TV3 Ireland

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TV3 Ireland is the sole commercial terrestrial television channel in the Republic of Ireland. TV3 Television Network Limited is owned jointly by ITV plc, the largest UK commercial television company, and by CanWest Global Communications, a Canadian company. Currently 10% of the company is owned by the original TV3 Consortium. The main studios of TV3 are located in Ballymount, Dublin.

Contents

1 History
2 Programming
3 See also
4 Sources
5 External links

History

TV3, which was intended to be Ireland's third terrestrial channel, took almost ten years to bring from initial planning to debut. In October 1988 the Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC) was created to regulate new independent stations. The original TV3 licence to broadcast was granted in 1990 to a consortium including members of U2 and the owner of the Windmill Lane Studios where the group had made many of their records. Because of delays in setting up the station, the licence was revoked by the IRTC. After a court battle, the licence was eventually restored in 1993.

At this stage, an agreement was made to sell 49% of the company to UTV, the ITV franchise in Northern Ireland, to raise much-needed cash for investment in facilities. However, as TV3 were trying to convince Irish cable and MMDS carriers to replace UTV with their channel, the new shareholders pulled out in 1995. Given that UTV had the third largest audience in the Republic, the carriers declined to drop them in favour of TV3. The result was that the project was on hold again.

In 1997, CanWest, decided to step in and buy a major stake in the new company. TV3 finally took to the air on September 20th, 1998 at 17:30. A preview of the station's programming formed the first half-hour of transmissions, followed by the first TV3 News at 6pm. As TG4 (then called Teilifís na Gaeilge) had been broadcasting for almost two years it was the third Irish station; TV3 became, in fact, the fourth television station and first station which was not publicly funded, by tax or licence fees. TV3's initial on-air branding referred to the station as "tvthree". Although this is still part of the corporate logo, it no longer appears on screen. The Schoolhouse Rock! song, "Three Is The Magic Number", is the station's theme tune, and is played every day at start-up and close down. This same tune is also used by BBC Three as its theme tune.

In September 2000, Granada Media plc (a predecessor company of ITV plc which then owned six ITV franchises) agreed to acquire 45% of the company from the original TV3 consortium. This was part of deal which gave TV3 the right to simulcast with ITV certain Granada programming. As part of this deal, Coronation Street and Emmerdale moved from RTÉ One to TV3. The Granada plc shareholding was taken over by ITV plc upon the merger of Granada with Carlton on 2nd February, 2004.

In early 2001 the station officially launched threetext, the teletext service, much of the content from Thomas Crosbie Media. Test transmissions of this service commenced in late 2000, but as early as 1999 limited programming content was provided. However in 2004 the news and sports where dropped as part of a rebranding to an "entertainment portal".

On January 16 2006, Canwest announced to TV3 staff, that it was selling its stake in the channelRTE: [Canwest to sell share in TV3], January 16, 2006., in an effort to reduce its debt, resulting in it leaving the European market. A purchaser for this stake, rights to buy ITV Plc's stake, and the remaining 10% was announced on May 19 as Doughty Hanson & Co, a venture capital firm who are believed to be operating on the behalf of another firm.

On February 7 2006, TV3 announced that it would adopt a new on-air identity and station logo from March 6 2006. The new logo, a variant of the existing station logo features the "3" figure now enclosed in a circle, with two further circles to the left.

Also, as of March 6 2006, TV3 began broadcasting in widescreen format on Sky Digital.

Programming

TV3 programming is sometimes criticized for its lack of a "distinctive, clearly Irish identity"Irish Independent: [TV3: lots of Heartbeat, but there's little pulse], January 21, 2006.. Apart from their news bulletins and sports coverage, much of TV3's schedules are taken up with simulcasting of Granada Television programmes, acquisitioned programming from the U.S. and movies.

Efforts into Irish made television include the short run The Dunphy Show (2003), fronted by Eamon Dunphy, which was built up to be a contender with RTÉ's The Late Late Show. In spite of the flurry of media attention, The Dunphy Show's failed to perform to expectations, and was cancelled a few weeks before the initial season was due to conclude. For the Autumn 2005 season, TV3 have announced a new midweek talk show which will be hosted by Brendan Courtney.

Ireland AM is the breakfast programme and is the only live breakfast television programme in Ireland. Broadcast on weedays from 07:00 to 10:00, it includes regular news updates on the hour and half-hour, but is mainly features and lifestyle based.

Apart from the updates in Ireland AM, TV3's news service on weekdays is broadcast in three 30-minute bulletins at 17:30 (News @ 5.30), 18:30 (News @ 6.30), and around 23:00 (News Tonight). Originally the 17:30 and 18:30 bulletins were a single 18:00 hour-long programme. However this attempt to compete with was a failure and the bulletins were moved to 17:30 and 19:00 (later 18:30, after TV3 acquired the rights to Emmerdale and started showing it at 19:00, the same time as ITV1). For a time, the 17:30 programme was called First Edition. On bank holidays and at weekends, News @ 5.30 is the only news programme.

Gráinne Seoige who had been the main evening news anchor from launch, moved in 2004 to become main anchor of Sky News Ireland. TV3 had previously poached her from TG4 where she had also been main news anchor. TV3 News is now anchored by Claire Byrne and Alan Cantwell.

TV3 also produces a sports round-up programme called Sports Tonight which follows News Tonight on weekday evenings. Other original sports programming includes match analysis and commentary for the football matches that the station broadcasts.

In 2005, TV3 gained rights to broadcast edited highlights of Formula One Grand Prix racing. The new Irish sports channel, Setanta Sports, has the exclusive rights to broadcast the races live.

There are also a number of commissioned programmes on TV3 including a weekly movie show called Popcorn and a weekly programme on horse racing called Go Racing. New commissioned shows launched in 2005 include a programme giving property advice called The Property Game and a sports themed entertainment show called The Offside Show and a late night talk show called The Brendan Courtney Show.

Rick Hetherington is Chief Executive of TV3, and James Morris is Chairman.

Sources

External links

CanWest Global Communications Corp.

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TV3 Ireland

History

Programming

See also

Sources

External links