City Channel/Buzz TV Girls

James22

Just wondering what everybody's opinion is on these girls who promote 'party-line' telephone numbers on these channels...you know, these girls appear in various states of, er...undress...and they're on from 12am-6am.

Before you all ask, no i've not rung them up!!!

Seriously, i've been flicking around channels and you can hardly miss these girls.

My question is this, why do City Channel and Buzz TV feel that they have to put these girls and phone lines on their channels for six hours?

...are these channels so skint, they have do do it?

Mossy Monk

James22 wrote: »

...are these channels so skint, they have do do it?

That's it IMO.

mjsmyth

There are similar channels on satellite and your post got me thinking....

They seem to charge between 75p to £1.50 a minute for the calls. On the ones I have seen, there is normally only one girl on screen. So, in one hour, the max that can be made is £90 and thats only if that girl is chatting on the phone all the time.

Surely it can't just cost £90 an hour to run a TV channel (even if the studio is only a bed) and broadcast it. That works out at roughly £750000 to run a channel 24/7 365 days a year. That also includes paying the ladies to appear on the show.

How do these channels make money???

mj

Pat Gleeson

mjsmyth wrote: »

How do these channels make money???

mj

I was looking at Five the other day, and came across one of these phone in programmes. One way they make money is they charge for everyone who calls, not just those who get through to the studio to answer the deliberately ambigious questions. I wonder does this apply here?

The presenter on the programme I was looking at was very clear about the rules - one good thing that came out of the phone in scandals a few years back.

BrianD

I'd imagine that your call would be going through to a call centre somewhere probably full of women who may or may not look as glamourous or as scantily clad as their on screen companion. European TV is full of this kind of stuff though their presenters wear alot less.

On the same topic have you seen the "Play TV" on TV3 with the non-stop quizzes. I haven't watched it long enough but is there any breaks? I;m just wondering how the presenter can keep the inane excitement for so long.

Premium rate telephone services have been all the rage in Europe for a while. It's the business model for many stations.

They don't only make money from the onscreen presenter. There's usually other offscreen staff answering the calls. Also the fact that you'd be charged for the call as soon as it's connected and not necessarily when you get to talk to the presenter.

Razir1

In answer to the thread in relation to the party girls. I work for City Channel TV.

We actually dont make money from the phone calls, there is a company who buys the airtime from us to broadcast the party girl material. They produce it themselves.

And yes unfoturnately it is a purely commercial venture, for a which a local TV station likes ours that doesnt get any funding from the goverment, license fee money etc, it is a needed source of revenue.

Hope that helps people understand.

Ray

Elmo

Could you not come up with a few national shows, the slate of Imports/Bought in programming is way below standards. After all City Channel now covers a good bit of the country. South Channel and City Channel Galway could have an hour to themselves in prime time with National programming for the other 4 hours, a few Irish programmes with a few Imports.

To me it seems that City Channel are codding themselves when they state that they are 24 hours 7 days a week. Why even think so big to begin with?

Party Girls or Play TV could be got rid of and replaced with a Music show with premium rate phone ins and competitions.

Source of Revenue Advertisers.

As for Buzz TV it is regulated in the by OfCom and it is only really a phone in TV channel with Physics Live during the evening.

Razir1

I welcome your comments. The problem with bringing national imports for us is unfortunately that they cost too much for us. We dont have the type of revenue that the national channels enjoy or any funding that RTE would have.

We are trying to improve our programming as fast as possible, it is a slow process though. I suppose we do try to achieve is Irish made programme that is somewhat relevent.

If we had bigger budgets, then of course you would see better produced programming. Unfortunately we have to broadcast in this style just at the moment to survive.

We have broadcasted important features on the Budget, Ireland Europe and chatshows on Human rights issues etc

Some of the watchable shows would be the Media show, On the Menu, the show we did with Failte Ireland, on highlighting a trip to Cork, Connemara, Donegal and Athlone.

In this vein we will have a show on the Wicklow area coming out soon and special feature on the Guiness Storehouse.

Some of the chatshows have been pretty ok too, Neil Prendaville show and Dublin Today are watchable.

The Music show idea is good in theory, but there is no company who produces this and the market would not be as big for this believe it or not, sure Bubble hits TV was all about this and they have gone bust,

Just on another note, to show hard it is to keep a TV station going, we were one of four stations in 2005 to be awarded a license and it looks like we will be the only ones still going pretty soon. Setanta are in trouble, Channel six was sold to TV3 and Bubble hits(irish MTV) has gone bust.

Welcome all comments though, even if its negative as we really do pass this around our directors to hopefully get towards where we want the station to be and something the public find useful and enjoy watching.

mjsmyth

@Razir1

Did you guys ever think of doing a tech show or two? Take a look at revision3.com for a list of their online shows. Tekzilla, Systm and Scam School are all quite good shows and available in high quality video.

I don't know how much a tv show costs to air per episode, but I can't imagine that these shows would come anywhere near shows from the mainstream producers. I would also think that there are not many rights issues with the content as the episodes are available to view worldwide.

Anyway, its just a thought, an alternative source of very good programming.

MJ

Elmo

Think small > think quality > think growth.

Don't think quanity > don't think small > don't think more is better

City Channel needs to realise that one quality episode of Dublin Today per week for 22 weeks is better than 5 bad episodes of Dublin Today per week for 52 weeks.

Neil Prendiville isn't good as a presenter but the show is well produced.

City Channel are buying imports buy quality, and sort your schedule around those highlights.

City Channel should aim to be an Irish Version of ITV.

As I have said before Bubble Hits made huge mistakes: -

1. No Avertising we will make the money from TXT (You are not the BBC)
2. Focused on a larger country hoping to break big while forgetting about the Irish audience (they did not know how big their Irish audience was)
3. Insulting the biggest advertisers by saying that it would not like to see adverts for "washing up liquids" and one with a brain knows that cool products like "lynks" produce other products such as "washing up liquids" which end up being the biggest advertise in Ireland and Britian.

patrickmooney

Razir1 wrote: »

The Music show idea is good in theory, but there is no company who produces this and the market would not be as big for this believe it or not, sure Bubble hits TV was all about this and they have gone bust

Doesn't the company who produce Play TV Ireland for TV3 produce a jukebox style show, ready to be repackaged for new markets? http://www.interactv.com/extras.htm

Razir1

Hi MJ,

We are currently looking at internet TV and what can be used in terms of content that is relevant and up to date to the Irish market.

We were aware of this site and I agree with you that the programme is quite watchable.

Regards,
Ray Grafton

mjsmyth wrote: »

@Razir1

Did you guys ever think of doing a tech show or two? Take a look at revision3.com for a list of their online shows. Tekzilla, Systm and Scam School are all quite good shows and available in high quality video.

I don't know how much a tv show costs to air per episode, but I can't imagine that these shows would come anywhere near shows from the mainstream producers. I would also think that there are not many rights issues with the content as the episodes are available to view worldwide.

Anyway, its just a thought, an alternative source of very good programming.

MJ

Razir1

Hi Elmo,

I understand your point here, but the fact is we have a license to broadcast 24 hours and a certain mandate to fulfill in terms of our programming structure.

But the comments on think quality is noted and to be honest we are striving to produce more quality shows, but the bills have to be paid in the meantime, so thats why we have a lot of commercial content.

The cost to buy the quality shows that you might see on mainstream TV is too high.

Again though, I do appreciate the way you are thinking.

Razir

Elmo wrote: »

Think small > think quality > think growth.

Don't think quanity > don't think small > don't think more is better

City Channel needs to realise that one quality episode of Dublin Today per week for 22 weeks is better than 5 bad episodes of Dublin Today per week for 52 weeks.

Neil Prendiville isn't good as a presenter but the show is well produced.

City Channel are buying imports buy quality, and sort your schedule around those highlights.

City Channel should aim to be an Irish Version of ITV.

As I have said before Bubble Hits made huge mistakes: -

1. No Avertising we will make the money from TXT (You are not the BBC)
2. Focused on a larger country hoping to break big while forgetting about the Irish audience (they did not know how big their Irish audience was)
3. Insulting the biggest advertisers by saying that it would not like to see adverts for "washing up liquids" and one with a brain knows that cool products like "lynks" produce other products such as "washing up liquids" which end up being the biggest advertise in Ireland and Britian.

Elmo

Razir1 wrote: »

I understand your point here, but the fact is we have a license to broadcast 24 hours and a certain mandate to fulfill in terms of our programming structure.

Well then the regulator is insane. Surely the porno/commerical programmes don't count towards your "24" since you don't produce those shows, in effect you are closedown for the night.

The cost to buy the quality shows that you might see on mainstream TV is too high.

But I am looking at your imports and they just are very very basic. TG4 spend 3million on their imports, I know that City Channel doesn't have that kind of money. But surely some of your resourse could be put into buy better programming. You also have to take into account that you wouldn't pay the same price as the mainstream broadcasters since you aren't nationwide and you aren't available on all platforms in each region you serve. This reduces your population and would reduce the amount you spend on imports.

It seems to me City Channel wants to grow. You now have a licence for City 7 when is that going to happen? Wouldn't you be better concentrating on City Channel's Prime Time schedule?

cojack101

Hey I know a bit of topic, but does anyone know what City Channels budget is for buying new shows?

Elmo

cojack101 wrote: »

Hey I know a bit of topic, but does anyone know what City Channels budget is for buying new shows?

Zero. From what I gathered. City Channel is mainly about selling air time rather than TV programming. Most of their content is product placement based. They were looking for 400,000 euro last year from their investors.

faigs

They should really try to focus more on quality rather than quantity, pay for professional crews, research shows properly to have better content and it would make such a difference. Eg more time in researching/producing Evening Show for one good show a week would be much more watchable than a show every day with boring contributors and drawn out interviews.

Lots of the stuff just looks so cheap, I know there are small budgets but no one wants to watch TV that looks unprofessional.

dunworth1

i think they should maybe produce their own talk shows.
as i doubt that would break the bank as they would only need one area and can us the same area for all the shows.

they could talk about local issues and have a call in show.

Elmo

faigs

dunworth1 wrote: »

i think they should maybe produce their own talk shows.
as i doubt that would break the bank as they would only need one area and can us the same area for all the shows.

they could talk about local issues and have a call in show.

That really is not how you hold onto a tv audience unfortunately, this is where they have their main problem, none of their programming is produced/directed/researched/edited to effectively hold an audience, even if they manage to attract them in the first place.

That Aprés Match sketch is pretty spot on, he ain't the best at paying people!