UTV and UTV Ireland bought by ITV for £100m

icdg

http://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/news/end-of-an-era-as-utv-sells-off-its-television-division-to-itv-31469190.html
Take with a pinch of salt at the moment - it would be a massive change for UTV (indeed, presumably it would no longer be called UTV after the sale), letting go of the very business that gave it its name.

It would also hang question marks over the long term future of UTV Ireland, whether or not it is included in the sale. If it happens.

Harry Palmr

Hard to see why ITV would want to have UTV-I, unless they were willing to take a medium term view and get the ITV titles that TV3 currently has rights to. They do seem to making money again.

icdg

If they're willing to stick with the business that's an option open to them. They could change their commissioning arrangements so that they have UK and Ireland rights to all their programmes. That's something Channel 4 did about ten years ago and while there are problems with some US distributors unwilling or unable to play ball, Channel 4 now owns Irish rights to virtually all its own commissioned programmes. But that requires taking a long game view, something Channel 4 as a state owned company (and one not spending much, if any money here) had the luxury of doing. ITV as a plc (a FTSE100 one at that) doesn't have the luxury of that kind of long term thinking.

Anyway, we don't know the details yet of whether there is a deal, and if there is, where UTV Ireland stands in relation to it. If its not included, or at least, the deal does not give UTV Ireland some sort of longer term security as regards the programme supply arrangement with ITV, I cannot see UTV continuing with UTV Ireland in the long run.

political analyst

The production of local programmes for Northern Ireland is part of UTV's identity. Is UTV actually willing to divest itself of that to make money?

Delta2113

Makes no sense holding on to Utv Ireland if selling Utv Northern Ireland.

political analyst

Delta2113 wrote: »

Makes no sense holding on to Utv Ireland if selling Utv Northern Ireland.

Could this mean TV3 regaining the Republic terrestrial rights for Emmerdale and Coronation Street?

icdg

Only if UTV Ireland is closed down, which isn't necessarily an outcome (though one possibility).

John Joe Jones

political analyst wrote: »

Could this mean TV3 regaining the Republic terrestrial rights for Emmerdale and Coronation Street?

RTE should snap them up for RTE 2, that channel badly needs a ratings boost.

Harry Palmr

RTE 2 is mainly a yoof channel isn't it? Anyway the cost to RTE of getting the rights would demand RTE 1 slots and that would then mean 90-120 minutes of soap 5 nights a week which would cause an outcry. Not a runner then.

gordongekko

Serious questions need to be asked of utv management. Why sink a **** load of money into a tv station lose a fortune and then decide to sell it off.

JTMan

This is massive news. I would be shocked if the Belfast Telegraph article is wrong, the journalist clearly has leaked information. Something will need to be announced before the LSE opens on Monday morning.

Once regulatory hurdles are overcome, surely UTV brands as ITV and surely UTV Ireland closes and is replaced on carriers with the NI version of ITV. Businesses make mistakes. UTV Ireland was a huge mistake. What is worse is carrying on making the same mistake and expecting new results.

The fact that neither UTV nor ITV have come out today to deny the rumours nor to say that UTV stand behind UTV Ireland speaks volumes.

StreetLight

Surely an all-island ITV Ireland is better with local news and advertising opt-outs. Subject to programming rights clearance issues, of course.

Delta2113

I wonder will Utv Ireland do a Cleary's or something similar. I can't see Utv Northern Ireland (or even Itv NI) ever coming back to cable.

Upc snapping up TV3 looking even better for them.

formerly scottish paddy

STV must be next, one ITV for the whole of UK?

dublinman1990

Quite a surprise if this report is true. I have watched UTV NI on Cablelink since I was a kid in the 90's as it was my only source of ITV programming until TV3 came along in 1998. With me having Saorview/FTA satellite for 3 years I rarely watch it all now because I have gotten used to watching ITV English regions so often I usually forget that UTV NI is there most of the time.

The sports rights for UTV & ITV are a big issue for the channel as, in terms of football rights in particular, the ITV network have highlights to the Champions League & Live games for the England Internationals; could those rights be further extended to become rights for ITV in the whole of Ireland.

IMO if the England Internationals could in time be expanded to include all football internationals for the UK & Ireland if the current rights on Sky for the rest of the UK nations games are up for renewal some time in the future. These England rights I know are not guaranteed to stay on ITV; the extension of those home rights of the nations may become tenable.

The Rugby World Cup rights could be lost by TV3 if ITV Ireland goes on air. Although it will stay the same for TV3 if ITV just covering UTV's audience in NI.

For news output, the ITV Regional news especially after the News at Ten could be extended by five minutes in all areas of the ITV network if UTV Live Tonight is cancelled. This measure is to include news output for the whole of Ireland as well as Northern Ireland. STV will still have it's current Scotland Tonight news programme left unchanged. But all this is just is an idea if ITV Ireland comes to fruition after all.

Richard

StreetLight wrote: »

Surely an all-island ITV Ireland is better with local news and advertising opt-outs. Subject to programming rights clearance issues, of course.

If that were the case it'd be an all-Ireland, England Wales and southern Scotland ITV.

The UTV brand is a strong one and it might seem strange to get rid of it, but that's exactly what happened in Wales with the demise of HTV in 2002-4 and regional continuity a few years later.

Of course if only UTV NI were being sold then the UTV brand could remain, but paradoxically only in the republic.

If the sale does go ahead, however, it does seem to be a change of course from UTV, but maybe this supposed offer from ITV is too good.

Richard

dublinman1990 wrote: »

IMO if the England Internationals could in time be expanded to include all football internationals for the UK & Ireland if the current rights on Sky for the rest of the UK nations games are up for renewal some time in the future. These England rights I know are not guaranteed to stay on ITV; the extension of those home rights of the nations may become tenable.

England rights are much more valuable than other home nations rights. I can't see rights for Wales and NI matches being financially viable for ITV. England matches aren't usually shown by STV when they are shown by ITV and UTV.

For news output, the ITV Regional news especially after the News at Ten could be extended by five minutes in all areas of the ITV network if UTV Live Tonight is cancelled. This measure is to include news output for the whole of Ireland as well as Northern Ireland. STV will still have it's current Scotland Tonight news programme left unchanged. But all this is just is an idea if ITV Ireland comes to fruition after all.

I don't think ITV will increase their regional news commitments unless they have to. They already lose huge amounts of money on this and won't extend the coverage to other regions, just to fit in with NI. They'll either maintain the current schedules (if they have to) or find another way to fulfil OFCOM regional news and programmijg requirements, which I think are similar to Wales.

icdg

The football rights are secured through to July 2018, a good while left to go on that.

political analyst

Richard wrote: »

England rights are much more valuable than other home nations rights. I can't see rights for Wales and NI matches being financially viable for ITV. England matches aren't usually shown by STV when they are shown by ITV and UTV.



I don't think ITV will increase their regional news commitments unless they have to. They already lose huge amounts of money on this and won't extend the coverage to other regions, just to fit in with NI. They'll either maintain the current schedules (if they have to) or find another way to fulfil OFCOM regional news and programmijg requirements, which I think are similar to Wales.

Some NI politicians might take exception to the axing of UTV Live Tonight. They might argue that axing it would be against the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement (which is relevant to broadcasting in NI, i.e. RTÉ and TG4 being available in NI).

icdg

Discussions ongoing, it seems.
http://www.utvmedia.com/resources/documents/P/r/o/Project-Checkers-leak-announcement-v2-Uncoded.pdf

Richard

political analyst wrote: »

Some NI politicians might take exception to the axing of UTV Live Tonight. They might argue that axing it would be against the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement (which is relevant to broadcasting in NI, i.e. RTÉ and TG4 being available in NI).

I think a link to the GFA is a bit tenuous. I'm not sure what committments UTV have with Ofcom but given ITV Border have to produce several hours a week of programming for the few hundred thousand people in the Scottish part of the region, Ofcom might tighten these up.

irishfeen

I think we could very well see an "ITV Ireland" channel with two separate advertisement feeds for NI and ourselves. ITV wouldn't have to pay much more to include Ireland in purchasing international rights and the vast majority of the schedule is ITV content anyway.

icdg

The problem is that they are years away from being able to do so. They can, going forward, make their commissions dependant on having Irish rights too, that is a simple change in their terms and conditions of doing business. But they can't retrospectively change terms for programmes they have already bought and for whom the producers may already have sold Irish rights to TV3 (or indeed RTE).

Sport is the biggest problem. They could secure the England friendly rights - which are available - easily enough, but as I mentioned above, the European Qualifiers rights are tied up until 2018.

They must keep the Irish news service going to stay on Saorview. That is the reason they got their PSB designation,

irishfeen

icdg wrote: »

The problem is that they are years away from being able to do so. They can, going forward, make their commissions dependant on having Irish rights too, that is a simple change in their terms and conditions of doing business. But they can't retrospectively change terms for programmes they have already bought and for whom the producers may already have sold Irish rights to TV3 (or indeed RTE).

Sport is the biggest problem. They could secure the England friendly rights - which are available - easily enough, but as I mentioned above, the European Qualifiers rights are tied up until 2018.

They must keep the Irish news service going to stay on Saorview. That is the reason they got their PSB designation,

I know TV3 have some ITV rights but the most are UTV Ireland now.. The could of course just block out programmes to Ireland on the EPG's to get around this.

It depends on what the want to do here if the deal goes through - I have a feeling that ITV wouldn't mind a bit of the Irish advertisement market.

As for the news output, they will have to do it for NI anyway as per UTV's licence up there so I'm sure they could get away with even that for Saorview, even just headlines from the south.

icdg

First news - from the horse's mouth - that UTV Ireland will be included in the sale, if there is one:

http://www.u.tv/News/2015/08/24/UTV-Media-in-talks-to-sell-TV-channels-43580

irishfeen

Major possibility now that ITV will become a UK and Irish broadcaster.. ITV Ireland has a nice ring to it

JDxtra

Sounds like the poor performance of UTV Ireland has caused this!

bk

irishfeen wrote: »

Major possibility now that ITV will become a UK and Irish broadcaster.. ITV Ireland has a nice ring to it

Or just call it ITV, it is a well known brand and some people might even mistake the I to mean Ireland!

It makes much more sense for ITV to buy both UTV and UTVi and integrate them into ITV.

I think it is a recognition of direction that broadcasting is going in future with a lot more on-demand TV over the internet. I think it will be much easier for them in the long term to secure All Ireland and England rights and make content available across UK and Ireland on both broadcast TV and via the ITV player.

I know it will take a few years for them to regain full control over rights that currently TV3 has, but I see this as a long game. It is also notable that ITV has been buying up production companies in the UK, also strengthening their position for an on-demand future.

Richard

icdg wrote: »

Discussions ongoing, it seems.
http://www.utvmedia.com/resources/documents/P/r/o/Project-Checkers-leak-announcement-v2-Uncoded.pdf

This seems to be unavailable now. Did it contain any more information than the later article you posted?

icdg

Less, as a matter of fact!

http://www.utvmedia.com/resources/documents/R/e/s/Response-to-media-speculation.pdf

They just renamed the PDF file. Somebody probably copped on that letting the world know their top secret codename for the talks probably wasn't a good idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

formerly scottish paddy

To be honest I don't know if ITV will be interested in acquiring UTVI. They don't operate outside the UK, and would it really be worth the hassle (different regulator, dealing in euros, etc) especially for a station that is loosing money hand over fist. UTVI could go to another bidder, Liberty Global???

icdg

I don't buy that one at all. They have a large overseas production operation - especially in the U.S. - and also operate a channel in the Far East.

It is looking quite likely that if the sale goes through it will include UTV Ireland. Whether or not UTV Ireland stays in operation for long after any sale will depend on whether ITV decides to stick with it or figures it can make more money from Ireland through the overseas sale process.

Nor should anyone assume, that in the event UTV Ireland closes down, that it will lead to the restoration of the pre January 2015 arrangements. ITV may never return to cable here in the form it was previously and it is by no means certain that TV3 would be able to strike a deal along the lines of its old one.

channelsurfer2

Tthere is the (slight) possibility that ITV will shut the UTVIrl brand on Saorview and have some sort of ITV Ireland brand but I doubt it. However, they wont keep piling money into a lost cause. But arent ITV Studios part of the ITV group itself so could ITV not save itself 10million a year in rights costs for Emmerdale and Corrie in the Republic by keeping the station going if they own both the station and the rights?

Johnboy1951

According to BBC NI news the losses in UTV Ireland of some £12 million is a large reason for the talks ..... reported to be 3 to 4 times expected losses for the year.

I find it difficult to believe that ITV would be prepared to sustain such losses just to have a presence in ROI. But maybe they have some different plans ....

formerly scottish paddy

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

According to BBC NI news the losses in UTV Ireland of some £12 million is a large reason for the talks ..... reported to be 3 to 4 times expected losses for the year.

Ah well looks like the bosses in UTV seriously underestimated how easy it would be to become established in the southern market and the TV operation in Belfast is paying the price. I don't expect the staff in Havelock House will be too happy about this, as ITV is bound to "rationalise" employment levels, with various functions moving to control centres in GB.

Richard

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

. But arent ITV Studios part of the ITV group itself so could ITV not save itself 10million a year in rights costs for Emmerdale and Corrie in the Republic by keeping the station going if they own both the station and the rights?

But ITV Studios are currently getting 10 million a year from UTV for the rights. So if ITV owned UTVI then they wouldn't pay, or be paid for the rights. Unless they sold the rights to someone else like RTE or TV3.

Richard

formerly scottish paddy wrote: »

Ah well looks like the bosses in UTV seriously underestimated how easy it would be to become established in the southern market

The things is, 15 years ago, UTV was a lot more established.

PacMan

This is a big story.
I would like to see ITV take over UTV-I and UTV-NI and have one station with seperate news and ad opt outs, and then hopefully the addition of ITV2/3/4 on the Sky EPG.
.
The question then, is what happens to TV3, a station that I watch on occasion. I enjoy VB and dare I say it Ireland AM. And watch 3e on occasion for some of their shows or TV3 repeats.
Their (TV3) weekend is full of simulcast of ITV shows, and they (ITV) must either have a plan in place to deal with rights to programmes in the Republic, or on the otherhand, they may not be too bothered as the market is way too small.

Souriau

formerly scottish paddy wrote: »

To be honest I don't know if ITV will be interested in acquiring UTVI. They don't operate outside the UK, and would it really be worth the hassle (different regulator, dealing in euros, etc) especially for a station that is loosing money hand over fist. UTVI could go to another bidder, Liberty Global???

It is available in South Africa as ITV Choice, so they do operate outside UK

channelsurfer2

Probably doing due diligence on the company and in particular the debts at UTVIRL before any deal is signed.

icdg

I have a suspicion that they wanted it to stay quiet until the interim results were announced on Friday. Once the speculation started they were obliged to release a statement to the market as it affects the share price.

Richard

"The Ulster Fry" has its own take on it here;:

http://theulsterfry.com/featured/utv-presenters-to-take-over-popular-itv-programmes/

Johnboy1951

Richard wrote: »

"The Ulster Fry" has its own take on it here;:

http://theulsterfry.com/featured/utv-presenters-to-take-over-popular-itv-programmes/

mikeym

So Utv Ireland is up for sale.

Will anyone buy the channel?

channelsurfer2

If ITV do take over UTVIrl as well, then it leaves RTE looking under threat for the six nations, with ITV have UK rights to Ireland matches.

ftakeith

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

If ITV do take over UTVIrl as well, then it leaves RTE looking under threat for the six nations, with ITV have UK rights to Ireland matches.

threat is only in satellite and UK freeview homes

channelsurfer2

ftakeith wrote: »

threat is only in satellite and UK freeview homes

I mean that ITV will want ROI rights as well as UK rights to have the same schedule if they are really serious about taking over utvirl....

ftakeith

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

I mean that ITV will want ROI rights as well as UK rights to have the same schedule if they are really serious about taking over utvirl....

Liberty will buy UTV Ire into TV3

than 3e or UTV Ire alongside TV3

Liberty have played a blinder in their Irish business dealings so far

TV3 have some high rated ITV programmes and it will get the ITV content back from UTVI

Than will take on RTE for more TV content like some US/ UK TV programmes and live sporting rights

I can see Liberty in 2016 buying Setanta Ireland

channelsurfer2

ftakeith wrote: »

Liberty will buy UTV Ire into TV3

than 3e or UTV Ire alongside TV3

Liberty have played a blinder in their Irish business dealings so far

TV3 have some high rated ITV programmes and it will get the ITV content back from UTVI

Than will take on RTE for more TV content like some US/ UK TV programmes and live sporting rights

I can see Liberty in 2016 buying Setanta Ireland

We'll have to agree to disagree... I think that despite Liberty owning shares in ITV, it will not affect what they do with UTVIRL. I also suspect that TV3 wont get any of the programming back unless UTVIRL shuts up shop.

Elmo

dublinman1990 wrote: »

Quite a surprise if this report is true. I have watched UTV NI on Cablelink since I was a kid in the 90's as it was my only source of ITV programming until TV3 came along in 1998. With me having Saorview/FTA satellite for 3 years I rarely watch it all now because I have gotten used to watching ITV English regions so often I usually forget that UTV NI is there most of the time.

2001, TV3 had no major English programmes outside of Channel 5 dramas (Professionals was C5 right?) and EastEnders. TV3 would later get Granada content in 2001 and later again 2004 more ITV content.

Harry Palmr

CI5: The New Professionals was the name of it - a bad revival of the 1980s series but that was made for SKY One not Channel 5