TV3 and UTV Ireland the saga continues

Elmo

I would question if there is that much goodwill towards TV3 as a brand. As soon as the bought Coro St and Emmers their audiences went from 7% to 10% and as soon as they left they went straight back down to 7%.

Though is Virgin a good brand in Ireland considering the changes over the years as mentioned above. It seems like the most legitimate thing Virgin could do.

TV3 News should move to Ireland Live, while Virgin should keep UTV Ireland website and re-brand it. Neither are great websites but UTV Ireland's is much more straight forward.

I am not sure about the players. UTV Ireland Player V TV3s?

iseegirls

Elmo wrote: »

I would question if there is that much goodwill towards TV3 as a brand. As soon as the bought Coro St and Emmers their audiences went from 7% to 10% and as soon as they left they went straight back down to 7%.

Big difference comparing 7% in 2000 to 7% now - especially with so much options available through TV, on demand and streaming. I doubt RTE1 and RTE2 maintained the same level over the past 16 years.
They have remained the second most watched channel, so most viewers have stayed with them even when the soaps have went. Finding an alternative to the soaps was always going to be tough, but at least TSOCS is homemade and maybe pulls in an ok rating when 7pm and 3.30pm ratings are merged. They wouldn't have kept it there if was bombing. They could have went down the cheaper route of reruns of Friends like RTE2 have done.

Elmo

iseegirls wrote: »

Big difference comparing 7% in 2000 to 7% now - especially with so much options available through TV, on demand and streaming. I doubt RTE1 and RTE2 maintained the same level over the past 16 years.
They have remained the second most watched channel, so most viewers have stayed with them even when the soaps have went. Finding an alternative to the soaps was always going to be tough, but at least TSOCS is homemade and maybe pulls in an ok rating when 7pm and 3.30pm ratings are merged. They wouldn't have kept it there if was bombing. They could have went down the cheaper route of reruns of Friends like RTE2 have done.

You could look at it like that, but Late Lunch Live wasn't doing great numbers in its Daytime slot. In reality if you have any show at 7 and repeat it at 2:30 you can ad up the resulting figure, most like Late Lunch Live and their 7pm show prior to TSOCS were getting the same audiences.

TV3 at the end of the day is a national services and in fairness to them VB tonight and their news continued to do well regardless of ITV Soaps. Largely the 7% is made up of sport and ITV Reality TV, imagine if ITV had been able to renegotiate for RoI rights?

TSOCS might be an Irish show but its cheaply made and not very good. I be more impressed with Red Rock, or even the chance the TV3 would produce a second soap now that they have the ITV ones back, its highly unlikely.

Harry Palmr

dave98 wrote: »

I think Virgin Media are mad to pay €10million for UTV Ireland. As mentioned earlier, UTV Ireland was doomed from the start - because of the name. Whether they meant it or not, by calling it UTV Ireland, it automatically meant people would compare it to UTV NI. I might have been naive, but when I heard UTV Ire was launching, I thought it would be like the old UTV but just with Irish ads.

I'm sure the majority thought that and also assumed that CL footie (okay since bought by BT) football internationals etc would be free to view.

As for why Virgin spent 10m on buying it (and that's a pittance btw!) its so they could get their hands on Corrie and Emmerdale and the rest of the ITV Studios Global Entertainment output

I dunno about anyone else but I didn't watch a single UTV programme for more or less the same reason I hardly watch ITV(1) beyond sport of which they have increasingly little.

Elmo

Harry Palmr wrote: »

I'm sure the majority thought that and also assumed that CL footie (okay since bought by BT) football internationals etc would be free to view.

As for why Virgin spent 10m on buying it (and that's a pittance btw!) its so they could get their hands on Corrie and Emmerdale and the rest of the ITV Studios Global Entertainment output

I dunno about anyone else but I didn't watch a single UTV programme for more or less the same reason I hardly watch ITV(1) beyond sport of which they have increasingly little.

Have to say ITV had really gone down hill and while since 2010 they had started producing more drama outside the soaps spliting up the programmes in RoI really didn't make sense.

Real winners are ITV, you might think 10m is a pittance but we don't know how much of the losses Virgin took, 15m more is not much on the grand scale of things. While ITV have guaranteed income for the next 10 years.

Delta2113

If Virgin Media Ireland want to go Virgin Tv 1,2,3 they might (speculation from me) have to get permission from Richard Branson and pay more in licensing fee's to him so this might be an issue.

It would make a lot of sense but only time will tell.

I think in time you will see an exclusive Channel similar to Sky Atlantic on Virgin Media.

Elmo

Options for TV3 with UTV Ireland

1. Leave things as they are with a rebrand. The market share is good enough to do this and TV3 could focus on Irish programming on TV3, downside is that Red Rock even with Crossover promotion might not increase its audience.
2. Move Coro St to TV3 and put TSOCS back by 30mins, with Yesterday's episode of emmerdale on at 6:30, and tell viewers the next episode is on UTV Ireland (like hollyoaks on Channel 4/E4). With no other changes, this should increase TV3's audience share, while keeping UTV Ireland's a little better.
3. Put everything back to the way it was before 2015, with ITV studio programming not used by TV3 remaining on UTV Ireland
4. Shut down UTV Ireland, move all ITV shows to TV3, keep Irish productions to a bare minimum.

Vigin might have an issue with the brand, pity they could have kept the name UPC and rebranded the channels UPC1, 2, 3.

dublinman1990

Radio Gold wrote: »

It would just make sense to Keep the Soaps on what is Currently Utv Ire. The 7 O'clock show is on Tv3 is quite popular and also Tuesday Night is the Champions League. It would only cause more confusion if the Soaps are moved back TV3.

I agree with you. This is only causing more confusion for both male & female viewers of TV3 trying to watch two different types of programmes at the same time.

If UTVI closes down for good though. Will the schedule be a little more restrictive if CL comes on TV3 & then 3e take over the other programmes for only one night in a certain week. Say if TV3 place the soaps after the 5:30 news; they can give the likes of Xpose or TSOCS to have a night off or place both of them on 3e instead for that Tuesday night to accomodate the CL on TV3.

Do UFEA stipulate in their contract re TV3 that their first pick of CL matches on Tuesday nights will have to be shown on their main channel? Can TV3 just place the soaps at a slightly earlier time before their CL coverage begins and then the soaps can be put on 3e.

This is only speculation on my part though. I'm not saying that is final.

Elmo

dublinman1990 wrote: »

I agree with you. This is only causing more confusion for both male & female viewers of TV3 trying to watch two different types of programmes at the same time.

If UTVI closes down for good though. Will the schedule be a little more restrictive if CL comes on TV3 & then 3e take over the other programmes for only one night in a certain week. Say if TV3 place the soaps after the 5:30 news; they can give the likes of Xpose or TSOCS to have a night off or place both of them on 3e instead for that Tuesday night to accomodate the CL on TV3.

Do UFEA stipulate in their contract re TV3 that their first pick of CL matches on Tuesday nights will have to be shown on their main channel? Can TV3 just place the soaps at a slightly earlier time before their CL coverage begins and then the soaps can be put on 3e.

This is only speculation on my part though. I'm not saying that is final.

When did The 7 O'Clock show become popular?

TV3 could decide to put all Sports on 3e, but they will need to have a HD version of the channel AFAIK.

Only Emmerdale would be effected by CL, no other soaps air on Tuesday night on either TV3 or UTV Ireland. And AFAIK TV3 aired CL on Tuesday nights previously. Kick-Off is usually around 19:45.

Delta2113

Southampton F.C. are now sponsored by Virgin Media. This will help raise brand awareness. They might be on the look out for a Club here in Ireland to sponsor as well.

ei9go

Don't really care what they do with their three channels.

The picture quality is so bad.

Never watch any of them.

Elmo

Very much a soft interview for Pat Keily

TV3 will produce 12 episodes of Googlebox (What will they watch on Irish TV?)
No real information really on what they will do with UTV Ireland as it still has to get approval
TV3 will bid for GAA rights (prob the most surprising)
Red Rock is getting a new schedule
More HD studios meaning better use for Mulit Channel proposition (though really that they can go from Xpose to TSOCS live)
I am assuming new set for news but nothing said of that.
And more Current Affairs (because that's what we need).
Oh and he thinks its good that Irish broadcasters have a 45% share of the audience.

iseegirls

Elmo wrote: »

Very much a soft interview for Pat Keily

TV3 will produce 12 episodes of Googlebox (What will they watch on Irish TV?)
No real information really on what they will do with UTV Ireland as it still has to get approval
TV3 will bid for GAA rights (prob the most surprising)
Red Rock is getting a new schedule
More HD studios meaning better use for Mulit Channel proposition (though really that they can go from Xpose to TSOCS live)
I am assuming new set for news but nothing said of that.
And more Current Affairs (because that's what we need).
Oh and he thinks its good that Irish broadcasters have a 45% share of the audience.

Cheers Elmo. Was this is a paper over the weekend?

Interesting about the Red Rock bit. It does face tough competition at times especially when operation transformation is on. If Corrie comes back to TV3 then definitely place it at 8pm Monday and Friday.

I'd say Pat Kenny will be their big announcement for their Autumn Schedule in terms of current affairs.

political analyst

iseegirls wrote: »

Interesting about the Red Rock bit. It does face tough competition at times especially when operation transformation is on. If Corrie comes back to TV3 then definitely place it at 8pm Monday and Friday.

There's a problem with that - it would clash with EastEnders.

Elmo

political analyst wrote: »

There's a problem with that - it would clash with EastEnders.

Yes and some soap opera fans would be disappointed how but UTV Ireland and TV3 have out done EastEnders and EastEnders real doesn't have as great a following in the Irish market.

Elmo

iseegirls wrote: »

Cheers Elmo. Was this is a paper over the weekend

Sunday business post

Elmo

Dodge wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/tv3-and-utv-ireland-together-at-last-under-wing-of-virgin-media-1.2726030

Article in the Irish Times speculating on the future of UTV Ireland. Talks about soaps returning to TV3 and that channel becoming the "flagship" channel of the group with UTV Ireland possibly the 3rd choice channel (based on EPG numbers)

You'd think that TV3 never had competition not accessible from RoI on any of their ITV shows. You'd think that TV3 had lost all of the ITV weekend shows. another pointless article.

Elmo

Well TV3 are back to pushing stories. Alan Hughes wants a new show, he's wanted a new show for a long time. He does know he's not a good presenter, right? anyway I think TV3 could get rid of some of their presenters they are all very standard at this stage.

Capt'n Midnight

Elmo wrote: »

More HD studios meaning better use for Mulit Channel proposition (though really that they can go from Xpose to TSOCS live)

Only of use for people with pay-TV

Not so use for those of us who have only paid for Saorview / Saorsat hardware and pay for TV licences. We'll just watch the many of the same programs in HD on UK Satellite, so less Ad revenue for the Irish channels.

Elmo

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Only of use for people with pay-TV

Not so use for those of us who have only paid for Saorview / Saorsat hardware and pay for TV licences. We'll just watch the many of the same programs in HD on UK Satellite, so less Ad revenue for the Irish channels.

still the multi-channel proposition idea suggested doesn't really help multichanels when you only use one for such live shows. They may as well have one studio.

iseegirls

Elmo wrote: »

Well TV3 are back to pushing stories. Alan Hughes wants a new show, he's wanted a new show for a long time. He does know he's not a good presenter, right? anyway I think TV3 could get rid of some of their presenters they are all very standard at this stage.

Yeah a lot of stories normally crop up around when the autumn launch is getting prepared. Maybe drip feed out these stories and gauge the reaction possibly.

Elmo

Merger published

http://ccpc.ie/enforcement/mergers/merger-notices/m16038-liberty-global-utv-ireland

Elmo

ccpc give go ahead, i think it move to the minister of deCae to complete the merger.

http://ccpc.ie/enforcement/mergers/merger-notices/m16038-liberty-global-utv-ireland

Mickey Mike

Elmo wrote: »

ccpc give go ahead, i think it move to the minister of deCae to complete the merger.

http://ccpc.ie/enforcement/mergers/merger-notices/m16038-liberty-global-utv-ireland

Yes its progressing through fairly well, what will they do with it? What will they call it? My guess they may rebrand it 3u.
It wouldn't suprise me if they shut it, I'm sure they'll give it their best shot.

Elmo

Mickie Mike wrote: »

Yes its progressing through fairly well, what will they do with it? What will they call it? My guess they may rebrand it 3u.
It wouldn't suprise me if they shut it, I'm sure they'll give it their best shot.

TBH shutting it down would cause them to lose an audience. So don't think it is something they will do, however they prob will just push coro st and emmers back to TV3 which will also see the set of channels see a slightly smaller drop.

expect the other regulators just to carry on.