20 Years of TV3/Virgin Media One

Elmo

Going to start light with this. The first logo remains by far their most modern, can beat classics.

iseegirls

Piece from The Irish Times on the 21st Set 98. Not as damning as other reviews at the time I'd say.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/new-tv-channel-gets-off-to-a-low-key-start-1.195304?mode=amp

Elmo

TV3 had a battle. Anyone who’d lived in 2 TV land had seen the emergence of TnaG almost 2 years previously and with a similar budget expected TV3 to provide something similar. I thought they’d have their own soap, at this point Glenroe, Fair City & Ros Na Run took a summer break unlike their English and Australian counterparts. So even a one night a week soap seemed possible. It was only that year that Fair City started a weekly summer extension followed by 3 nights a week with a full year happening when RTÉ dropped glenroe and lost Coro st.

Highlights at the start time included Messer Talka and Rooney, pop3, 3scene, speakeasy and everything else outside sport & news was imported with the arrival of EastEnders, Family Affairs and Breakers (important at the time for soaps) I honestly don’t think canwest understood that.

Oh and their first live sporting events was an Irish friendly that October. With RTÉ sponsoring some sideline ads with SUPPORTERS having The RTÉ logo take the place of RTE in supporters.

iseegirls

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/from-tv3-to-virgin-media-20-years-of-lights-cameras-and-survival-1.3625749

A nice big article on TV3 in the Irish Times recently.

Elmo

iseegirls wrote: »

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/from-tv3-to-virgin-media-20-years-of-lights-cameras-and-survival-1.3625749

A nice big article on TV3 in the Irish Times recently.

I think think it’s funny that all TV3 presenters at the time saw RTÉ as a closed shop, yet at the time RTÉ had numerous “young” presenters across all genres at the time.

Mickey Mike

Now that its owner have deep pockets, will they pay back the €80,000000 which is owed to the state?

punisher5112

Mickey Mike wrote: »

Now that its owner have deep pockets, will they pay back the €80,000000 which is owed to the state?

I would guess that's well written off along the likes of all dodgy banks, developers and those that never paid their mortgages but the rest of us pay for it.

Murph_D

Mickey Mike wrote: »

Now that its owner have deep pockets, will they pay back the €80,000000 which is owed to the state?

The linked IT article clearly states that previous owner Doughty Hanson bought back an 81m Anglo debt. Is this what you’re referring to?

Elmo

Murph_D wrote: »

The linked IT article clearly states that previous owner Doughty Hanson bought back an 81m Anglo debt. Is this what you’re referring to?

Yes at a reduced rate funded by Ulster Bank AFAIR.

Elmo

Rank Programme Name Day Time Date TVR 000's
1 Ultimate Betrayal Mon 2101 11 Jan 5 137
2 The Power of One Sun 2101 17 Jan 5 130
3 Papillion Sun 2100 24 Jan 5 127
4 Brotherhood of Justice Sun 2104 10 Jan 4 124
5 Fitz/Pilot Thu 2203 14 Jan 4 121
6 Best of the Best 3 Sat 2100 30 Jan 4 100
7 The Man Next Door Mon 2101 25 Jan 3 97
8 Shattered Trust Wed 2001 27 Jan 3 95
9 D.O.A. Sat 2101 2 Jan 3 92
10 Judicial Consent Sat 2302 23 Jan 3 91
11 The Nightman Sat 2307 2 Jan 3 90
12 Early Edition Ave 2200 Ave: 4 3 89
13 Robin Cook's Lethal Ave 2106 Ave: 2 3 85
14 Thief Takers Thu 2100 14 Jan 3 85
15 Semi Precious Wed 2004 6 Jan 3 85
16 The Investigator Mon 2103 18 Jan 3 83
17 Terror in the Shadow Wed 2004 20 Jan 3 82
18 Eastenders Ave 2003 Ave: 4 3 81
19 Fitz Ave 2201 Ave: 3 3 80
20 Dying to Belong Sat 2059 16 Jan 3 77

AndrewJRenko

Elmo wrote: »

Rank Programme Name Day Time Date TVR 000's
1 Ultimate Betrayal Mon 2101 11 Jan 5 137
2 The Power of One Sun 2101 17 Jan 5 130
3 Papillion Sun 2100 24 Jan 5 127
4 Brotherhood of Justice Sun 2104 10 Jan 4 124
5 Fitz/Pilot Thu 2203 14 Jan 4 121
6 Best of the Best 3 Sat 2100 30 Jan 4 100
7 The Man Next Door Mon 2101 25 Jan 3 97
8 Shattered Trust Wed 2001 27 Jan 3 95
9 D.O.A. Sat 2101 2 Jan 3 92
10 Judicial Consent Sat 2302 23 Jan 3 91
11 The Nightman Sat 2307 2 Jan 3 90
12 Early Edition Ave 2200 Ave: 4 3 89
13 Robin Cook's Lethal Ave 2106 Ave: 2 3 85
14 Thief Takers Thu 2100 14 Jan 3 85
15 Semi Precious Wed 2004 6 Jan 3 85
16 The Investigator Mon 2103 18 Jan 3 83
17 Terror in the Shadow Wed 2004 20 Jan 3 82
18 Eastenders Ave 2003 Ave: 4 3 81
19 Fitz Ave 2201 Ave: 3 3 80
20 Dying to Belong Sat 2059 16 Jan 3 77

Jaysus, it's gone fairly downmarket and trashy since those days.

iseegirls

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Jaysus, it's gone fairly downmarket and trashy since those days.

Really? Most of them are straight to TV movies, with some early 90s ITV shows like Fitz and Thief Takers making up the rest.

Elmo

iseegirls wrote: »

Really? Most of them are straight to TV movies, with some early 90s ITV shows like Fitz and Thief Takers making up the rest.

Fitz is the US version of Cracker, not Cracker (they did have there grubby hands all over ITV at that point )

Elmo

Strange but did TV3 mention any of there early shows like Pop3, Scene3, Gimme3 (there's a trend?) or even any of the early US shows that they aired.

iseegirls

Elmo wrote: »

Strange but did TV3 mention any of there early shows like Pop3, Scene3, Gimme3 (there's a trend?) or even any of the early US shows that they aired.

There was a few seconds of Clodagh and Hector showing the family around TV3 Studios as past of the This Is TV3 show on Don't Look Back In Anger 1998. That's the only mention really. Nothing about Twink's Perfect Match either.

iseegirls

Following the Christmas listings being published, Virgin Media TV have continued the annual tradition from TV3 of repeating to death most films and any specials that Coronation Street produced in the last 10 years.

Regarding the films, we've a new leader in the most aired across the 20 years with Dirty Dancing being shown on VM3 on Xmas eve. Watermelon, Casper and Paul Blart shown over Christmas time again. Casper was shown 5 times in the last 5 months across the channels.
17 Dirty Dancing (1987)
16 It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
16 Men In Black (1997)
16 Punisher, The (2004)
16 Watermelon (2002)
15 Casper (1995)
15 Rundown, The (aka Welcome To The Jungle) (2003)
14 Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009)
14 Snapper, The (1993)
14 Step Brothers (2008)
14 Striking Distance (1993)
14 Terminator II: Judgement Day, The (1991)

Hangdogroad

Anyone remember the teaser promo that ran on RTE in the run up to the launch of TV3 in 1998? Had a montage of clips of movies/shows coming up (only one I can remember was Natural Born Killers) set to a techno-ish soundtrack with a male voice saying BOOM! at the end. Have to say it didn't inspire me that I was going to like this new channel and I wasn't wrong (I did follow it intermitantly for a few months to see if it would improve).

Edit: thinking about it now was Natural Born Killers not banned in Ireland at the time? There was deffo a clip of it shown, a brief scene featuring Juliete Lewis.

iseegirls

Hangdogroad wrote: »

Anyone remember the teaser promo that ran on RTE in the run up to the launch of TV3 in 1998? Had a montage of clips of movies/shows coming up (only one I can remember was Natural Born Killers) set to a techno-ish soundtrack with a male voice saying BOOM! at the end. Have to say it didn't inspire me that I was going to like this new channel and I wasn't wrong (I did follow it intermitantly for a few months to see if it would improve).

Edit: thinking about it now was Natural Born Killers not banned in Ireland at the time? There was deffo a clip of it shown, a brief scene featuring Juliete Lewis.

Can't remember the exact promo - but was surprised that RTE allowed them to have adverts on for what was their first rival TV station. I do remember the few promos and pieces that TV3 had on in the weeks running up to it's launch. Things like 30 second bits of Just Shoot Me and Eastenders, then Pop On 3's presenter discussing Jamiroquai's Deeper Underground video. Those are the bits that stand out for me.

Regarding Natural Born Killers - they were originally going to show it on 29 Jan 2000, but was removed due to "a threat of an injuction from the Department of Justice". They did show it on 25th Aug 2001 - according to listings anyway. Not sure if it did eventually make it to air.

RandomViewer

iseegirls wrote: »

Following the Christmas listings being published, Virgin Media TV have continued the annual tradition from TV3 of repeating to death most films and any specials that Coronation Street produced in the last 10 years.

Regarding the films, we've a new leader in the most aired across the 20 years with Dirty Dancing being shown on VM3 on Xmas eve. Watermelon, Casper and Paul Blart shown over Christmas time again. Casper was shown 5 times in the last 5 months across the channels.
17 Dirty Dancing (1987)
16 It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
16 Men In Black (1997)
16 Punisher, The (2004)
16 Watermelon (2002)
15 Casper (1995)
15 Rundown, The (aka Welcome To The Jungle) (2003)
14 Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009)
14 Snapper, The (1993)
14 Step Brothers (2008)
14 Striking Distance (1993)
14 Terminator II: Judgement Day, The (1991)

Don't forget the same episode of Midsomer Murders shown 3 or 4 times a week and looped again the next month

Hangdogroad

iseegirls wrote: »

Can't remember the exact promo - but was surprised that RTE allowed them to have adverts on for what was their first rival TV station. I do remember the few promos and pieces that TV3 had on in the weeks running up to it's launch. Things like 30 second bits of Just Shoot Me and Eastenders, then Pop On 3's presenter discussing Jamiroquai's Deeper Underground video. Those are the bits that stand out for me.

Regarding Natural Born Killers - they were originally going to show it on 29 Jan 2000, but was removed due to "a threat of an injuction from the Department of Justice". They did show it on 25th Aug 2001 - according to listings anyway. Not sure if it did eventually make it to air.

I'm almost certain this was before TV3 launched so it would have to be on either or both RTE and Tnag, unless they were cinema adverts.

Elmo

Hangdogroad wrote: »

I'm almost certain this was before TV3 launched so it would have to be on either or both RTE and Tnag, unless they were cinema adverts.

TV3 promos aired on both AFAIR. “This is TV3”

iseegirls

First episodes of some TV3 homeproduced shows currently on the Virgin Media Player.

Including Speakeasy, which was quietly forgotten about - but was their first daytime talk show, which lasted about 80 episodes.

Ireland AM, The Morning Show With Martin And Sybil, Midday, Late Lunch Live also feature. Along with a few Livin With Lucy's, and the entire Vincent Browne at The George live broadcast for the referendum.