TV3 IRELAND

'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. Before that it was jointly owned by ITV plc (45%), the largest UK commercial television company, and by CanWest Global Communications(45%), a Canadian company, and the original TV3 Consortium(10%). The main studios of TV3 are located in Ballymount, Dublin.

Contents

History

Programming

Morning & Daytime lineup

Prime Time lineup

Criticisms

See also

Sources

External links

History

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 Because of delays in setting up the station, the licence was revoked by the IRTC.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. 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 is 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. As part of this deal, ''Coronation Street'' and ''Emmerdale'' moved from RTÉ One to TV3. 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 where 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]
On February 7, 2006, TV3 announced that it would adopt a new on-air identity and station logo from March 6 2006. The new logo, a variant of the existing station logo features the '3' figure now enclosed in a circle, with two further circles to the left.
Also, as of March 6 2006, TV3 began broadcasting in widescreen format on Sky Digital.

Programming

TV3 programming is often 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.
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, another complete flop.
Ireland AM is the breakfast programme 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.
Apart from the updates in ''Ireland AM'', TV3's news service on weekdays is broadcast in two 30-minute bulletins at 17:30 (''News @ 5.30''), and around 23:00 (''News Tonight''). Originally an hour-long news bulitten was broadcast at 18:00 on weeknights. However this attempt to compete with '' 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 ITV1). 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. The 18:30 bulitten aired for the final time on 13 April 2007, being replaced by an entertainment and celebrity focussed programme, XPOSÉ, from 15 April 2007.
Another of TV3's home-produced programmes is The Political Party. Airing at 5pm 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.
Gráinne Seoige who had been the main evening news anchor from launch, moved in 2004 to become main anchor of Sky News Ireland. TV3 had previously poached her from TG4 where she had also been main news anchor. TV3 News is now anchored by Collette Fitzpatrick and Alan Cantwell.
TV3 also produces a sports round-up programme called ''Sports Tonight'' which follows ''News Tonight'' on weekday evenings. Other original sports programming includes match analysis and commentary for the football matches that the station broadcasts.
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.
There are also a number of commissioned programmes on TV3, including a weekly movie show called ''Popcorn'', and a weekly programme on horse racing called ''Go Racing''. Newly- commissioned shows launched in 2005 include a programme giving property advice (''The Property Game''), a sports-themed entertainment show (''The Offside Show''), and a late- night talk-show (''The Brendan Courtney Show'').

Morning & Daytime lineup

	07:00	10:00	10:30	11:25	11:55	12:25	12:55	14:35	15:30	16:00	16:30	17:30
Monday	''Ireland AM''	''Family Affairs''	''Wild at Heart''	''Chef at Home''	''Family Affairs''	''Ricki Lake''	''The Oprah Winfrey Show''	''All Saints''	''Emmerdale''	''Coronation Street''	''Judge Judy''	''News@5.30''
Tuesday		''Family Affairs''	''Wild at Heart''	''Chef at Home''	''Family Affairs''	''Ricki Lake''	''Bridezilla''	''All Saints''	''Emmerdale''	''Coronation Street''	''Judge Judy''
Wednesday		''Family Affairs''	''I'll Fly Away''	''I Want My Mummy''	''Family Affairs''	''Ricki Lake''	''The Oprah Winfrey Show''	''All Saints''	''Emmerdale''	''Coronation Street''	''Judge Judy''
Thursday		''Family Affairs''	''I'll Fly Away''	''I Want My Mummy''	''Family Affairs''	''Ricki Lake''	''The Oprah Winfrey Show''	''All Saints''	''Emmerdale''	''Coronation Street''	''Judge Judy''
Friday		''Family Affairs''	''I'll Fly Away''	''Head 2 Toe''	''Head 2 Toe''	''Family Affairs''	''The Oprah Winfrey Show''	''All Saints''	''Emmerdale''	''Coronation Street''	''Judge Judy''

Prime Time lineup

	18:00	18:30	19:00	19:30	20:00	20:30	21:00	22:00	22:55	23:25	23:50
Monday	''Xposé''	''Hollyoaks''	''Emmerdale''	''Coronation Street''	''Everybody Hates Chris''	''Coronation Street''	''Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip''	''	''News Tonight''	''Sports Tonight''	''The Beautiful Game''
Tuesday	''Xposé''	''Hollyoaks''		''Popcorn''	''The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency''	''Bones''	''Men in Trees''	''Tuesday Night Movie''	''News Tonight''	''Sports Tonight''	''On The Limit Sports''
Wednesday	''Xposé''	''Hollyoaks''		''Coronation Street''	''Trinny & Susannah Undress''	''Jericho''	''Supernatural''	''Las Vegas''	''News Tonight''	''Sports Tonight''	''Jericho''
Thursday	''Xposé''	''Hollyoaks''		''Activity Breaks''	''The Propety Game''	''Inside and Out''	''Crossing Jordan''	''Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip''	''News Tonight''	''Sports Tonight''	''Doctor Who''
Friday	''Xposé''	''Hollyoaks''		''Coronation Street''	''All Saints''	''All Saints''	''Friday Night Movie''	''Friday Night Movie''	''News Tonight''	''Sports Tonight''	''Late Night Movie''

==TV3 Analogue UHF Transmitters==
Source: http://www.irish-tv.com/irishtrans.asp

Channel	Location
26	Mount Leinster
27	Mullaghanish
29	Holywell Hill
35	Three Rock
46	Cairn Hill
60	Spur Hill
60	Truskmore
62	Kippure
66	Clermont Carn
66	Maghera

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.^{[4] [5][6]}

See also

★ List of Irish television channels

★ List of TV3 Ireland television programming

★ List of Irish companies

Sources

1. RTÉ: Canwest to sell share in TV3, January 16, 2006.
2. The Irish Times, Auguat 24, 2006
3. Irish Independent: TV3: lots of Heartbeat, but there's little pulse, January 21, 2006.
4.

''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

5.

''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

6. A reference to TV3's simulcasting of ITV1 in the RTE review of 2003

External links

★ Official Site

★ Irish TV.com

★ Irish Cable & Digital Guide