The ITV Thread

hotmail.com

endakenny wrote: »

I doubt that it's going to ignore them.

After all, US presidential and British general elections and major terrorist attacks and natural disasters are of huge interest to Irish people, as they are to people of other countries.

Yeah but look at how RTE and TV3 deal with big international stories...a 2 minute report from a reporter in Dublin. For really big stories, RTE might send out a reporter to cover it and even then, their coverage is pretty limited. For big international events/stories, Irish people tune into Sky News, BBC etc.

Regarding big breaking stories that warrant programme interruptions, only time will tell. But these events are rare and I can't see them showing more than news flashes.

I wonder will UTV Ireland take the ITN/ITV Uk election coverage in May. I hope so.

Edit: It could be possible for UTV Ireland to use ITN reports on international stories, but this will dilute their news brand.

hotmail.com

The 6.30 programme included a short report on something from Tyrone. I say something, because I had absolutely no interest in it. Northern stories are of no interest to most Southern viewers.

The Dark Knight

irishfeen wrote: »

Yes as I said I would be massively surprised if UTVNI wasn't on UPC again very soon.

Will not happen!!!
The whole point of forming utvi was to add an additional advertising stream. They will not split the UPC viewership between the two channels.

upc viewers three choices.
1) Stick with utvi, and hope it aligns further with it's British siblings. (could be a wait, but I suspect people will get used to it very quicky - how many people really uses other channel option on sky? - other than us geeks)
2) Move to sky, and use other channel options.
3) And last (but probably the best option), get a Freesat/FTA sat system. (probably something people should have done years ago anyway, and this may be the push they need)

I understand options 2) and 3) may not be available to everyone due to dish limitations, landlords, etc.

galtee boy

zorro2566 wrote: »

Do you work for UTV Ireland?

No I dont ! I'm just saying give them a chance and I genuinely believe that UTVI will eventually be indistinguishable from UTV NI except for news, current affairs etc, but it will take time. And I will concede that's not much good to UPC customers at the moment.

irishfeen

hotmail.com wrote: »

The 6.30 programme included a short report on something from Tyrone. I say something, because I had absolutely no interest in it. Northern stories are of no interest to most Southern viewers.

The windmill story was very interesting - all of us folks in rural Ireland hear about or see the things everyday - nothing at all wrong with that story.

irishfeen

The Dark Knight wrote: »

Will not happen!!!
The whole point of forming utvi was to add an additional advertising stream. They will not split the UPC viewership between the two channels.

We'll see! .. I wouldn't be so sure.

hotmail.com

hotmail.com wrote: »

The 6.30 programme included a short report on something from Tyrone. I say something, because I had absolutely no interest in it. Northern stories are of no interest to most Southern viewers.

I was interested, I live in Sligo which is nearer to Tyrone than Cork, the Cork story was less interesting to me!

irishfeen

zorro2566 wrote: »

I was interested, I live in Sligo which is nearer to Tyrone than Cork, the Cork story was less interesting to me!

I'm in North Cork so Mitchelstown was interesting to me .. Generally I thought they did a very good job.

AwaitYourReply

irishfeen wrote: »

Yes as I said I would be massively surprised if UTVNI wasn't on UPC again very soon.

Despite the negative fallout from many dissatisfied subscribers - I don't think that UPC Ireland can just turn around and undermine UTV Ireland by adding UTV(NI) channel again while the parent company UTV Media plc. tries to grow it's brand new channel UTV Ireland which is primarily aimed at a Republic of Ireland audience in terms of local news & events coverage.

UPC Ireland probably signed new contract terms with UTV Ireland and are unlikely to abandon agreements made in the short term however; I have no doubt that UPC Ireland will pass on the strong levels of negative feedback received from their existing customer base and request changes to the existing UTV Ireland schedule as soon as possible but this will take some time to implement as future programming rights come up for auction.

AwaitYourReply

hotmail.com wrote: »

Yeah but look at how RTE and TV3 deal with big international stories...a 2 minute report from a reporter in Dublin. For really big stories, RTE might send out a reporter to cover it and even then, their coverage is pretty limited. For big international events/stories, Irish people tune into Sky News, BBC etc.

Regarding big breaking stories that warrant programme interruptions, only time will tell. But these events are rare and I can't see them showing more than news flashes.

I wonder will UTV Ireland take the ITN/ITV Uk election coverage in May. I hope so.

Edit: It could be possible for UTV Ireland to use ITN reports on international stories, but this will dilute their news brand.

I found "Ireland Live" news from UTV Ireland at 6:30pm to be a reasonable solid first performance from Ireland's newest television station. Alison Comyn came across on-screen as more than capable, competent, calm and confident in the way she presented their very first live news programme. Well done to Alison & Co. behind the scenes on this performance!

These would be my observations as an Irish tv viewer based in Cork City. I thought it was interesting that they chose to emphasize local/city regions outside of Dublin. Paul Colgan first pictured in Cork City on South Mall (Grand Parade end) with the former Sullivan's Quay school in the background while his report was focused on a rural community based in the north County Cork town of Mitchelstown and I noticed that he spoke live from Cork's 96FM Radio Studios (owned by UTV media plc) from Wellington Road overlooking the River Lee and Merchant's Quay Shopping Centre. Then another local report this time from Limerick City Centre and the familiar update of events close to Government Buildings in the capital city and a feature on cycling safety from Dublin. Interesting that they did not include any form of Sports Report and no mention of the Business News such as the ISEQ Index/European's main stock markets and major currencies closing prices. Neither was there any entertainment/showbusiness story or a "...And Finally!" which most news organisations seem to have adopted since ITN News At Ten was in it's heyday.

The weather graphics and presentation was at best mediocre and could be further improved and not ended so suddenly as I recall.

The other thing that hit me was the "Ireland Live" on-screen logo is too small.
Surely they should have removed the usual UTV Ireland on-screen DOG and insert UTV in the "Ireland Live" programme logo box during news programmes as I think it would come across far better.

As a viewer, there was just too many things often appearing to be on-screen at the same time:
Top Left Corner -UTV Ireland (already a long winded on-screen DOG)
"LIVE" in green graphic - if reporter was speaking live to UTVi HQ studio
Location/Place in yet another green colour graphic. (We know it's Irish!)
Bottom Left Corner -"Ireland Live" in very small text font graphic within an enclosed box
Graphics Design needs to address how graphics appear on-screen as it's not ideal either having all graphics going up on both the top+bottom left hand side of screen while nothing appears anywhere on the right!

The theme music sounds extremely similar to UTV(NI) which has never impressed me as it does not sound remotely Irish or welcoming despite all the green colours in the logo and graphics. It is a cold corporate theme that needs to sound radically different. Maybe if they adopt a less of the overkill of everything must be green to reflect Ireland in their graphics as it needs to be more subtle not just in vision but also in sound in my view.

irishfeen

ITN reporter being used in Boston I think for Ireland live.. If they have done a deal with ITN its a big big coup.

expectationlost

@utvireland We are looking at opportunities to provide a live stream in the future.

ugh hate pr speak

hotmail.com

irishfeen wrote: »

ITN reporter being used in Boston I think for Ireland live.. If they have done a deal with ITN its a big big coup.

It must be a Channel 5 ITN reporter?

I don't know why they didn't have Mary O'Regan in the studio.

irishfeen

hotmail.com wrote: »

It must be a Channel 5 ITN reporter?

I don't know why they didn't have Mary O'Regan in the studio.

Don't know that - I think he is ITN anyway.

expectationlost

irishfeen wrote: »

ITN reporter being used in Boston I think for Ireland live.. If they have done a deal with ITN its a big big coup.

don't all utv have deals with ITN?

L1011

expectationlost wrote: »

don't all utv have deals with ITN?

ITVs national news comes from ITN; its not a transferrable setup. It would make sense for them to use them as an agency due to their existing relationships but its not an automatic entitlement to.

UTV also own a tiny fraction of IRN in the UK - 3.39%, smallest shareholder but they may use this for certain things, sports coverage in particular.

AwaitYourReply

expectationlost wrote: »

@utvireland We are looking at opportunities to provide a live stream in the future.

ugh hate pr speak

Very important to mind these things where a new venture (such as UTV Ireland) or an existing body is concerned I did a diploma in PR some years ago so; I understand it can be quite tedious having to always watch the smallest things in case they do not communicate the best possible reflection at all times to all of your publics! I'm rusty myself at PR at this stage and political correctness in all it's forms is a close cousin of PR!

JONJO THE MISER

Get this child presenter off, its cringe worthy.

irishfeen

ITV reporter in Boston

irishfeen

JONJO THE MISER wrote: »

Get this child presenter off, its cringe worthy.

Seems very nervous to me .. Might take him time to settle in.

AwaitYourReply

irishfeen wrote: »

Seems very nervous to me .. Might take him time to settle in.

Chris Donoghue may look very young in appearance but I believe he is around 30-31 years of age. He had to cover for Ivan Yates and carry NewsTalk Breakfast on 106-108fm for a considerable period while Yates went to Wales for a few years. He was retained before during and after Ivan Yates long temporary departure from NewsTalk Breakfast. Chris seems to be a surviver as he faced some serious uphill battles himself from a young age according to a piece I've seen in the Irish Examiner from 2012

http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/features/interviews/chriss-fighting-spirit-197274.html

I would love the job myself but I would give this guy a fair chance given the tough life he seems to have had so long as he is capable of doing the job which I think he will grow into.

irishfeen

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

Chris Donoghue may look very young in appearance but I believe he is around 30-31 years of age. He had to cover for Ivan Yates and carry NewsTalk Breakfast on 106-108fm for a considerable period while Yates went to Wales for a few years. He was retained before during and after Ivan Yates long temporary departure from NewsTalk Breakfast. Chris seems to be a surviver as he faced some serious uphill battles himself from a young age according to a piece I've seen in the Irish Examiner from 2012

http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/features/interviews/chriss-fighting-spirit-197274.html

I would love the job myself but I would give this guy a fair chance given the tough life he seems to have had so long as he is capable of doing the job which I think he will grow into.

Haha did you apply for the job??

youngblood

did someone just say "sleep well" at the end of the news?

irishfeen

That weather lady is a fine thing

AwaitYourReply

irishfeen wrote: »

Haha did you apply for the job??

HaHa No, I never applied for the job - I've always been reluctant about the idea of ever moving to Dublin. Maybe it's the daily commuting grind/high cost of property/rental accommodation seems a lot harder up there unless you have family & close connections. I have relatives in Portmarnock but I would not like to impose on them as I like to be independent as much as possible.

irishfeen

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

HaHa No, I never applied for the job - I've always been reluctant about the idea of ever moving to Dublin. Maybe it's the daily commuting grind/high cost of property/rental accommodation seems a lot harder up there unless you have family & close connections. I have relatives in Portmarnock but I would not like to impose on them as I like to be independent as much as possible.

Don't take this the wrong way but are you any good? - live TV news presenting is hard.

ciarandee1

was on utv ireland player and it appears they don't put up the Ireland live programs which is disappointing. went and tested the player and surprised no one said this on here before there is no status/progress bar now volume control or you can't make it full screen, unless you zoom your webpage in and play around with it.

Any thoughts on this?

expectationlost

#IrelandLive is now available on the UTV Player. Catch up here http://player.utv.ie/programme/ireland-live/

AwaitYourReply

irishfeen wrote: »

Don't take this the wrong way but are you any good? - live TV news presenting is hard.

I may be a sensitive soul at the best of times but I am quite sure I would have managed to learn and handle such a role competently in time if I really, really applied myself to the task at hand. (I'm actually my own worst critic!) I appreciate it is not all just about optics and glamour and all that stuff behind the scenes but they do play a part in TV news - I reckon what I would be most impatient about most of all are the mundane things like having to always look your best (i.e.) hair style condition & make-up & wardrobe for camera and running though umpteen rehearsals and so on.

What would keep me going would be the adrenaline and delivering exciting news developments especially when history is being made if there is a big story to cover but these events are not as often as we would like. I probably have an even greater face for Radio mind you (without the studio Webcam)

Souriau

expectationlost wrote: »

#IrelandLive is now available on the UTV Player. Catch up here http://player.utv.ie/programme/ireland-live/

Not available to NI