The ITV Thread

My point about TV3 main number of hours is and always has been that its cheep addition in-house programming. TV3 didn't increase their number of employees. So lets say for arguments sake say that they employ 200 full time and the average wage is 40,000. That's 8million.

Ireland AM = 3hrs
Midday = 1hr
News = 1hr 30 (12:30, 5:30 and 8)
Xpose = 1hr
TSOCS = 1hr

=37hrs 30mins per week

tonight with VB = 1hr
sat and sun AM = 6hr
=10hr per week

47hrs 30mins per week

2470 per year in house

3300 per hour or 1300 above an hour of bought in drama.

The idea behind these shows was always about getting a quota of Irish programming. later it became a race to have 50% of programming coming from Ireland.

I'd rather see TV3 produce quality prime time TV. And import daytime TV.

doc11 wrote: »

Sorry but money spent does not equal quality. Without Irish content essentially you'd just have a generic UK entertainment channel. Sure GMB, This Morning, ITV news, Loose women,Judge Rinder,Dickinson's Real Deal,Tipping Point,The Jeremy Kyle Show are all by your standards cheap filler? and that's on ITV's flagship channel. I honestly don't know what you expect or think is quality programming. Examples?

I suppose red rock would fall into that category

Just noticed ITV4 is showing Spurs v Inter in a pre-season friendly. I'm watching on Virgin Media and it is not geo-blocked. I thought previously all sport on ITV4 was blocked on Virgin Media ?

Sam Russell wrote: »

The problem with TV3 is they saturate their programmes with far too many adverts that mean I for one will not stay with them after the first ad break - if I am even there before the first ad break.

The Restaurant is a good example because it was on RTE before - exact same programme with the same crew - but without the sponsor or so many ads.

I would also dislike the long and frequent commercial breaks on TV3 at times too but to be fair, let's bear in mind that RTÉ is still dual funded by both TV Licence Fee and commercial advertising on it's two primary TV channels RTÉ One and RTÉ 2 meaning a rival channel such as TV3 would have to explore all possible commercial revenue streams in order to compete with the national broadcaster for starters.

RTÉ have less advertising minutes per hour/day not because it does not want to upset the viewers but this is largely due to strict limits set out in order to protect Irish independent commercial channels like TV3 to co-exist as RTÉ enjoyed a dominant monopoly for a very long time unlike the situation in the UK - By restricting RTÉ in terms of generating additional revenue from commercial advertising on TV/Radio it allowed channels like TV3 to breathe and grow. This would also benefit channels like Channel 6 (later acquired by TV3 and renamed 3e) and UTV Ireland although I'm not sure about TnaG (later renamed TG4).

My only concern would be those Irish offshoot versions of UK based channels like Sky One (Ireland), Challenge TV (Ireland), Sky Atlantic (Ireland), MTV Ireland and so on etc; whereby the only main differences to the channel content that is broadcast on air is that the commercial break is targeted at an Irish audience instead but the channel in question does not showcase a whole lot of Irish indigenous programming apart from the odd exception of shows like "Moone Boy" (Sky One) or "50 Ways To Kill Your Mammy" (Sky One) and even then the programme goes out across the UK version anyway!

With regards to frequent and long commercial breaks, this practise is just as apparent if you watch any channel that is branded and/or owned by other operators too such as SKY Television, itv, Channel 4 etc; I stopped watching Sky News on a regular basis some years ago in favour of the BBC News Channel as I grew tired of the constant advert breaks and almost endless Sky TV promotions for their various channels. Even if you subscribe more for their premium channel packages to include Sky Movies (now Sky Cinema) and/or Sky Sports, you still have to endure all their constant plugging. In that context, why would TV3 be any different especially when it needs to pay all it's overheads and break even or generate a profit in good times as they have been bought and sold more than once since their initial launch back in September 1998.

And as we all know, UTV Ireland has been bought and sold twice already since it's original launch back on 01/01/2015 which is not even 2 years ago! It should be very interesting to see things change if Virgin Media Ireland/TV3 Group gets the final clearance and all necessary approvals from the various regulatory bodies responsible (and if granted on what conditions may apply) for the purchase of UTV Ireland. Interesting times ahead no doubt - one thing you are unlikely to see much change, expect little change in the frequency and length of commercial breaks on these particular channels as otherwise; I could not see how they would be able to compete and run a successful commercial operation as they are up against a lot more competition these days. All these takeovers at both UTV Ireland and TV3 Group over the years would seem to indicate that things are constantly changing on the balance sheets.

political analyst wrote: »

Here is the article.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/film-tv/itv-axes-utv-live-tonight-in-network-revamp-34952273.html

most pathetic quote ever

Author and UTV historian Don Anderson said the cutback on UTV news was “inevitable”.

“Its new owners have to make a profit,” he said.

“It is accurate to say that UTV’s current news output is less now than it once was, but that is because news gathering is very expensive.

“ITV has spent a lot of money on its networks.

“It is an inevitable retreat away from the local programmes.”

formerly scottish paddy wrote: »

In all honestly is this a surprise? ITV were bound to make changes and this won't be the last. UTV's local output (meagre as it is) will be further reduced as time goes on until it is no more than a few local news bulletins, the same as any other ITV region.

Such a bad move, its the biggest franchise, AFAIK it get way above the audience share of the English or Welsh variants, not sure about STV.

They spent the bare minimum on newsgathering anyway

Elmo wrote: »

most pathetic quote ever

M/16/038 – Liberty Global/UTV Ireland
The proposed acquisition by Liberty Global Plc, through Virgin Media Limited, of sole control of UTV Ireland Limited from UTV Limited (which is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of ITV Plc) has been cleared by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.

so UTV Ireland to become (in effect) TV3 2 - or will it just be scrapped?

The CEO of Virgin Media Ireland, Tony Hanway, is interviewed here, in The Irish Times.

Confirmed that UTV Ireland is gone as a brand name. He basically says that they bought the channel for the content, not the brand. Seems to be hinting that the station might be shut down ...

Mr Hanway said the long-term content agreement with ITV’s distribution arm was an “equally important” part of this deal. No decisions have yet been made on the future of UTV Ireland, he said. However, if TV3 Group retains it as a third channel alongside TV3 and 3e, it will not continue under the name UTV Ireland.

Hints that the TV3 brand is staying put ...

Asked whether Virgin might rebrand its portfolio of Irish television channels as Virgin 1, 2 and 3, Mr Hanway said the company “hadn’t thought about it in depth”, adding that there was “a lot of brand equity built up in TV3 as well”.

No changes until after final regulatory approval (and probably the Christmas advert season) ...

Virgin’s acquisition of UTV Ireland from ITV is also expected to be cleared by regulators and the Minister before the end of 2016.

icdg wrote: »

Nothing new there, for me anyway. They wanted the ITV Studios programmes. Getting a channel along with them was an unwanted side effect of the deal they had to do to get them.

I agree, Virgin wanted Corrie and Emmerdale for TV3, plus first pick of anything decent in the ITV treasure chest. UTV Ireland is the "excess baggage charge " so to speak that came with the deal. I think he's making it clear that UTV Ireland is goosed and the focal point will be TV3 and 3e. Two channels is more than enough in such a small market as ROI. As a side issue, the closure of UTV Ireland will be another nail in the coffin of Saorview, it has few enough channels as it is.

galtee boy wrote: »

I agree, Virgin wanted Corrie and Emmerdale for TV3, plus first pick of anything decent in the ITV treasure chest. UTV Ireland is the "excess baggage charge " so to speak that came with the deal. I think he's making it clear that UTV Ireland is goosed and the focal point will be TV3 and 3e. Two channels is more than enough in such a small market as ROI. As a side issue, the closure of UTV Ireland will be another nail in the coffin of Saorview, it has few enough channels as it is.

Of course they wanted the ITV studios programming but you'd have to question why they would buy UTV Ireland if that's all they wanted. 3 months to or more to have regulator decide, surely easier for ITV to shut UTV Ireland and re-sell those products to TV3.

again with this small market guys. Irish channels have just 39% of that small market when you exclude UTV Ireland, 45% with UTV Ireland. We're assuming that TV3 will happily take a drop in that market of 2-3% by dropping UTV Ireland.

So scrap UTVI and make 3e HD

Don't buy UTVI and spend the money on HD on saorview over the next 2 to 3 years.