Has Irish TV reached saturation level?

flogen

with the launch of Setanta Sport Ireland (which is indending on going daily by the new year), Ireland now has 5 cable channels.

Given that we now match the UK with our number of channels (basic channels, that is), and that we also get to view the British channels, do you think that there wont be any more Irish channels in the coming years?

Setanta is a specialist channel, and so far is only running as a limited broadcast, it also has big money behind it. While the 4 other channels seem to be able to survive at least, I am interested to see if 5 is pushing things too far. Sure, sport isn't a big part of RTE, TG4 or TV3, but they all give it fair coverage, enough for fans who dont want/cant get sattelite. We also have plenty of sport on BBC, C4 and UTV.

While I would love to see an RTE News channel, I do realise that it would be difficult for it, or any other channel, to be viable.
Do you think Setanta will last? And if so, will we see anyone else make an attempt at a 6th Irish channel?

flogen

Flukey

We will have to give Setanta a few months to see how it goes. We can't be making any sort of pronouncements yet for a while, even until next year when it starts wider broadcasting. We will have to await the new RTE2 branding to see what that does to the market. I suppose there is not much more room for another channel, even if Setanta fails. Give it until the new year, at least, before we can really make any judgements

mike65

You can never have enough TV channels it seems! Setanta has a fair chance simply due to the way its structured. In the UK they are paying through the nose. Also NTL will jack up the sub prices (prolly 8-10%) in January to cover the cost of carring Setanta here so its not free really.

The station has ambitions to go full time from early next year so it'll be alot more than just Scottish/English football on it. The Irish will watch in numbers I'm sure and the ad revenue will start to help though it may be at the expense of the other 4 channels.

Next weekend I'll be watching the Liverpool game and it'll be a good test for me of whether I'll be watching it a little or alot. I briefly checked out the Aston Villa game and it was a bit "dead" with poor sound (the crowd seemed to be in the next county) and a solitary commentator. They'll have to invest to match the best.

On a side note - can Setanta be called a fifth national channel if its not universally availible?

As for another channel, well unless someone can think of a market niche which can be filled and sustained, no.

Mike.

Flukey

Well is even TV3 nationally available or even Network 2 come to that? Then there is the thorny issue of them all being available in Northern Ireland.

mike65

mike65 wrote:

On a side note - can Setanta be called a fifth national channel if its not universally availible?
.

It certainly cannot.
It's only available to ntl viewers universally but I've heard some chorus viewers will have it as a pay channel.
It will never be part of any basic package on sky as they have too much to fear from it competing with their sport channels and it will never be on analog terrestrial as thats too costly.
So two thirds of the country then will never see it
It's just another cable channel really which because of its ntl base when combined with its content will have more of an appeal to advertisers than the likes of sky news Ireland which is way more universally available.

flogen

Earthman wrote:

It certainly cannot.
It's only available to ntl viewers universally but I've heard some chorus viewers will have it as a pay channel.
It will never be part of any basic package on sky as they have too much to fear from it competing with their sport channels and it will never be on analog terrestrial as thats too costly.
So two thirds of the country then will never see it
It's just another cable channel really which because of its ntl base when combined with its content will have more of an appeal to advertisers than the likes of sky news Ireland which is way more universally available.

two thirds? I think thats an over statement.
And Sky not picking it up is not Setanta's problem, I'm sure they'd like to be seen across the country if they could, but naturally, that doesn't come cheap for them, or possibly the viewer.

Obviously, it will take some months for us to know if Setanta will survive or not, but it has certainly picked the right nieche to corner (sport and kids shows, IMO are two markets that can be very profitable, others are more of a risk).
On another note, I saw the Aston Villa match myself, and the sound of the crowd was terrible, and commentation wasn't the best, but these should be ironed out as time goes on.. and besides, I think many soccer fans would watch a match with no sound at all if they knew they didn't need to buy a set top box and a sattelite to do so!

flogen

flogen

flogen wrote:

two thirds? I think thats an over statement.
flogen

It's not actually.
330,000 homes served by Sky digital, thats way over a million people without it for a start(discounting the minority that have both sky and NTL)
Then theres another 200,000 served by chorus in some shape or form equating to surely another four or five hundred thousand viewers.
So we are already up to nearly half the population and then add in those with an aerial only and you'd be close enough to two thirds of the country without setanta sports.

but it has certainly picked the right nieche to corner (sport and kids shows, IMO are two markets that can be very profitable, others are more of a risk).On another note, I saw the Aston Villa match myself, and the sound of the crowd was terrible, and commentation wasn't the best, but these should be ironed out as time goes on.. and besides, I think many soccer fans would watch a match with no sound at all if they knew they didn't need to buy a set top box and a sattelite to do so!

You've hit the nail on the head there-captive eagre market, give them what they want and you make money, even if it's confined to NTL mostly and without the million or more who have access to Sky digital.
If NTL(as is likely) are paying setanta to carry the channel and Setanta pick up the advertising income from the advertisers who cop the potential viewership from such a popular programme mix in Dublin,Cork,waterford and Galways cabled homes then sucess should be on the menu.

Elmo

I don't believe it has But I think I am the only one. I think DTT has missed the opportunity to provided FTA niche channels coming from Ireland. (All of which should in turn be Must Carries on cable). I think half FTA and half PTV may work, but it is not being offered.

Bubble Hits went because it try to be a UK contender and didn't know their Irish Audience.
Channel 6 failed because its phone in music shows were not live and didn't keep its audience interested.

As for viewing figures, Setanta now has 1.5% of the audience, Channel 6 as 3e has lost viewers since it renamed from 0.9% back to 0.7%. Setanta has grown due to its live match but also because it is now running their News Service when outside their Live shows.

Bump! Sorry I was looking for another thread.

Pen1987

Four years on... the answer is?

lostexpectation

well seeing setanta is about to go the wall...

Elmo

lostexpectation wrote: »

well seeing setanta is about to go the wall...

Setanta's problems are not caused by the Irish market but rather by the UK market. (Which was the reason Bubble Hits went).

Setanta Ireland now has 1.5% of the viewing audience in the Republic Of Ireland. With 2% of Men over 15 watching.

Creatively speaking these new channels have done nothing worthwhile IMO this is a major reason for them not attaining substantial viewing figures.