TV3 almost sold.

DMC

Speculation ends...


TV3 sale deal values station at €265m


http://www.rte.ie/business/2006/0519/tv3.html
May 19, 2006 19:15

European private equity group Doughty Hanson & Co has agreed to buy 100% of the national commercial television channel TV3.

The deal, which values TV3 at €265m, is subject to ITV's waiving its pre-emption rights. The British broadcaster, which already owns 45% of TV3, has 90 days in which to decide whether to match the offer.

The other current shareholders are media group CanWest (45%) and private investors including James Morris, Ossie Kilkenny and U2 manager Paul McGuinness.

Steve Bone of Doughty Hanson said TV3 was a high-quality broadcast business with 'an excellent market position and strong growth potential'. The company said it would work with TV3 management to expand the business and build audience share.

The sale process was triggered by CanWest's decision earlier this year to sell its shareholding.

icdg

Hmm, if the deal goes through, its almost certain there'll be another sale somewhere down the road. Venture capitalists are not known for owning TV stations, never mind hanging on to them.

So what happens with the ITV deal if this goes through, I wonder...

L1011

Its on behalf of someone, thats for sure. But who?

If TV3 get gifted DTT space (more than just 4Mbits or so for one station mind) it could be worth quite a bit just off the back of that. But a VC firm wouldn't buy on the hope that it would get that, and otherwise, its not really worth that kind of money on future profits alone.

Did someone like RTL (wild guess, pulled name out of air) employ them as an intermediary?

icdg

Certainly Ireland is one of the few markets in Europe where RTL don't have a presence, so I wouldn't rule them out of the equation entirely. Once the ITV deal ends we will probably see TV3 moving back towards their original format, with Sky-esque shows and Five imports.

Elmo

Certainly Ireland is one of the few markets in Europe where RTL don't have a presence, so I wouldn't rule them out of the equation entirely. Once the ITV deal ends we will probably see TV3 moving back towards their original format, with Sky-esque shows and Five imports.

I can't see RTE wanting to bid for ITV shows as they haven't had them for a few years now. Hopeful RTE won't think of buying Coro St back. But then they did buy EastEnders :rolleyes:

Also TV3 is sold as far as Canwest are concerned regardless of if ITV or Doughty Hanson & Co buy the stake.

Ulsterman 1690

Hopeful RTE won't think of buying Coro St back.

Unfortunately I reckon they will not only try and get it back but offer silly money for it.

Given that TV3's licence is up in a a year or so (and while renewal is likely it is by no means a foregone conclusion) I dont see why such big sums of money are being offered

Mossy Monk

Elmo wrote:

Hopeful RTE won't think of buying Coro St back

they would be crazy not to. Coronation Street = Big Ratings

Elmo

they would be crazy not to. Coronation Street = Big Ratings

Perhaps they will bring back glenroe so. :rolleyes:

Ratings not as good as the used to be. Totally commerical nothing to do with any type of remit that RTE has, RTE should not have bought EastEnders. Perhaps some promotion of somthing other then Foreign (Austrailian, British, American, New Zealander) Soaps might be a good Idea.

Something other then the soaps might be nice.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2095-2189589,00.html

Telefís

Hmmmm - the Coronation Street Question is a fascinating one alright. Don't think anyone considered the implications of the TV3 deal on this before!

I fully agree that RTÉ should not have purchased EastEnders - a cop out if ever you saw one. But Coronation Street was always, and still is a bit different. There is a tradition attached to that soap in Ireland, and it features themes and characters that resonate as much with Irish audiences as it does with the UK's - it was also shown on RTÉ for 19-20 years before TV3 snapped it up. EastEnders is in a different league - it's almost akin to showing Brookside on RTÉ.

However I would be reluctant to allow RTÉ to replace EastEnders with it for the simple reason that there's nearly too much of it at this stage - amounting to five episodes a week, five half hours of prime time, five half hours of imported programming in prime time. It's a lot for a public service broadcaster in 2006 – but then again, it could generate a lot of money for the station, especially if they got it sponsored, resulting not only in the generated money being pumped into home production, but also more money again saved from programming that's currently being made and imported to fill the Coronation Street slots, not to mention the huge bonus of capturing large audiences to buffer RTÉ's evening schedules including the Nine news and subsequent current affairs programming, as well as the myriad opportunities for advertising RTÉ programming during Corrie ad breaks.

While viewers of the soap have fallen somewhat, the difference between Coronation Street on RTÉ and EastEnders is still stark. I highlight on RTÉ, as TV3 presently attain in the region of 400,000-500,000, depending on the day. EastEnders gets around 350,000-400,000. When shown RTÉ however, as in the past, Corrie rises dramatically to 600,000 on average, pulling back huge swathes of viewers of the soap from UTV, viewers who for whatever reason refuse to watch it on TV3 (including a number of my own relatives!). Having the equivalent of a low The Late Late Show on five nights a week, rising to 700,000 and beyond a number of times a year would be a major bonus for the national broadcaster.

The other factor to consider is that EastEnders is a most inconvenient programme for RTÉ to air from a production perspective - it causes the station a lot of hassle it could do without by virtue of its length. It's about 29 minutes long, much longer than the 22 minute Coronation Street, throwing every night's RTÉ One schedule way off, causing a big headache for schedulers. Nationwide now finishes at 7.25 so all subsequent programming can be pulled back to accommodate the soap, in a very unprofessional manner. And even then it still creates overruns, often causing the Nine news to start two minutes late, especially on Fridays. So viewers of the station in mid evening either have to tune in extra early to watch certain programmes which is a big no no in broadcasting, or tune in too early for programmes that start late! The ITV News at When phenomenon has since crept into RTÉ’s Nine thanks to EastEnders.

Also the lack of provision of ad intervals by the BBC causes RTÉ to make very unprofessional cuts mid-way though each episode in spite of no turning point in the storyline. Similarly there are no programme idents, titles/stings or other suitable lead-ins and lead-outs. RTÉ Presentation also have to watch each episode to note where the cut is to be made.

The really could do without the hassle, and Coronation Street is tailor-made for RTÉ. Just the hour on Mondays is not good press for any public broadcaster to try to introduce from nothing.

Elmo

The Promotion Of Eastenders and Coronation Street.

You have to remember that when Coronation Street started out On RTE it was on RTE/NETWORK 2 from 1978 to 1992. In 1992 Coronation Street was moved to RTE ONE, due to the olympic games. (This Idea that it is attached to RTE is stupid).

Coronation Street had little viewers on RTE TWO, as did RTE TWO from 1978 TO 1988, in 1988 RTE two was rebrand as Network two and As far as I remember Coronation Street was not a popluar as Home And Away on Network Two.

Coronation Street moves to RTE One. Coronation Street gains in poplarity as RTE has little competition and loyal viewers.

1998 TV3 comes on air with Eastenders. EastEnders has a viewership of 100,000 viewers to 150,000 viewers. Moves to RTE as a cop out from lossing Coronation Street, Eastenders Now has 350,000 viewers to 400,000 viewers showing yet again the loyality of viewers on RTE One, while Coronation Street is reduced to 400,000 viewers to 600,000 viewers on TV3.

Either way if RTE go to buy Coronation Street it means that they loss their other soap EastEnders which would provide the competition TV3 with a good viewing figures for a highly promoted RTE Show. Coronation Street would always be moving hands as would EastEnders.

Soap is **** and both RTE and TV3 need to look at more orginal programming.

RANT OVER

Is this bad reporting?

http://www.altassets.com/news/arc/2006/nz8625.php

Elmo

So are we to assume that Doughty Hanson & Co have bought TV3?

Accourding to many news reports they have bought the station, which has lead to TV3 sales selling advertising time for Living TV's opt out service.

http://www.adworld.ie/news/?guid=9ecd6345-a7cf-4165-afb9-4e55f0103566

icdg

The time for ITV to table a counterbid is still running, so they haven't taken possession yet (which presumably is why the TV3 Sales arm is calling itself CanWest Ireland Sales, though it seems silly to adopt a brand you know you'll have to drop soon). However time is running out for ITV and it looks like Doughty Hanson & Co will get possession of TV3.

As I said before, venture capitalists are not ones for owning TV stations (ACT Venture Capital got out of TV3 when given an early opportuinity by what was then Granada) so presumably they will themselves sell on the station when the likes of RTL coming knocking.

flogen

By my count ITV have until mid-August to make their move and frankly I wouldn't be surprised if they held off until the last minute to put their cards on the table..

Do ITV Plc have anything major coming up that may effect their ability to raise that kind of money, maybe they're holding out until they're certain..

Saying that I agree with icdg, if Doughty Hanson does make the purchase they'll sell it off quickly enough, I'd say once they secure the next licence in a few years time they'll sell it up, a new deal on ITV products will be quite lucrative too.

DMC

ITV plc are trying to get as lean as possible at the moment, IIRC they've sold their share in Channel 7 Australia, paid back cash to shareholders, they've had a bad World Cup in terms of revenue, share price taking a dive...

They won't buy out TV3. They'll be bought out themselves soon enough.

L1011

DMC wrote:

They won't buy out TV3. They'll be bought out themselves soon enough.

With a merged UTV-SMG, if that happens, being prime candidates.... as both of them have significant and sucessful other incomes as well as, in UTVs case, the only truely profitable ITV franchise... they could probably afford a failing ITV plc, with its shoddy TV channels and small amounts of advertising (which fits with both UTV and SMG's ad firms too...)