Bubble Hits [Merged]

L1011

This announced and never much mentioned again music station from Athlone is apparently going to actually launch on August 14th on Sky...

http://www.athloneadvertiser.ie/index.php?aid=1099

No mention of it being FTA or pay, and it'll assumedbly be the arse end of the music section (after that weird religious statin :rolleyes: ) but it'll be nice to have another Irish station up there...

Mossy Monk

Athlone Advertiser wrote:

broadcast hit music 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with no commercial breaks.

Bubble Hits say they’re able to accomplish this staggering feat because revenue will be generated by integrated advertising, show sponsorship and viewer interaction via SMS, MMS and web. Sponsored competitions for 'Prizes You Can’t Buy’ and ‘Exclusive Intimate Gigs’ will also contribute to the station’s income

well, that's going to be a roaring success then :rolleyes:

Charles Slane

Another contender for Irish digital terrestrial?

RTE1, RTE2, TV3, TG4, Channel 6, Sky News Ireland, Setanta Sports and Bubble Hits..... might not be bad.

flogen

Charles Slane wrote:

Another contender for Irish digital terrestrial?

RTE1, RTE2, TV3, TG4, Channel 6, Sky News Ireland, Setanta Sports and Bubble Hits..... might not be bad.

Don't count on it just yet, Bubble Hits hasn't gotten a BCI licence, but it does have an Ofcom one... in other words it will broadcast from the UK but will be aimed at Irish audiences.

JohnDigital

It will broadcast from the UK for the UK and Ireland. It will be one single broadcast; so all sponsorship/advertising on it is going to be from UK companies. It is set up and managed by Irish people - but is not a specifically Irish station.

aphex™

Hmm don't like the word "hits" in the title. Sounds like crappy pop tv.

channelsurfer

I remeber fizz saying they wouldnt broadcast any commercials and would make their money on sms texts alone. look where they are now. cant see em lasting long without ads.

flogen

aphex&#8482 wrote:

Hmm don't like the word "hits" in the title. Sounds like crappy pop tv.

...

yup

BuffyBot

aphex&#8482 wrote:

Hmm don't like the word "hits" in the title. Sounds like crappy pop tv.

Well, the word Bubble hardly implies it's about to launch an attack on Kerrang! TV

JohnC.

There was something in one of the red tops yesterday about the channel and 2 presenters who have been signed for something like €250,000 and €300,000. I wasn't taking too much notice of the article (or which rag it was in exactly) and I had not heard of the presenters.

Round Cable

The two presenters are Liam from the group 'Six' and Christopher Parker from Eastenders.

flogen

JohnDigital wrote:

It will broadcast from the UK for the UK and Ireland. It will be one single broadcast; so all sponsorship/advertising on it is going to be from UK companies. It is set up and managed by Irish people - but is not a specifically Irish station.

Well I know it will be available to the UK, but I was under the impression that it would be Irish-focused (but happy to take UK viewers, of course)

Elmo

It maybe like The Wrestling Channel which has its production offices in Howth, Co.Dublin.

www.thewrestlingchannel.tv

I think it will be a very hard maket to get into, as a niche it is currently flooded with TV channels

MTV, MTV2, VH1, VH2, MTV BASE, MTV DANCE, Smash Hits, Scuzz, Amp etc etc etc

Who is issuing the licence?

www.bubblehits.co.uk
www.bubblehits.com
and perhaps www.bubblehits.ie ??????

Also answering my own question

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/tvlicensing/cs/1338.htm

JohnC.

Round Cable wrote:

The two presenters are Liam from the group 'Six' and Christopher Parker from Eastenders.

One of them was a woman. She wasn't wearing a hell of a lot so it is easy to tell.

flogen

Elmo wrote:

It maybe like The Wrestling Channel which has its production offices in Howth, Co.Dublin.

www.thewrestlingchannel.tv

I think it will be a very hard maket to get into, as a niche it is currently flooded with TV channels

MTV, MTV2, VH1, VH2, MTV BASE, MTV DANCE, Smash Hits, Scuzz, Amp etc etc etc

Who is issuing the licence?

www.bubblehits.co.uk
www.bubblehits.com
and perhaps www.bubblehits.ie ??????

Also answering my own question

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/tvlicensing/cs/1338.htm

Yeah, that's why I figure it will be aimed at the Irish market, something a bit different from the usual... after all they'd be better served to take the Irish market than a tiny fraction of the UK market...
I was sure I heard somewhere that they were going to have X amount of Irish content per hour/day or something

DMC

Uggh, christ, not Boyzone and Westlife on high rotation..... thats all we need...

flogen

DMC wrote:

Uggh, christ, not Boyzone and Westlife on high rotation..... thats all we need...

Well tbh I doubt any of their choices will sit well with me; Westlife are just as bad as Take That... or whatever young kids are listening to these days...

Elmo

It will be their choice of Oirish content

God I hate that word Oirish, I promise never to use it again in a post, promise.

Elmo

Sunday Business Post Sunday the 9th of July.

"Can't stand it really," he said "Never watch it. There's nothing on RTE worth a damn." At 23, Mitchelstown-born Hyland may not be too far off the norm on this point. The 16 to 24 YEAR OLD demograph is notoriously difficult to reach on television or therough the most tradtional media these days.

I am assuming that this TV channel will provide space for new up coming artist from Ireland and will give Irish presenters the opertunity to develop their skills, and that it won't be aim at the TV market.

The article goes on to say that the tv channel will reach 31,000,000 people 30,000,000 of which will be in the UK. But then you take into account that not everyone has SKY in Ireland or the UK it means that they won't quite have that reach.

Will UPC Ireland provide it on their service?

L1011

If they got on UK analogue and digital cable (no chance of the former now), they'd get about 13M households in the UK and Ireland, and another, oh, 500K? Maybe less? with Irish cable. Doesn't quite add up to 31M people and certainly not 30M in the UK alone.

Mossy Monk

lets say 13 million households

an average of what 3 per household?

39 million viewers

Elmo

There maths are way off.

It's niche television, and in a very well catered for niche.

It's only available on Sky.

MTV TV Stations only have 1% share of the audience, THIS FIGURE CAN BE DISPUTED AS I HAVE ONLY GLACED AT THE BARB WEBSITE. http://www.barb.co.uk/viewingsummary/monthreports.cfm?report=monthgmulti&requesttimeout=500

L1011

now testing, 12560V 27.5, 2/3; ID 54111 Just bars+tone + EPG data right now. And they call us "Eire"

byte

Another premium text request channel.

Though, despite being called "Eire" at least the premium charge for "Eire" users is cheaper than UK at €1 versus their £1!

seamus21514

What is a text request channel?

JohnC.

Text in whatever song you want them to play. For a price. And people actually do this.

seamus21514

Stupid.

mjsmyth

I heard an interview with the guy behind it tonight on Matt Coopers show on Today FM.

Seems like he has his head screwed on. Instead of it being funded by sms texts, it will be sponsored. Each show will have a didferent sponsor whos logo will appear on the top left of the screen with the bubblehits logo top right, kinda like mtv.

He also says that there will be no ad breaks, no suprise really as each show will be just one long advert for whoever sponsors it.

He mentioned texting. You can text in to one of their late night shows to get a video played for someone. They will send a text to that person telling them to turn on Sky Channel blah blah blah at whatever o'clock. They won't tell them why.

The station is self funded. He says it will cost in the region of 2.5million to get it on air. All that money has come from a publishing house he and his business partner set up 3 years ago. Seemingly they are responsible for most of the rubbish ringtones you here. They sell their ringtones into 30 something different countries.

The channel is definately FTA. It will be aimed at Ireland and UK obviously, but they have just signed a deal with some German cable company to be carried over there.

His target is 31m viewers a month.

Now then, have I missed something.......... Oh yeah, they say they will be supporting Irish music. They were filming at Oxegen and will be attending other festivals thru out the year. They also filmed The Republic of Loose somewhere for showing on the channel.

They have 3 presenters, Glenda thingy (whats with the eybrows?????), bloke who used to be on Eastenders and bloke who used to be in 6 (I think).

Thats about all I remember.

mj

Raekwon

Sounds like rhyming slang for something rather nice

L1011

German cable firm... hrm, a number of the FTA music stations are 'going on cable in Germany' by recent statements, so I'd guess its the same one.

mjsmyth

I can't remember the name of the cable firm, but it only serves 1m homes. He listed some German cities it serves, the only I can remember is Bonn.

He also had a sly dig at MTV, Matt Cooper asked his was he basing it on MTV and he said no, that they were going to play Music, MTV is only an entertainment channel now! Or words to that effect.

mj

L1011

Yeah, the other channel I know has secured coverage is on a cable firm that serves.... 1 million houses

byte

mjsmyth wrote:

The station is self funded. He says it will cost in the region of 2.5million to get it on air. All that money has come from a publishing house he and his business partner set up 3 years ago. Seemingly they are responsible for most of the rubbish ringtones you here. They sell their ringtones into 30 something different countries.
mj

No, he is not responsible for the ringtones. He just made the adverts for Jamster, etc.

On an aside, they have regged bubblehits.com though just the logo and "Coming Soon"

mjsmyth

Sorry, I thought he said his publishing house was responsible for creating the ringtones, just not the crazy frog one, that they only did the advert for that.

One way or the other, if he can pump 2.5m into a new venture without any other backers, they must be doing alright.

mj

mjsmyth

Bubble Hits is actually broadcasting now.

mj

L1011

And the AV sync is a good 5 seconds out on some videos!

LordSutch

So, is anyone watching 'Bubble Hits' here in the Republic? and if so, what do ya think of it ?

Elmo

Camelot wrote: »

So, is anyone watching 'Bubble Hits' here in the Republic? and if so, what do ya think of it ?

Why the bold?

I don't go that far up the dial. Perhaps if I was a teenager. When I have tuned in I found it to be very very pop music ordinated like any other music station up that end of the dial, TBH its not my type of TV. I would rather listen to the radio.

I sometimes think it is done on a very low budget.

Viewing figures for UK below
1 HIT MUSIC NOW (Sat 17:00) 13,000
2 LOUIS' BIG ONES (Sun 15:00) 12,000
3 JUST GREAT MUSIC (Mon 14:00) 8,000
4 THE MOST WANTED HITS (Thu 18:00) 8,000
5 NOTHING BUT HITS (Sat 19:00) 8,000
6 EURO TOP 30 (Sun 17:00) 7,000
7 NOTHING BUT HITS (Wed 21:00) 6,000
8 NOTHING BUT HITS (Fri 21:00) 6,000
9 THE MOST WANTED HITS (Mon 18:00) 5,000
10 JUST GREAT MUSIC (Thu 14:00) 5,000

Taking our population I think it would be much lower. It would be nice to see either MiTV or Bubble Hits take over from MTV on Chrorus:NTL Analogue.

www.mitv.ie the other music channel.

patrickmooney

I actually like it, it's a real music channel unlike MTV and now VH1. The only downside is it's gets a little repetivite and some hours the songs can be quite old.

iseegirls

i like the channel - but everytime i flick by - bloody Kings Of Leon are ALWAYS on!!!

Infoanon

Bubble Hits has dissappeared off all platforms - it went to a blank screen at 1pm today (Fri 13th Feb) and is now off the Sky EPG,Blank on UPC & webpage and bebo pages are gone.

Nothing has been confirmed but the signs seem pretty obvious

Another station has bitten the dust - who is going to be next ?

Koloman

It seems they have closed down. Shame.

Austin 3:16

I was wondering what was going. Down to one music channels for us basic chorus users so, looks like it's the "flavor of love" for the rest of the night!

Elmo

Koloman wrote: »

It seems they have closed down. Shame.

Any news reports that you can link to. I don't think you can make blunt assertions like that on boards . Bubble are currently recruiting AFAIK.

Websites seem to be down alright

www.bubblehits.ie
www.bubblehits.co.uk
www.bubblehits.com

Nothing on 711 UPC either. WTF!

Elmo

Station taken off air as revenue crisis bursts Bubble Hits

IRISH MUSIC TV station Bubble Hits, which is half-owned by successful concert promoter Denis Desmond, was taken off air yesterday due to heavy losses.

The station, which was originally created by young Irish businessmen James Hyland and Lee Walsh, debuted in August 2006. The channel and its associated website both closed without notice yesterday.

Mr Hyland told The Irish Times that Bubble Hits had failed to attract sufficient advertising revenues and it had been decided to cut their losses.

“It was costing us money to run,” Mr Hyland said. “There was no point throwing dead money after dead money.

“We didn’t get any support from the advertising agencies. They simply weren’t spending their clients’ money.”

Mr Hyland said there would be no job losses.

The six staff will switch to Creative Sounds, a Meath-based production company that he co-owns with Mr Walsh.

Bubble Hits debuted with no advertising, deciding, instead, to seek sponsorship to fund its activities.

This model failed to generate sufficient revenues and it began seeking advertising some time ago.

It was carried in Ireland and Britain by satellite operator Sky and also featured on the NTL/ Chorus cable platform here.

Mr Hyland said the station was watched by 1.5 million viewers each week.

No details for Ireland are available as it was not part of the Nielsen ratings.

Bubble Hits was owned by Creative Sounds UK Ltd. Mr Desmond’s Gaiety Investments owned 50 per cent of the business with the other half jointly held by Mr Hyland and Mr Walsh.

Accounts for the year to the end of January 2007 for the UK-registered company show that it had accumulated losses of £586,326. Creditor payments due within one year amounted to £716,692.

Mr Hyland declined to give an update of Bubble Hits’ financial position, nor would he indicate if the company would be liquidated. “We’re working through the final figures at the moment,” he said.

Mr Hyland said he and Mr Walsh plan to concentrate on their production company, which makes about 1,200 TV and radio advertisements a week.

The pair were behind the successful Crazy Frog mobile phone ringtone some years ago.

DarkJager

Of course it was going to fail. Just how many generic pop music stations do we need?

Elmo

James Hyland

“We didn’t get any support from the advertising agencies. They simply weren’t spending their clients’ money.”

Of course insulting the main advertisers (Leaver brothers) when you first introduce advertising revenue doesn't help.

Elmo

Camelot wrote: »

So, is anyone watching 'Bubble Hits' here in the Republic? and if so, what do ya think of it ?

3 years for this thread as long as Bubble lasted. I think you many have killed bubble by asking that question.

Mark Whelan

Yes indeed Bubble has burst, James Hyland who owns the Ashbourne based music channel pulled the plug yesterday. No points for guessing why. It's a pity was a good channel. So to confirm Bubble Hits TV is no more.:mad:

Koloman

Elmo wrote: »

Any news reports that you can link to. I don't think you can make blunt assertions like that on boards . Bubble are currently recruiting AFAIK.

Websites seem to be down alright

www.bubblehits.ie
www.bubblehits.co.uk
www.bubblehits.com

Nothing on 711 UPC either. WTF!

Sorry if I jumped the gun a bit by not putting up links to the story, I normally do! It was 3 in the morning when I found out so I'm blaming tiredness!

I would never knowingly put up false information on this forum.

PS: I was right though!

icdg

Threads merged.