September will feature an all-female line up made up of regular presenters Amanda Brunker, Fiona Looney, Jules Fallon and politician Mary O'Rourke.

Agenda was a political magazine show hosted by David McWilliams it ran from 1998 to 2001 on Sunday Mornings and repeated in the afternoon, it was replaced by The Political Party. The Political Party was a politically-themed chat show, hosted by TV3's political editor Ursula Halligan, which originally aired Sundays at 17:00 before being moved to Fridays at 23:00 in late 2008. However the show was axed in March 2009 due to falling advertising revenues at the station. In 2009 TV3 announced a new business show that would effectively replace the original slot held by both Agenda and The Political Party airing every Sunday at midday Business Matters is business related series on TV3. The series will be hosted by Ivan Yates[16]. Business Matters began on 13 September 2009. In 2009 TV3 also started to broadcast the current affairs show Midweek airs weekly each Wednesday night focusing on the latest political and topical issues affecting Ireland In house news documentaries include Ireland's Crime Capitals a sensationalist show that observes crime in Ireland, One Night in A&Ea one off special about an A&E unit and Surviving the Recession a one off special looking at life in Ireland and the recession.

From the stations launch, a 30 minute news bulletin was broadcast at weekends. However in December 2008 these weekend bulletins were reduced to five minutes, this cut blamed on a downturn in advertising revenues. According to the Sunday Business Post, TV3 had to cut 15 jobs and 15 freelance jobs in the company to save money.

Sports

TV3 produced a sports round-up programme called Sports Tonight which was broadcast at 23.40 Monday through Thursday for over a decade until it was cancelled as of 23 March 2009. Other original sports programming includes match analysis and commentary for the UEFA Cup matches that the station broadcasts. In 2008 the station began broadcasting a selection of GAA All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship matches, as well as a weekly preview show called Championship Throw In. The station also aired coverage of the 2007 Rugby World Cup. In 2004 the commissioned The Offside Show presented by Dermot Whelan.

Entertainment

TV3's first daytime show was called Speakeasy it ran during the 1998/1999 season and was replaced by TV3's morning show Ireland AM. Speakeasy was a prerecorded chat show that opened TV3 each weekday during its opening year, it began at 12:00 and ran until 12:30.

TV3 produced its version of the Pepsi Chart Show which provided a countdown to the top 40 music sales for Ireland. It was broadcast in many European countries using different presenters for each region. This was later replaced by Dynamite TV which was similar in format to RTÉ's Top 30 Hits. TV3 had two other music shows, the first was Pop3 which was similar in format to RTÉ's 2TV and 3 cubed which was a late night non-stop broadcast of music videos.

Messrs Tylak and Rooney was a short lived travel comedy series in which Joe Rooney and Paul Tykla traveled around Ireland's tourists spots.

In 2000 TV3 commissioned the dating game Perfect Match hosted by Twink (Adele King).

In 2001 TV3 launched their version of The Weakest Link hosted by Eamon Dunphy. It is the only time that any of the international version of the show has been hosted by a man. The producers of the series used the Euro currency as the banking currency. This had the effect of reducting the prize fund as the Punt was still in full circulation at the time and the Euro would not be issued until January 2002.

The Dunphy Show (2003), fronted by Eamon Dunphy, 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.

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.

In 2005 TV3 produced its second late night chat show hosted by Brendan Courtney and called The Brendan Courtney Show which lasted for only one series, it aired Wednesdays at 22:00. Brendan Courtney also presented The Property Game for TV3 the same year.

Xposé, hosted by Lorraine Keane, began airing in 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.

Eight years after its first game show TV3 began broadcasting its second gameshow - in 2009 - the Irish version of Deal Or No Deal in association with the Irish National Lottery. It is produced by Endemol UK for TV3.[22]

TV3 announced plans to produce a new dating show based on the international dating format Take Me Out for their 2010/2011 schedule'[23]. Take Me Out will be presented by Today FM presenter Ray Foley. They also plan a second dating series called Pecking Order in which 5 girls rate themselves as they see guys rating them[12].

Reality television

TV3's first attempt at reality TV was Haunted House. It started in May 2002. Haunted House started out with about 26 contestants who would be ultimately voted out of the Haunted House by the public. The tasks where similar to that of I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!.[24]

It would not be until 2006 that the station would attempt reality television again. The Box, fronted by Keith Duffy, debuted on Monday 9 October 2006.[25]

The Apprentice is a localised version of the original Donald Trump reality series, the first series of which was broadcast in autumn 2008. The show returned in autumn 2009, making it the first time that a prime time TV3 show was renew following the first season. The Apprentice won the Best Entertainment Category at the 2009 IFTA awards.[26] TV3 snubbed the ceremony due to their concern over the number of RTÉ staff in the Academy.[27] As part of the second series TV3 also launched their version of The Apprentice: You're Fired! the spin-off show hosted by Brendan O'Connor. Brendan O'Connor left the series for his chat show The Saturday Night Show on rival network RTÉ One, Anton Savage replaces him as host of The Apprentice: You're Fired!. They have also added The Apprentice: At Home to the 3rd season[12].

On 21 April 2009 it was announced that the main presenter of Xposé (Lorraine Keane) was to leave the series. TV3 announced a nationwide search for a new presenter of the show, on the 4th of June they announce that Michael O'Doherty, Emma Ledden and Gerry Lundberg would judge the applicants on a new TV show called Total Xposure.[28] On the 11th of June Sean Munsanje was declared the winner of Total Xposure, winning a 6 month contract with TV3 as the newest member of the Xposé Team.

Celebrity Salon began on the channel on Monday 7 June 2010. It follows six celebrities (Brian Dowling, Pippa O'Connor, Leigh Arnold, Virginia Macari, Celia Holman Lee and Breffny Morgan) as they train over a 12 day period to become hairdressers.[29] TV3 dished out another reality TV series starting on Tuesday 29 June 2010 Style Wars searches for Ireland's top fashion designer in a similar format to Project Runway[30].

TV3 announced a new Irish version of the international reality format Come Dine With Me for their 2010/2011 schedule which will be produced by ITV for the channel[12][31].

Drama

TV3 is not known for vast amount of TV drama. In 2008 it produced its first one-off drama School Run, made in Ireland for TV3 with the assistance of the BCI's Sound and Vision Fund. It was the first original Irish drama produced by the station and aired at Christmas 2008. In 2009 broadcast Laura Windermere's Bag a contemporary adaptation of the Oscar Wilde play Lady Windermere's Fan set on the south of Dublin - this also received funding from the Sound and Vision Fund.

The Tudors is made in Ireland for Showtime, but shown by TV3. Another series, Rock Rivals, was filmed in Ireland for ITV in the UK and shown by the station in early 2008.

During November 2009 rival broadcaster RTÉ announced that their hit medical drama, The Clinic, was cancelled after seven series.[32] Rumours spread around the Internet that TV3 were in talks with producers of the show. On 26 November, TV3's Xposé confirmed the reports, and TV3's Director of Programming, Ben Frow, confirmed that the station has been in talks with the shows producers, to bring the show to the station.[33] On Monday, March 29, 2010 Leigh Arnold - who starred in The Clinic - revealed on the Podge and Rodge show on RTÉ Two that TV3 will not be taking on the series.

TV3 announcedThe Guards[34] as part of the 2009/2010 season. Initially slated for early 2010 the series has been pushed back again until late summer 2010, however reports suggest that the series has increase its number of episodes from two episodes to six. The producers of the show are actively promoting the series as Ireland's answer to The Wire[35]. This series was left out of TV3's autumn schedule for 2010, which puts the production in a strange place, they did however announce RTL's Irish based Jack Taylor series[12].

Children's TV

In its first year TV3 produced its own Children's strand called Gimme 3. It was presented by Hector and Clodagh. Hector was none other than TG4 star Hector Ó hEochagáin. It ran for one hour between 16:00 and 17:00, it included shows such as The Ren and Stimpy Show & Conan the Adventurer. It was axed in 1999. TV3 do not produce or broadcast any children's television, however they will be showing a documentary on Irish children's television called The History of Irish Children's Television.

Factual

In early 2008, TV3 made a serious effort to produce more Irish programming in response to criticism of its schedule. Factual programmes launched as part of this change 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 followed six people as they went through life-changing events.

The autumn 2008 schedule continued this trend, with several Irish produced series including Now Then: How the Irish Have Sex, CCTV Cities with Donal MacIntyre, Living With Murder , presented by Maura Derrane, and Corrupt - examining corruption in Ireland. Crunch Time was a three part documentary exploring Irelands property crisis.

Many of TV3's factual programming is produced with the assistance of the licence fee through the BCI's Sound and Vision Fund or are produced in house by TV3's News and Information Department. The Cosmetic Surgery Show that looks at the world of cosmetic surgery presented by Dr. 90210 and Caroline Morahan was broadcast in 2009.

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!. US programming has become less of an attraction on TV3 with many of their US shows airing on their sister channel 3e.

In the early years of TV3 introduced two UK soaps to Irish Audiences Family Affairs (which was broadcast 18 months after Channel 5) and EastEnders (which was broadcast with advertising simultaneously with BBC 1), and also the short lived Australian soap Breakers and the US soap Sunset Beach. TV3 broadcast of Family Affairs ended in June 2007, and was initially replace by Channel 4's Hollyoaks. Due to the high number of Irish viewers with Channel 4 TV3's broadcast of the show soon ended, TV3 were a month behind Channel 4 unlike their ITV soaps which are simultaneously broadcast and unlike Family Affairs as five isn't as prevalent in the Republic of Ireland. Hollyoaks was then replaced by the short lived The Royal Today and finally by repeats of Friends in 2009 with their takeover of Channel 6 now 3e.

Following Granada/ITV's acquisition of a 45% share in the station in 2000 (which ended in 2006), Granada allowed TV3 to simulcast several of its programmes including soaps like Coronation Street and Emmerdale (both previously aired on RTÉ One) as well as drama series such as Bad Girls and Footballers' Wives. TV3 also simulcast EastEnders from 1998 to 2001 (EastEnders is now broadcasting on RTÉ One and has been doing so since 2001). 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. In 2010 TV3 began broadcasting the BBC's Over the Rainbow, initially broadcast on Saturday night but moved to Sunday nights to make room for ITV's Britain's Got Talent.

With regards to its daytime schedule, TV3's programming mainly consists of repeats of Coronation Street and Emmerdale, as well as UK and US versions of lifestyle shows such as What Not to Wear, How Clean is Your House?, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Jeremy Kyle Show and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.[citation needed]

TV3 currently show the following US programmes, Glee, V, Modern Family, and Law & Order:SVU. American Idol has been broadcast on TV3 quite close to its American airing for several years now.

Participation TV

3 Cubed

In the early 2000s TV3 launched a late night interactive music service. 3 Cubed aired each day from 1am to 6am. Audiences were invited to send text messages to the show and to send in requests via a premium rate phone number.

Play TV

Main article: Play TV (Ireland)

Play TV was an interactive phone-in quiz show on TV3; it ran from May 2009 until March 2010.

On the 21st of September 2009 callers to the Liveline radio show on RTÉ Radio 1 complained about the phone charges and methods surrounding TV3's late night quiz show Play TV. Host Joe Duffy stated that many of his listeners and callers to the show had not got a satisfactory reply from TV3 in relation to their complaints and hence his reason for this section of the his show, TV3 were unwilling to be a part of the discussion show having been asked by RTÉ Radio. Some of the contestants had not been paid their prize money. TV3 advised viewers who played the game to go to RegTel with any complaints.

On September 25, 2009 the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland met to review 20 complaints made to it by individuals in relation to Play TV; 15 were upheld, 1 was rejected, 1 was determined to be invalid and 2 remained under investigation.

In January 2010 the compliance committee of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland up held 10 more complaints against TV3. In February the BAI up held 3 more complaints.

On March 5, 2010 TV3 announced that Play TV's contract was terminated immediately. In their statement they put the removal of the "infomercial" down purely to audience figures rather than the complaints received and upheld by the BAI. They did not apologize for their conduct.[36]

At the launch of TV3's Autumn (18 August 2010) schedule David McRedmond (CEO TV3) was interviewed by The Irish Times were he admitted mistakes had been made but and admitted that Play TV was axed not just due to falling audience figures but also to the bad press and the regulators constant scrutiny of the show. He still refused to apologize to viewers on behalf of TV3 again stating that “It was an essential part of getting us through the recession” regardless of what the BAI called a “misleading and unfair” programme [4].

Brain Box

Brain Box is an interactive phone-in quiz show on UTV and STV. As part of their Autumn schedule 2010 TV3 announced the re-broadcast of UTV's Brainbox TV show. The show began airing on TV3 on 9 September 2010, just 7 months after the axing of the controversial Play TV. It ceased broadcasting less than a week later.

On-air presentation

File:Tv3ireland 1998.jpg File:Tv3IREALND2006.jpg
TV3 Network Ireland Ltd logo 1998 - 2006 TV3 Network Ireland Ltd logo 2006 - 2009 The TV3 Group's Current Logo 2009–present

September 1998 to July 2000: The original logo and design for the channel was devised by Dynamo.[37] In the lead up to the network's launch, TV3's logo was unveiled during promotion ads on RTÉ and TG4. The logo consisted of a redesigned number 3. The upper half of the 3 was separated from the lower half, the two halves came together to form 2 swooshing arches that would form the 3. There were a number of different idents from September 1998 to July 2000 including 'Bubbles', 'Camera Lenses', 'Robot', 'Umbrella', 'Fan', 'Planets', 'Children's Toy', 'Bumper Cars' and 'Roller-Coaster'. Each of the idents would end with a girl whispering the word 'three' a number of times.[38]

July 2000 to September 2003 In July 2000, TV3 developed new idents. The new idents removed the words 'tvthree' from beneath the stylized 3 logo. The project was directed by Dynamo's creative head of broadcast media, Brian Williams.[39] These were TV3's first idents to feature live action - actors would be seen in the background of the logo doing various day-to-day activities with the 3 logo spinning around to reveal itself. In 2001, some of these idents would have characters from Granada TV programming appear in the background, such as characters from Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Heartbeat.

September 2003 to March 2006: In September 2003, TV3 again launched a new set of idents. Again, this series of idents consisted of live action scenes. The final scene would see a large 'swoosh' effect in the center of the screen with the 3 logo appearing in the centre of the screen. These idents consisted of outdoor activities such as a walk at the beach, children playing football, children playing, people walking over the Ha'penny bridge etc. The presentation package was produced by Bruce Dunlop Associates.[40]

March 2006 - January 2009: In March 2006, TV3 took steps to rebrand as Channel 6 (now 3e) in an attempt to become a competitor in the Irish market. These idents consisted of live action scenes often involving the number 3 such as 3 drops of water into a river. The 3 logo now moved from just the stylized 3 into 3 circles with the stylized 3 in the last circle. The presentation package was produced by Cleverality.[41]

January 2009 - August 2009: In January 2009, TV3 unveiled its new station logo - a simple sans-serif number 3 similar in style to that of TV3 (Viasat)'s logo. This revamp co co-insided with the re-launch of Channel 6 as '3e'. Officially, the TV3 logo is that of a box with a 3 cut out of the right hand side - this design is used on all news programmes. However, the idents consisted of a set of simple graphical 3s in a domino effect with different colours such as grey, purple and blue. The idents were produced by Image Now.

August 2009–present: Between August 2009 and February 2009 TV3 introduced 8 new idents. The first two idents - known as 'Orchard' and 'Elevator' - launched TV3's live action idents. In September, a third ident entitled 'Wave' was added, followed in October by a fourth ident known as 'Bridge'. A edited version of the Bridge ident (to promote the series 'V'), a sixth new ident known as 'Dog' was introduced in November 2009 and in December 2009 the ident 'snowman' was added and in February 2010 the 8th ident was added 'bubbles'. TV3 has been working with Image Now to create these Idents.

Continuity announcers

In-vision continuity links are broadcast during the 3 Daytime strand introduced in January 2008. This has since ended with the last in vision appearance in December 2009. The network employs two announcers - Conor Clear and Andrea Hayes. All announcements are pre-recorded unlike live continuity in RTE. Conor is also a host of "Monday Million" in association with the National Lottery.

Controversy

Criticism

Many media commentators have criticised TV3 for the lack of original programming on the station, although a major effort has been made in 2008 to deal with this criticism. 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.[42][43][44]

Many Irish people were shocked in December 2009 at the manner in which TV3 News disclosed that Finance Minister Brian Lenihan was suffering from a serious illness. Senior government sources spoke of "outrage" across the political spectrum at the insensitive content and tone of a news bulletin broadcast, which the station had earlier flagged as a "news story of national importance". However the station's decision was defended by the Irish Times and the political magazine the Phoenix. The BAI ruled in favour of TV3 in relation to this announcement. Rejecting all 14 complaints made against TV3 to the regulator.[45]

OneVision DTT Licence application

Main article: One Vision (DTT)

On 1 May 2009 Fintan Drury chairperson of the OneVision consortium made up of TV3 Group, Arqiva, Eircom and Setanta. announced that OneVision was to enter negotiations with the BCI) with the view to takeover operations of the pay DTT service.[46] OneVision aspired to offer 23 channels coinciding with the free-to-air channels.[12] Eircom is majority stakeholder in this project.[47]

  • One Vision has apparently withdrawn its license acceptance according to the print edition of the Irish Independent April 29, 2010, page 22 [48] This follows an article also in the print edition of the Irish Independent on April 24, 2010 that it had queried why the independent adjudicator in the positions between One Vision and RTE Networks had not recommended a way forward. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has apparently offered the license to Easy TV, and apparently an RTÉ Spokesperson has confirmed that the Easy TV Consortium has to consider its position on the offer in due course[49].
  • On May 12, 2010 The Easy TV consortium informed the BAI that it was declining their offer to pursue negotiations regarding the Commercial DTT Multiplex Licence having carefully considered the current opportunity, both parties agreed, due to the significant lapse in time and the altered circumstances since Easy TV’s original application in 2008, that they did not wish to pursue the joint venture at this time [50].

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Doughty Hanson Annual Review 2008". Doughty Hanson & Co. 1 January 2009. Retrieved 24 June 2009.
  2. ^ "Doughty Hanson Annual Review 2009" (PDF). Doughty Hanson & Co. 1 January 2010. Retrieved 10 March 2010.
  3. ^ http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/home/tv-to-plug-a-gap-in-eires-market/2023438.article
  4. ^ a b Hancock, Ciaran (20 August 2010). "Channelling enthusiasm". Retrieved 20 August 2010.
  5. ^ http://www.iftn.ie/?act1=record&only=1&aid=73&rid=4282637&tpl=archnewshome&force=1
  6. ^ http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=THE+INSIDE+TRACK-qqqs=mediaandmarketing-qqqid=45193-qqqx=1.asp
  7. ^ http://www.rte.ie/about/pressreleases/2009/1022/responsetotv3221009.html
  8. ^ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/1024/1224257392869.html
  9. ^ "Reeling In The Years 1989". RTÉ. 1999. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  10. ^ "Canwest to sell share in TV3". RTÉ News. 16 January 2006. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
  11. ^ ref>http://www.sbpost.ie/news/ireland/rte-must-have-dtt-operational-by-october-48251.html
  12. ^ a b c d e "TV3's 2010 Autumn Schedule". TV3 Press Office. 19 August 2010. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
  13. ^ http://www.tv3.ie/shows.php?request=tv3app
  14. ^ http://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/tv3-app/id393340799?mt=8
  15. ^ "TV3: lots of Heartbeat, but there's little pulse". Irish Independent. 21 January 2006. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
  16. ^ a b http://www.independent.ie/business/media/bosi-inks-8364750000-tv3-sponsorship-deal-1864637.html
  17. ^ http://www.irishpressreleases.ie/2009/08/19/bank-of-scotland-ireland-teams-up-with-tv3-in-flagship-sponsorship-deal
  18. ^ http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/itemlongdetail.cfm?item_id=2343
  19. ^ http://www.independent.ie/business/media/browne-must-go-lifestyle-or-tv3-will-lose-sponsor-1873158.html
  20. ^ "Waking up with Mark and Amanda". Irish Independent. 18 September 1999. Retrieved 3 August 2009.
  21. ^ "TV3 Launches new day time show". TV3. 8 April 2009. Retrieved 3 August 2009.
  22. ^ http://www.lotto.ie/News/Deal-or-No-Deal/
  23. ^ "TV3 Brings 'Take Me Out' to Ireland". IFTN.ie. 18 August 2010. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
  24. ^ "Will haunted house conquer Laois man?". Laois Nationalist. 28 May 2002. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
  25. ^ "Keith Duffy Hosting TV3 Reality Series 'The Box'". IFTN. 7 September 2006. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
  26. ^ "Irish Film & Television Awards Winners Announced". IFTN. 14 February 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
  27. ^ "TV3 will shun IFTA Award coverage". The Evening Hearld. 8 January 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
  28. ^ "Judging Panel for Total Exposure Announced". IFTN. 4 June 2009. Retrieved 30 June 2009.
  29. ^ "CELEBRITY SALON OPENS ITS DOORS ON TV3!". TV3. Retrieved 30 May 2010.
  30. ^ Egan, Barry (6 June 2010). "Caprice wants love, not marriage". Irish Independent. Retrieved 29 June 2010.
  31. ^ Finn, Melanie (18 August 2010). "Come Dine With Me on the menu". The Evening Herald. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
  32. ^ http://www.rte.ie/arts/2009/1124/theclinic.html
  33. ^ http://www.tv3.ie/xpose.php?video=16601&locID=1.65.68
  34. ^ http://www.theguardstv.com/home.html
  35. ^ McBride, Caitlin (3 June 2010). "Wait goes on for our answer to The Wire". Evening Hearld. Retrieved 12 June 2010.
  36. ^ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0305/breaking70.html
  37. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20020803050743/http://www.dynamo.ie/tv3/index.html#
  38. ^ http://thetvroom.com/irish/tv-3-01-01.html
  39. ^ http://thetvroom.com/irish/tv-3-02-01.html
  40. ^ http://thetvroom.com/irish/tv-3-03-01.html
  41. ^ http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/tv3-rebrands-to-head-off-threat-from-march-entry-of-channel-6-112086.html
  42. ^ "Who needs TV3". Tom McGurk. Sunday Business Post. 30 June 2002. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
  43. ^ "Comment: Stephen Price". Stephen Price. The Sunday Times. 27 August 2006. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
  44. ^ "Radio Telefís Éireann Annual Report & Consolidated Financial Statements 2003" (PDF). RTÉ. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
  45. ^ [http://www.bai.ie/broadcasting_complaints_decisions.html "[http://www.bai.ie/pdfs/20100322_MarDecisions_AOB.pdf Complaint Decisions March 2010]"]. BAI. BAI. 17 March 2010. Retrieved 29 March 2010. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help); External link in |title= (help)
  46. ^ Noonan, Laura (2 May 2009). "OneVision sets sights on paid-for TV project". Irish Independent. Retrieved 3 August 2009.
  47. ^ "OneVision wants DTT licence". The Irish Times. 1 May 2009. Retrieved 3 August 2009.
  48. ^ http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055897405
  49. ^ http://www.thepost.ie/news/ireland/digital-television-negotiations-reach-crisis-point-48985.html
  50. ^ http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2010/05/16/irish-dtt-on-the-brink-after-easy-tv-refuses-bai-offer/

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