Jeff Ford replaces Ben Frow At TV3

iseegirls

Taken From Digital Spy:

Former Channel 5 executive Jeff Ford has joined Ireland's TV3 as head of content.

Ford replaces Ben Frow - the man who took over his job at the UK broadcaster.

Big Brother's return to UK TV was negotiated by Ford, who reached a deal with producer Endemol for the former Channel 4 show to air on Channel 5.

He was one of the few executives who remained at the broadcaster after it was bought by Richard Desmond - the owner of the Daily Star - in 2010.

Ford's new role will involve him overseeing output across TV3 and sister channel 3e. He'll take up the position at the end of February.

David McRedmond, chief executive of TV3, described the appointment as "a major coup for the network".

Seems like for like here - Jeff would probably have the same vision for TV3 as Ben did.

Don't know if he has much of an input on the scheduling of TV3, but this weekend schedule got a bit of a revamp over the past day compared to what was meant to be broadcast in the weeks TV magazines - 2 films being brought in, Cowboy Builders and Come Dine shown on Sunday, and Tallafornia, Take Me Out, Celeb Mastermind, American Idol, Graham Norton moving timeslots. Ratings must be dire at the weekend by the sounds of it.

channelsurfer2

I see law and order SVU is back too and in primetime. under frow it was neglected for whatever rubbish uk import was on itv at the same time until last year.. good to have it back at least its better than repeats of irelands black economy renamed 3 times...

irishfeen

TV3 needs a major overhaul in all departments, now I don't know what Ford plans for TV3 but he has major work on his hands. The most telling fact was that 19 of the top 20 programs broadcast in Ireland were on RTE with TV3/ITV's only input being 17th with Cononation Street... the station needs a total change of direction, maybe even the abolition of 3e to mix up the two channels and save money on transmission fees. They must realise, and fast that constant repeating of poor British programming will not work to survive in the long term.

iseegirls

I think the reliance of ITV shows is starting to fade a bit (I hope). They've decided against showing Dancing On Ice and stuck I'm A Celeb on 3e.

But they're not going to get into the Top20 with some rubbish programming like Ireland's Worst Road/Weather/Holiday Disasters - which are just basically news items took from TV3 News.

They must have scraped every crime/murder story there ever was in Ireland for their un-endless stream of programmes like Murder In Mind, Crimes That Shook Ireland, 24 Hours To Kill etc...

3e is no longer it's own channel anymore - it's basically a TV3 repeats channel - with Family Guy and Malcolm. This channel seriously needs an overhaul.

They've got new series' of Modern Family, Family Guy, American Dad, US Office, Hart Of Dixie, 30 Rock which was announced back in Autumn. Really don't understand why they havent started showing these yet!? There's only so much Uploaded that can be shown.

irishfeen

I think this is TV3's biggest problem its currently facing is the lack of any male viewership... not one in the top 20 with their sports coverage/in general..



Its something that needs so be sorted if they want success, the channel is almost solely aimed at a female audience, they are forgetting about half the viewing population every day with the exception of a few champions league matches, which can be found in HD FTA anyway.

iseegirls

irishfeen wrote: »

I think this is TV3's biggest problem its currently facing is the lack of any male viewership... not one in the top 20.

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Its something that needs so be sorted if they want success, its almost solely aimed at a female audience, they are forgetting about half the viewing population every day.

That's just Top 20 Sports Shows of 2012. I wouldn't consider that to be a good oversight of male viewers in Ireland. TV3 just have GAA and Champions League in sport. And in both of them they don't have the finals.

irishfeen

iseegirls wrote: »

That's just Top 20 Sports Shows of 2012. I wouldn't consider that to be a good oversight of male viewers in Ireland. TV3 just have GAA and Champions League in sport. And in both of them they don't have the finals.

I know that but its a good indication of male viewership in general, the amount of male viewership for the likes of Coronation Street, Expose, Talifornia... etc would be relatively small. The fact is that they should be investing heavily to dramatically improve their sports portfolio and raise male viewership.

An example would be the 33 - 3pm Premier League games which Setanta currently holds, these rights are relatively cheap and would draw huge viewership and generate big advertisement revenue if TV3 got them. They could even use the international premier league feed to save massively on presentation/commentary.... there seems to be a lack of joint up thinking in TV3, they rely so much on ITV/UTV that if either one was placed on 103 on the various epg's they would easily outperform TV3.

iseegirls

I would love for TV3 to go for the Premier League games, but i just don't feel they'll put the money up for it. They definitely won't go for the highlights package anyway - their Saturday night is X factor for 4 months so they don't want to mess with that.

patrickmooney

I hope this means Big Brother will finally be shown in Ireland. The latest Celeb BB season was the best ever. It would be a perfect fit for 3e.

iseegirls

Probably wouldn't be surprised if he brought over a lot of Channel 5 shows into the schedules.

Surprised that TV3 and 3e haven't done it so far, seeing that Channel 5 is not widely available in Republic Of Ireland.

Hotblack Desiato

iseegirls wrote: »

seeing that Channel 5 is not widely available in Republic Of Ireland.

It's free to air on satellite.

Sam Russell

iseegirls wrote: »

Probably wouldn't be surprised if he brought over a lot of Channel 5 shows into the schedules.

Surprised that TV3 and 3e haven't done it so far, seeing that Channel 5 is not widely available in Republic Of Ireland.

I think Ch 5 occupies the same position in British broadcasting as TV3 does in Ireland - it was poblematic to receive the analogue signal and it is basically low-rent.

galtee boy

iseegirls wrote: »

Probably wouldn't be surprised if he brought over a lot of Channel 5 shows into the schedules.

Surprised that TV3 and 3e haven't done it so far, seeing that Channel 5 is not widely available in Republic Of Ireland.

Mother of sweet Jesus ! Have ye seen the Channel 5 schedule on any given night ? I thought ye didnt want TV3 to sink any lower !

iseegirls

galtee boy wrote: »

Mother of sweet Jesus ! Have ye seen the Channel 5 schedule on any given night ? I thought ye didnt want TV3 to sink any lower !

Ok, I take that back after just looking at the next 5 nights on Channel 5. But I think that would suit 3e's schedule though.

3e's schedule at the moment is awful at the moment. I believed that it was going to be an 'entertainment alternative' to TV3, but as you can in the morning and afternoon's it basically TV3 repeats from the previous day.

As I said before, they have a vast range of new series' of programmes to air - but instead they stick with non-stop XPOSE, Steve Wilkos, Friends and CSI repeats.

ftakeith

jeff ford at tv3 will make tv3 more downmarket , I expect to see C5's big brother on 3e

irishfeen

ftakeith wrote: »

jeff ford at tv3 will make tv3 more downmarket , I expect to see C5's big brother on 3e

Make TV3 more downmarket?? .... he will have have a job bettering the current state of the station

Sam Russell

irishfeen wrote: »

Make TV3 more downmarket?? .... he will have have a job bettering the current state of the station

Never underestimate how downmarket a channel can go. They (Tv3)
have been plumbing the depths for years, getting lower and lower each year.

irishfeen

Sam Russell wrote: »

Never underestimate how downmarket a channel can go. They (Tv3)
have been plumbing the depths for years, getting lower and lower each year.

To be honest I don't think they can go any lower then Psychic Readings Live/Play TV...