The Virgin Media Television thread

political analyst

The Talking Bread wrote: »

I love that TV3/3E/Be3 promo ad,very catchy. Kudos to them

The quality of the programming on those channels is more important than how catchy the promo ad is.

Maz2016

political analyst wrote: »

The Talking Bread wrote: »

I love that TV3/3E/Be3 promo ad,very catchy. Kudos to them

The quality of the programming on those channels is more important than how catchy the promo ad is.

But it's good to point out the positive as well as their negatives

The Talking Bread

political analyst wrote: »

The Talking Bread wrote: »

I love that TV3/3E/Be3 promo ad,very catchy. Kudos to them

The quality of the programming on those channels is more important than how catchy the promo ad is.

My post simply says one thing.

galtee boy

Maz2016 wrote: »

But it's good to point out the positive as well as their negatives

It says something, when the only positive thing that can be said about the channels, is that they have a good promo advert ! TV3 isn't bad to be fair, 3e was always the repeat channel with one or two original shows thrown in and that's acceptable, but be3 is a joke, only for the news bulletins, its wall to wall repeats, it should be down the EPG somewhere with the shopping channels, no offence to the shopping channels !

PacMan

when they repeat Ireland AM on be3, they should block out the time under the IrelandAM logo, as its a tad confusing. Should be easy to do, so why not ?

channelsurfer2

It doesn't bode well for be3 in the longterm going by the schedule. Its as if they are deliberately making it one of the worst channels full of repeats and 3 or 4 year old chase episodes.

reubenreuben

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

It doesn't bode well for be3 in the longterm going by the schedule. Its as if they are deliberately making it one of the worst channels full of repeats and 3 or 4 year old chase episodes.

So, could it end up being a completely different kind of channel in the future and its just being used to show a bit of news and repeats until they can arrange for something better to show instead?

A dedicated news or sports channel. They have the rights to show 3 channels now so is this the plan do you think?

jrmb

reubenreuben wrote: »

A dedicated news or sports channel.

I think they're associated with CNN (and so ITN) so a news/information/documentary channel might be a possibility. I'm not so sure that it's something they want to do though.

political analyst

jrmb wrote: »

I think they're associated with CNN (and so ITN) so a news/information/documentary channel might be a possibility. I'm not so sure that it's something they want to do though.

I think that ITN has ended its Newsource contract with CNN. CNN reporters used to appear on ITV News bulletins but that hasn't happened for the past 4 years.

lertsnim

Not a hope of be3 becoming either a news or a sports channel. It would cost far too much.

dave98

I cant see be3 changing too much in the future to be honest. They must be struggling to get advertisers though. Watched Emmerdale on be3 on Thursday night. It was an hour long episode and the "events guide" or whatever it is called now was played 3 times during the 1 hour episode.

I can never see the TV3 group spending a lot on be3. If they dont continue the way their going, another option wold be to create a channel like ITV4 or CBS reality. Judge judy, BallykissAngel, Heartbeat, The Chase, The Cube, maybe get older shows like Baywatch, Jag, Macgiver etc . Im sure these would be cheap shows to get and would be different to other Irish stations.

Elmo

We are back to fantasy options for be3 and TV3. I am not saying any of the above options are fantasy but more a fantasy that TV3 are even considering anything else for be3.

I say this because TV3 didn't do much over the last 2 years. TV3 should have been free to make several changes to their 7pm to 9pm schedule, instead they stuck with Xpose, TSOCS and 8pm News, none of which are very strong.

TV3 didn't really consider their takeover of UTV Ireland. It seems they were only interested in Coro St and Emmers, both of which 3 years ago they were saying were too expensive and the loss allowed them the freedom to spend that money in other areas.

When they bought UTV Ireland all 4 channels had a 17% share, the easiest option would have been to rebrand UTV Ireland and let it take the English soaps and reality TV, let 3e continue to be an extra channel for English and Irish reality TV. With TV3 being clear as an alternative Irish channel with an emphasis on quality programming in prime time and Sport.

The crossover promotion on be3 (aka UTV Ireland) and TV3 could have increase or retained an audience for both.

The current situation see a significant drop for be3, while cross promotion will have little effect.

I understand the idea behind repeating Emmerdale and Coro St on be3, but when TV3 took over Channel 6 and re-branded it 3e both shows were similarly repeated causing Channel 6 to lose an audience, 3e drop them 2 months later.

The same goes for Xpose on 3e it didn't rate well, how many times did TV3 re-schedule the repeat in prime time on 3e before giving it the axe.

And what about axing be3? Well that wouldn't help TV3's dwindling audiences, it would just help it to dwindle more.

dave98

Elmo wrote: »

We are back to fantasy options for be3 and TV3.

Thats why my first sentence was "I cant see be3 changing too much in the future to be honest."
But yeah I agree with you, I think the main reason or one of the main reasons for buying UTV Ireland was for emmerdale and corrie as well as a few other programmes. Their comment 3 years ago about them being too expensive was sour grapes on their part. They obviously still wanted them. As someone mentioned earlier, its so hypocritical on Ireland AM now when Emmerdale and Corrie are spoken about on the soaps segment where as before it was all Red Rock and not a mention for Emm/CS.

_Kaiser_

The problem is that there's no market for 3 "second string" stations in Ireland which already has 2 state channels of questionable quality and a niche language channel, and a viewer base that has access to all the main UK channels, premium channels, online content etc, and which is increasingly moving away from Live broadcast TV as a primary viewing medium (exceptions being news and sports and even the former is being replaced by Twitter and other social media).

Shuffling this largely viewable-elsewhere content around 3 channels and cross-promoting among themselves will do nothing to stop this. They either need to go big/premium (unlikely due to both cost and the likes of Sky) or offer something different (the idea of a dedicated channel for older 80s/90s content does have some merit and would be cheaper to run I'd think too), but trying to cover all the bases with content that's available for free elsewhere or generally poor isn't going to arrest the decline.

Elmo

But you would think that TV3 would retain the 17% share of the audience that TV3, 3e, UTV Ireland and TV3+1 had in 2015 and 2016?

Also that Irish broadcasters should be able to compete with smaller channels like Viacom, CBS and UKTV while it's understandable that viewers would continue to watch BBC, ITV and C4 channels (they only account for about 15% of the audience).

iseegirls

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

Shuffling this largely viewable-elsewhere content around 3 channels and cross-promoting among themselves will do nothing to stop this. They either need to go big/premium (unlikely due to both cost and the likes of Sky) or offer something different (the idea of a dedicated channel for older 80s/90s content does have some merit and would be cheaper to run I'd think too), but trying to cover all the bases with content that's available for free elsewhere or generally poor isn't going to arrest the decline.

Agree that there is way too much shuffling of programmes, and some spread across the channels during the week. We have Xpose on the 3 channels. One episode from tonight can be seen 7 times across the channels:
Monday: 20:00 TV3
20:30 3e
Tuesday: 5:40 TV3
10:00 Be3
14:55 3e
Saturday: 7:30am 3e
Sunday: 7:30am 3e

The Talking Bread

Let us be honest, there is no actual claim that TV3 are trying to claim the other two are credible stations and it is clear they use them for small additional revenue, repeats for increased airtime (as let us be honest, there are shows like GNS, celebrity big brother, Keith Lemon etc that will invariably attract viewers regardless of whether they are even repeats. Likewise they also have cover for when they have other non regular events such as Champ League etc on TV3. It is cheap to run them and as I said, they are pushing the "3" brand, not claiming to be showcasing 2 further showcase channels.

The production company ill fall under the tv3 brand and the other 2 are merely subsidiaries. They have plenty of shows to attract sufficient audience share now and at the end of the day, it is a business, not a vanity project!

Elmo

The Talking Bread wrote: »

The production company ill fall under the tv3 brand and the other 2 are merely subsidiaries. They have plenty of shows to attract sufficient audience share now and at the end of the day, it is a business, not a vanity project!

That's fine if TV3 where seeing a 14% share. This would help counter the loss that be3 was bound to have as an extra channel, but clearly TV3 aren't going to get that kind of audience.

Would it really have been a vanity project to drop the news from be3 and keep as it had been under UTV?

You are right they are a business but it seems they will lose a lot more money this year as they did it in 2015 and 2016.

dave98

iseegirls wrote: »

We have Xpose on the 3 channels. One episode from tonight can be seen 7 times across the channels:

Wow, that is ridiculous. Thats 3.5 hours of schedules filled out of a 30 minute program. I thought it was bad getting 2 hours out of every episode of Emmerdale & Corrie across TV3/be3.

When you think about it though, Xpose must be cheap to make (I am guessing as I don't watch it). Out of the 7 showings for that single episode they will get 42 minutes of advertising. (3mins when it takes a break and 3 mins at the end). Maybe they aren't as foolish as I thought. Maybe they dont have problems getting and charging for advertising.

Same with Elaine, The show is 1 hour long, it takes 4 ad breaks (used be three when it was called midday) plus the 3 mins at the end. Thats 15 minutes of ads per episode. And Elaine is repeated a further 2 times on be3 after it airs on TV3.

I know they are a business effectively but the chat shows/xpose must be making them money. Cheap to produce. Its a wonder TSOCS isnt repeated on be3 as well.

Elmo

dave98 wrote: »

I know they are a business effectively but the chat shows/xpose must be making them money. Cheap to produce. Its a wonder TSOCS isnt repeated on be3 as well.

Most likely Irish programming isn't making any money, yes most of TV3 in house programming is cheap to make but TV3 make far more on imports.

Remember TV3 lost vast amounts of money in 2015, unlikely to have changed much in 2016.

15mins is not allowed, only 12mins, do they have 3mins of TV3 promos?

channelsurfer2

Don't forget next year they will have a big hole for 6 nations rights as well as the ITV Studios programming. I doubt they will keep 3 stations open for long judging by what we have seen in the first week or 2. Be3 is hardly even registering with anyone these days. Even the drama they promised is now being shown on TV3 if they feel it will get a good audience.

iseegirls

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

Don't forget next year they will have a big hole for 6 nations rights as well as the ITV Studios programming. I doubt they will keep 3 stations open for long judging by what we have seen in the first week or 2. Be3 is hardly even registering with anyone these days. Even the drama they promised is now being shown on TV3 if they feel it will get a good audience.

But is it not Virgin Media that bought UTV Ire and it's rights to the ITV Studios programming anyway. Wouldn't it be seen as a VM purchase, and not that TV3 used their budget for purchasing the ITV Studios programming, although it still would have a significant hit I guess for the amount of money VM can give TV3 for prog rights. (That's my presumption - I don't know the full details of the deal)

VM will ensure that the 3 channels are kept on.

channelsurfer2

iseegirls wrote: »

But is it not Virgin Media that bought UTV Ire and it's rights to the ITV Studios programming anyway. Wouldn't it be seen as a VM purchase, and not that TV3 used their budget for purchasing the ITV Studios programming, although it still would have a significant hit I guess for the amount of money VM can give TV3 for prog rights. (That's my presumption - I don't know the full details of the deal)

VM will ensure that the 3 channels are kept on.

I thought that even though VM owns them now they are separate companies that have to fund themselves and make a profit?

political analyst

Why doesn't VM Ireland take ITVs 2, 3 and 4 off its channel line-up so that it can make the 3 family of channels more viable by having exclusive cable rights to ITV Studios drama productions?

gordongekko

political analyst wrote: »

Why doesn't VM Ireland take ITVs 2, 3 and 4 off its channel line-up so that it can make the 3 family of channels more viable by having exclusive cable rights to ITV Studios drama productions?

becasue it will lose more subscribers to Sky if it does

political analyst

gordongekko wrote: »

becasue it will lose more subscribers to Sky if it does

But Sky doesn't have ITVs 2, 3 and 4 on its EPG in the Republic.

Elmo

political analyst wrote: »

But Sky doesn't have ITVs 2, 3 and 4 on its EPG in the Republic.

It will lose more subs to FTA satellite also ITV do not sell ads into the Irish market and they are unlikely to start.

Also they may have a contract to complete.

political analyst

Elmo wrote: »

It will lose more subs to FTA satellite also ITV do not sell ads into the Irish market and they are unlikely to start.

VMI (formerly UPC) customers who were angry about losing UTV NI and can access it or one of the other ITV Network regions via a dish or terrestrial overspill have probably cancelled their subscriptions by now anyway.

Elmo wrote: »

Also they may have a contract to complete.

How long would the contract be in effect?

lertsnim

political analyst wrote: »

Why doesn't VM Ireland take ITVs 2, 3 and 4 off its channel line-up so that it can make the 3 family of channels more viable by having exclusive cable rights to ITV Studios drama productions?

I presume that there is a contract for those channels to be on the Virgin Media service.

galtee boy

Just thinking out loud here, but as STV ( Scotland ) is not owned by ITV, what would stop eir or Vodafone doing a carriage deal to carry STV on their platforms ?