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The ITV Thread

irishmusicfeed

So UTV Ireland is launching on January 01, 2015 with a proper launch of its schedule on January 5.... It's now November 10 and no advertising online, in magazine, newspapers, billboards etc for programmes and launch.

No news on whether it will be on Saorview... probably one of the worst channel launches in history?

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formerly scottish paddy

The question you should have asked is will UTVI be in HD on Saorview, at this stage it doesn't look likely, as they would be shouting about it, and they aren't!

JDxtra

Very unlikely at this stage. In the future maybe, but can't see it happening for launch.

L1011

Elmo wrote: »

You would think UTV would use their Radio stations and UTV NI.

The marketing campaign looks pretty bad too me.

Radio stations are capped in time-percentages for ads and this time of year would have the bulk of the ads paid for at a decent price. There would be corporate governance reasons against taking ad time for free in these scenarios, whereas they can pay for ad time wherever they want.

Elmo

L1011 wrote: »

Radio stations are capped in time-percentages for ads and this time of year would have the bulk of the ads paid for at a decent price. There would be corporate governance reasons against taking ad time for free in these scenarios, whereas they can pay for ad time wherever they want.

Not for promos.

AwaitYourReply

formerly scottish paddy wrote: »

The question you should have asked is will UTVI be in HD on Saorview, at this stage it doesn't look likely, as they would be shouting about it, and they aren't!

It was my understanding that for now they will be going SD on Saorview but when asked if and when they would be going HD on Saorview they seemed to indicate that this is the intention so they said watch this space for further developments. No hints given as to when this was likely?

formerly scottish paddy

I suppose it depends on when they can get an acceptable deal in place with 2RN . At least they wait and negotiate behind the scenes, unlike TV3 who just moan publicly about everything they don't like, (which resulted in the present pricing structure being imposed on Saorview!)

Sam Russell

formerly scottish paddy wrote: »

I suppose it depends on when they can get an acceptable deal in place with 2RN . At least they wait and negotiate behind the scenes, unlike TV3 who just moan publicly about everything they don't like, (which resulted in the present pricing structure being imposed on Saorview!)

The problem is the price structure imposed on 2RN - they have to charge for bandwidth. The sums are such that unless TV3 and TG4 also take HD, it is prohibitively expensive for anyone to go HD. So they all need to take it together. Now if OTV go on Saorview, and TV3, TG4, and UTVi all go HD, and RTE1 +1 goes 24 hrs, and RTE2 +1 starts 24 hrs, we have two full muxes and the price per channel drops to its lowest.

The BAI or Comreg could aid negotiations by changing the rules or using persuasion. They could also insist that SD is 720 by 576.

dublinman1990

There is another new promo video on UTV Ireland right now entitled 'One day in Dublin'.

There are also new promo slides for more of their programme portfolio including Rare Breed, Out with the old In with the U, Emmerdale, Ireland Live at 10 (which includes their new white and green box logo) and The Graham Norton Show.

irishfeen

Few shots of UTVI loop for those with UPC - they are stunning in HD!

AwaitYourReply

irishfeen wrote: »

Few shots of UTVI loop for those with UPC - they are stunning in HD!

I came across these slides the other night - They look very well but I was also hoping to see my own beautiful city and county but no sign of it as yet. Ireland's largest county needs to go up there unless they are saving the best til last - Up Cork! Come on ye rebels!! Ha Ha

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and all the best for 2015!

irishfeen

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

I came across these slides the other night - They look very well but I was also hoping to see my own beautiful city and county but no sign of it as yet. Ireland's largest county needs to go up there unless they are saving the best til last - Up Cork! Come on ye rebels!! Ha Ha

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and all the best for 2015!

They better be doing something special for us Corkonians

AwaitYourReply

irishfeen wrote: »

They better be doing something special for us Corkonians

All the main channels with the exception of TG4 have their HQ based out of Dublin. Yet TG4 is full of imagination & creativity and is based out of Co. Galway and it does an excellent job on limited financial resources. I hope UTV Ireland recognise that the regions can produce some serious quality programming if given the opportunities. RTÉ Cork has shown to be a serious asset for RTÉ but it took them a very long time before they were prepared to decentralise much away from the Montrose HQ in Dublin 4.

UTV Ireland won't reach their full potential unless they have a Cork influence in this channel IMHO and by that I don't just mean a token office and Southern correspondent based out of Cork.

Up Cork!

Merry Christmas everybody!

Kermit.de.frog

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

UTV Ireland won't reach their full potential

What potential? It's a UK tv channel posing as an Irish one. UK soaps, UK talk shows, UK documentaries. Lets not kid ourselves about the true level of their commitment to Irish broadcasting.

They are here for ad space. Beyond the minimum they can get away with they will do little for home Irish broadcasting.

I think their entry in to market will damage broadcasting in this country. It will put TV3 out of business (good some say but at least they make an effort even if the results are poor) - these guys have no intention of doing anything like that.

What we get on average is 2 hours of Irish programming in 24 hours. IMO that is not acceptable - it's actually insulting. I can not understand why the BIC is letting them away with that.

Sam Russell

I would rather two hours of quality news, current affairs and drama than the 12 hours of product placement and meaningless talking heads and then endless repeats of same that TV3 produce.

They have not started yet - let them show us what they have first. This time next year we can pass judgement.

endakenny

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

What potential? It's a UK tv channel posing as an Irish one. UK soaps, UK talk shows, UK documentaries. Lets not kid ourselves about the true level of their commitment to Irish broadcasting.

They are here for ad space. Beyond the minimum they can get away with they will do little for home Irish broadcasting.

I think their entry in to market will damage broadcasting in this country. It will put TV3 out of business (good some say but at least they make an effort even if the results are poor) - these guys have no intention of doing anything like that.

What we get on average is 2 hours of Irish programming in 24 hours. IMO that is not acceptable - it's actually insulting. I can not understand why the BIC is letting them away with that.

UTV Ireland will have no bulletins in the mornings and afternoons but it will have bulletins in peak-time slots, i.e. when news is watched the most, unlike TV3, although I don't know whether or not it will have weekend news from Saturday 10 January onwards.

UTV Ireland also said that the amount of its home-produced programming will increase in time.

It's good to give viewers who are reliant solely on Saorview a greater choice.

[Deleted User]

We should be able to see the epg listings on sky after 7.30 this evening, for the jan 1st launch. Must remember to reset the series links for Corrie and Emmerdale!

[Deleted User]

It's up now, on the sky planner, for the first few programmes if you want to series link corrie and emmerdale!

Hotblack Desiato

zorro2566 wrote: »

It's up now, on the sky planner, for the first few programmes if you want to series link corrie and emmerdale!

No change for Freesat viewers

AwaitYourReply

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

What potential? It's a UK tv channel posing as an Irish one. UK soaps, UK talk shows, UK documentaries. Lets not kid ourselves about the true level of their commitment to Irish broadcasting.

They are here for ad space. Beyond the minimum they can get away with they will do little for home Irish broadcasting.

I think their entry in to market will damage broadcasting in this country. It will put TV3 out of business (good some say but at least they make an effort even if the results are poor) - these guys have no intention of doing anything like that.

What we get on average is 2 hours of Irish programming in 24 hours. IMO that is not acceptable - it's actually insulting. I can not understand why the BIC is letting them away with that.

It's not the BIC - it's the BAI (Broadcasting Authority of Ireland)

While you are right to be somewhat sceptical about the overall % lack of Irish home produced programming you should note that TV3 and RTÉ in their early years of launching new channels would have also relied heavily on UK/US imported material.

In fact, the very first day that the original RTÉ 2 launched in 1978, they boasted about all the BBC and ITV programming that would be shown on the new RTÉ 2.

When TV3 started in 1998 they had EastEnders and a few months later they poached Coronation Street off RTÉ One which was regarded as a huge headache for RTÉ One primetime schedule at that time. RTÉ fought back by securing EastEnders from TV3 who had been showing it here. It was not exactly Irish home produced material on this occasion from our national public service broadcasting station!

UTV Ireland know that they will need to up their game beyond the launch schedule and had already indicated that further announcements would be made during 2015 as it will be an ongoing process. All good for the viewer here if all Irish terrestrial channels are in hot competition.

formerly scottish paddy

The UTV "Ireland" remit will be the same as UTV in Northern Ireland, that is to show mostly networked ITV programming with some "regional" opt-outs. I would not expect much in the way of "home produced" material...ever. We don't have to guess any of this, all we need do is look at the existing UTV schedules and see how much local programming is produced for N.Ireland. News will be the mainstay of their local output.

dublinman1990

There is a new shot of Alison Comyn in the new UTV Ireland news set when the promo ad for RTE, Sky and TG4 was on today.

There is a big difference in picture quality when between RTE One HD and TG4. RTE One HD has a vastly more superior picture than TG4 put together.

Pity though as UTV Ireland's actual channel is not on Saorview in HD yet.

icdg

It looks like the Carry On movie showing shortly after midnight on the 1st January will be the last UTV programme to be shown on UPC with the channel being switched to the UTV Ireland promo reel once it finishes.

Charles Slane

According to Digiguide's listings for Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th of January, there is no output from the UTV Ireland news studios for that weekend.

channelsurfer2

Charles Slane wrote: »

According to Digiguide's listings for Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th of January, there is no output from the UTV Ireland news studios for that weekend.

so basically news shut down for the weekend like tv3? for all the money they are spending its a shame to see it turning into just what some had predicited... ITV network with a few token irish inserts and news. I had hoped for better I must admit.

AwaitYourReply

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

so basically news shut down for the weekend like tv3? for all the money they are spending its a shame to see it turning into just what some had predicited... ITV network with a few token irish inserts and news. I had hoped for better I must admit.

Well if this is the case, UTV Ireland is probably making a silly mistake here if they intend to be a serious long-term player in the Republic of Ireland TV market. Their main rival TV3 may decide to reinstate news output at weekends given the change in the Irish TV landscape especially once UTV Ireland launches. TV3 took a risk when they cut all weekend news from schedules some years ago as there was less competition but now they may decide to change their policy on this as UTV Ireland could later perform a U-Turn on showing weekend news coverage in the months/years ahead! TV3 would be mad not to be one step ahead of UTV Ireland in this regard.

TV3 seems to have learned that by showing more & more home produced material aimed specifically at an Irish audience can pay worthwhile dividends and also build on brand loyalty hence their reason to invest €7 million in new Irish soap drama, RedRock coming to TV3 at 8:30pm on Wednesday 7th January.

icdg

I'm not sure why people are surprised or debating this. From the first moment this was announced UTV have been a absolutely clear and up front about what their intention is. To be ITV for the Republic of Ireland. No more, no less, and if they are, initially at least, less, it is because they cannot secure rights to all of the network schedule. They've been doing this in Northern Ireland since 1959 and I'm not sure why anyone thought they'd do anything different now.

Hotblack Desiato

Exactly and any unique ROI programming has to be justified by the additional advertising it can pull in compared to 'UTV NI' programming.

In short, not much.

Elmo

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

TV3 seems to have learned that by showing more & more home produced material aimed specifically at an Irish audience can pay worthwhile dividends and also build on brand loyalty hence their reason to invest €7 million in new Irish soap drama, RedRock coming to TV3 at 8:30pm on Wednesday 7th January.

This isn't really the case. TV3 largely have produced cheap programming for both prime time, daytime and late night. Under Canwest the policy was we have staff for a 2 - 3 hour morning show, therefore we can extend our schedule and sell more ads.

While, this position has changed under Doherty Hanson TV3 unfortunately still has some remnants of the Canwest policy. TV3 want to be able to say 50% home grown programming. Monday to Friday will be made up of 36.5 - 40 hours of understaffed under resourced in house programming or 20% to 23% of programming hours. I'd wonder about the quality of the other 30% or so of TV and how much is repeats?

Red Rock will be the only programme to break this rule, which seems to have had its budget increased by €3million in many reports, this is unlikely as we know its part funded by the BAI.

Their investment into Irish TV hasn't brought returns. Jedward at the X-Factor was probably more important as was Mary Byrne. TV3's audience share has flatlined since 2006. And their main programmes remain ITV programmes which are leaving to go on UTV Ireland.

But UTV Ireland are crazy to think that replicating ITV schedule will working in the south for a mainstream audience. RTÉ ONE's audience share is based on the fact that it provides nearly 100% home produced prime time programming of varying quality. UTV will need to have bigger budgets and less shows to recreate their sucess north of the boarder.

e.g. TV3 would be better with an Irish version of X-Factor or a 5 day soap rather than a years worth of Late Lunch Live, Midday and Xpose.

Quality over Quantity. UTV may have this with their news output.

AwaitYourReply

icdg wrote: »

I'm not sure why people are surprised or debating this. From the first moment this was announced UTV have been a absolutely clear and up front about what their intention is. To be ITV for the Republic of Ireland. No more, no less, and if they are, initially at least, less, it is because they cannot secure rights to all of the network schedule. They've been doing this in Northern Ireland since 1959 and I'm not sure why anyone thought they'd do anything different now.

Well if they wanted to be just another ITV in the Republic of Ireland they could have said we will still carry ITV News At Ten from the studios of ITN in London on UTV Ireland as per all other ITV stations across the UK because we feel that an Irish audience also likes to be kept informed about events in the UK and international scene and can take Irish audience share off the likes of Sky News Eire (which carries Irish adverts) in the process. Then we will carry local Irish news for the Republic on UTV Ireland while our sister channel UTV(Northern Ireland) carries UTV Live.

What UTV Ireland decides to carry in the first phase will probably change anyway after a while once they view actual ratings versus their projections made in advance and if they are way off in their projections they may well opt to tweak it again in due course and make it even more Irish.

Gonzo

will UTV Ireland have the same sports and movie coverage/timeslots as ITV1/UTV?