The ITV Thread

political analyst

UTV Ireland is broadcasting Trevor McDonald's two-part documentary on the Mafia, starting tomorrow (Monday 27 April) at 9.

irishfeen

Joo0 wrote: »

Hello UTV Ireland staff! Welcome to boards.ie

Haha I was thinking the exact same thing

icdg

Joo0 wrote: »

Hello UTV Ireland staff! Welcome to boards.ie

If you are going to post accusations like that you better show evidence to back up your claim.

irishfeen

icdg wrote: »

If you are going to post accusations like that you better show evidence to back up your claim.

I think that was just tongue in cheek... :rolleyes:

icdg

Dont use the report post button if that's the case so - it's an abuse of the facility. It is a serious accusation to make as its actually against Boards rules to act as a company representative on Boards without obtaining a verified rep account first

irishfeen

Ah OK sorry I didn't know he reported it...

MarkK

hotmail.com wrote: »

Any idea will UTV Ireland take the ITN election night coverage in a couple of weeks?

Just checked the schedule for 7th/8th of May, not only is there no UK election coverage, they aren't even taking Good Morning Britain the morning of the 8th.
There is "Storage Hoarders" at 7:30am and "Dickinson's Real Deal" at 8:30am.

The Northern Ireland votes aren't counted until the Friday, so UTV NI have their own Election programmes from 5pm to 6pm and 8pm to 8.30pm on the 8th.
Again UTV Ireland is not carrying these programmes.

It's a real pity in my opinion, that they aren't even carrying their own NI programmes. With the possibility that the DUP could be propping up a minority Tory government, it is likely to be a very interesting election.

Richard

MarkK wrote: »

Just checked the schedule for 7th/8th of May, not only is there no UK election coverage, they aren't even taking Good Morning Britain the morning of the 8th.
There is "Storage Hoarders" at 7:30am and "Dickinson's Real Deal" at 8:30am.

The Northern Ireland votes aren't counted until the Friday, so UTV NI have their own Election programmes from 5pm to 6pm and 8pm to 8.30pm on the 8th.
Again UTV Ireland is not carrying these programmes.

It's a real pity in my opinion, that they aren't even carrying their own NI programmes. With the possibility that the DUP could be propping up a minority Tory government, it is likely to be a very interesting election.

That is surprising - certainly given that RTE are producing their own coverage, so there obviously is an interest. NI does now count votes overnight, so I wonder UTV (and ITV plc regions) have opt-outs of the overnight programme? They did in 1992 when some constituencies were counted overnight, but I'm not sure about 2010.

Has UTVI ever taken UTVNI news/current affairs coverage? Or any UTVNI stuff for that matter?

Richard

icdg wrote: »

Such talk was ripe for many many years between 1993 and 2004. In reality since 2004 it's died out, ITV has shown no real desire for further acquisitions in that direction. It's not to say they wouldn't move if the opportunity presented themselves but neither will they pay through the odds simply to complete a jigsaw. In reality what may eventually happen is ITV giving up it's Channel 3 licence if and when it decides that the regulatory burdens are simply not worth the (very valuable) EPG positioning.

They did buy Channel Television in 2011, but I think that was more for its compliance unit rather than the Channel Islands franchise. I suspect UTV's radio interests are a hurdle for an ITV takeover. Not sure what else STV does these days but I believe issues with their pension fund prevented the merger with UTV a few years ago.

political analyst

MarkK wrote: »

Just checked the schedule for 7th/8th of May, not only is there no UK election coverage, they aren't even taking Good Morning Britain the morning of the 8th.
There is "Storage Hoarders" at 7:30am and "Dickinson's Real Deal" at 8:30am.

The Northern Ireland votes aren't counted until the Friday, so UTV NI have their own Election programmes from 5pm to 6pm and 8pm to 8.30pm on the 8th.
Again UTV Ireland is not carrying these programmes.

It's a real pity in my opinion, that they aren't even carrying their own NI programmes. With the possibility that the DUP could be propping up a minority Tory government, it is likely to be a very interesting election.

In fairness, those people in the Republic who will follow the UK general election results will generally tune in to RTÉ, BBC or Sky News. Therefore, commercially, it wouldn't make sense for UTV Ireland to be carrying UTV NI or ITV network coverage of the UK general election. RTÉ provides sufficient coverage of the UK general election from the Republic's perspective.

Furthermore, many people in the west of the Republic never had cable TV and thus never had access to UTV NI or any other region of the ITV network anyway (except for those who used deflectors, which ceased to function in 2012).

efb

Christ I never watch this channel, then again I rarely watch tv3...

Elmo

political analyst wrote: »

In fairness, those people in the Republic who will follow the UK general election results will generally tune in to RTÉ, BBC or Sky News. Therefore, commercially, it wouldn't make sense for UTV Ireland to be carrying UTV NI or ITV network coverage of the UK general election. RTÉ provides sufficient coverage of the UK general election from the Republic's perspective.

Furthermore, many people in the west of the Republic never had cable TV and thus never had access to UTV NI or any other region of the ITV network anyway (except for those who used deflectors, which ceased to function in 2012).

They would have also tuned to UTV for ITV News coverage of the results. I flick between all channels during an election count.

No real reason why TV3 couldn't provide coverage. Rather than the usual Xpose and TSOC they could opt to have coverage of the UKGE from 5:30 until 8:30 using the same staff that they use during those hours.

UTV could show their chops by having a special Ireland Live with ITN coverage.

RTÉ News Now could carry RTÉ coverage without much interuption to RTÉ ONE.

During these hours TV3 and UTV will have very little to offer they might as well give the Political anoraks something to talk about.

icdg

NI now count votes for Westminister (only) overnight, but UTV won't be doing anything till the next day, effectively giving the BBC a free run.

political analyst

Elmo wrote: »

No real reason why TV3 couldn't provide coverage. Rather than the usual Xpose and TSOC they could opt to have coverage of the UKGE from 5:30 until 8:30 using the same staff that they use during those hours.

UTV could show their chops by having a special Ireland Live with ITN coverage.

RTÉ News Now could carry RTÉ coverage without much interuption to RTÉ ONE.

During these hours TV3 and UTV will have very little to offer they might as well give the Political anoraks something to talk about.

Presumably, it would too costly for TV3 and UTV Ireland to be having such coverage.

Elmo

political analyst wrote: »

Presumably, it would too costly for TV3 and UTV Ireland to be having such coverage.

TV3 air about 3 hours of Live and As Live TV between 5:30 and 8:30. For them it would just be a case of putting Xposé and TSOCS on hold for the day with News taking over, indeed they could decide to put a hold on the 11pm edition of VB Tonight.

UTV Ireland have 1hour 30mins of live news between 6 and 11 each night nothing to suggest they couldn't provide additional coverage to ITN's coverage by providing Ireland Live links to ITV's coverage.

doc11

Ah common, I'm interested in the UK election but to expect an Irish TV station to provide live coverage is totally unrealistic. Even UTV NI will be mainly focused on the northern Irish count which is a forgone conclusion bar perhaps Fermanagh/South Tyrone. Perhaps RTE News Now could simulcast the BBC coverage. The BBC, Sky News and Channel 4 will rank ahead of ITVs coverage depending on what your looking for. I don't see the need for UTV Ireland to provide the excessive coverage which is implied by some posters

Elmo

doc11 wrote: »

Ah common, I'm interested in the UK election but to expect an Irish TV station to provide live coverage is totally unrealistic. Even UTV NI will be mainly focused on the northern Irish count which is a forgone conclusion bar perhaps Fermanagh/South Tyrone. Perhaps RTE News Now could simulcast the BBC coverage. The BBC, Sky News and Channel 4 will rank ahead of ITVs coverage depending on what your looking for. I don't see the need for UTV Ireland to provide the excessive coverage which is implied by some posters

Suppose they could all show extensive repeats of English programmes :rolleyes:

lertsnim

Elmo wrote: »

Suppose they could all show extensive repeats of English programmes :rolleyes:

It would be the preferable option.

doc11

Elmo wrote: »

Suppose they could all show extensive repeats of English programmes :rolleyes:

Which will have a beginning and an end.The election coverage in the UK will be rolling which makes it far harder for an Irish station to plan a simulcast/plan schedule.Like most people I have access to UK TV but If you didn't have access to UK TV/Internet I don't know how an Irish person could be slightly interested in the election as It would mean nothing to them.

Elmo

doc11 wrote: »

Which will have a beginning and an end.The election coverage in the UK will be rolling which makes it far harder for an Irish station to plan a simulcast/plan schedule.Like most people I have access to UK TV but If you didn't have access to UK TV/Internet I don't know how an Irish person could be slightly interested in the election as It would mean nothing to them.

Sorry but Irish TV channels have being sumicasting british TV channels since at least 1978. Most recently RTÉ were able to ring the Taoiseacht to ask if he could postbone a live interview on Prime Time due to a change of schedule with EastEnders due to the BBC's schedule.

Of course RTÉ could have used RTÉ News Now for the suggested time or could have used RTÉ2 for EastEnders but it seems easier to "simulcast/plan" around BBC's schedule RTÉ ONE's schedule. :rolleyes:

Expect that late night TV across Irish TV will be that of France 24, EuroNews, This is UTV Ireland and repeats of Law & Order.

political analyst

Elmo wrote: »

Sorry but Irish TV channels have being sumicasting british TV channels since at least 1978. Most recently RTÉ were able to ring the Taoiseacht to ask if he could postbone a live interview on Prime Time due to a change of schedule with EastEnders due to the BBC's schedule.

As doc11 said, the rolling nature of UK terrestrial coverage of elections means that it be too difficult for an Irish channel to simulcast it, i.e. new developments in the election, i.e. recounts, delays in counting, negotiations to form a coalition. The simulcasting of EastEnders is not the same because it is a programme of fixed length, unlike election coverage.

Elmo wrote: »

Of course RTÉ could have used RTÉ News Now for the suggested time or could have used RTÉ2 for EastEnders but it seems easier to "simulcast/plan" around BBC's schedule RTÉ ONE's schedule. :rolleyes:

RTÉ One is still the main PSB in the Republic. Therefore, it has to broadcast an interview with our head of government. It is the channel that many viewers are more likely to tune into first. That means that they are more likely to happen to see the interview. If they don't want to watch it then they can tune into a different channel or press the Off button.

Elmo wrote: »

Expect that late night TV across Irish TV will be that of France 24, EuroNews, This is UTV Ireland and repeats of Law & Order.

Not the same thing. The ITV network is a general channel that has to meet PSB requirements. Simulcasting a British general channel's election coverage on UTV Ireland would be impracticable because of the rolling nature of the coverage.

The problem doesn't arise with simulcasts of France 24 and Euronews because they, unlike the ITV network, are news channels.

The following fact may explain why it wouldn't be worth the cost for UTV Ireland to simulcast ITV election coverage:

ITV had a news channel but closed it in December 2005 because it couldn't compete with the Sky and BBC news channels.

WheatenBriar

I'm watching the Utv northern Ireland election debate on Itv 1 hd from preseli here in Arklow now
It's a tad ironic that UTV Ireland aren't showing it
Would that be a programme rights issue

political analyst

WheatenBriar wrote: »

I'm watching the Utv northern Ireland election debate on Itv 1 hd from preseli here in Arklow now
It's a tad ironic that UTV Ireland aren't showing it
Would that be a programme rights issue

Maybe it's because UTV Ireland, which is a broadcaster for the Republic, doesn't regard it as being of interest to most viewers in the Republic.

WheatenBriar

There's a lot of things then it seems, they if that's the case deem not of interest to viewers in the Republic..

icdg

WheatenBriar wrote: »

I'm watching the Utv northern Ireland election debate on Itv 1 hd from preseli here in Arklow now
It's a tad ironic that UTV Ireland aren't showing it
Would that be a programme rights issue

No rights issue here - they made the thing!!!! Yeah it's ironic given ITV showed it - viewers in England and Wales can't vote for any of the parties, we can vote for one of them so it's arguably more relevant to us, That said they may have been afraid that they would be breaking imparitality by giving said party the extra airtime, particularly since we are in a referendum period and the clock rules apply.

channelsurfer2

any further update on the ratings share for UTVirl versus tv3? I doubt its anywhere near 10% or so, which they aim to be getting. The major problem is that they have no rights to non-Itv Studios programmes at peaktime and thus have to provide fillers or show them at a later date when ITV has first run rights if tv3 dosent have them. I doubt they factored that in when they decided to launch and someone at ITV must have pointed it out to them re Jonathan Ross etc.

political analyst

icdg wrote: »

No rights issue here - they made the thing!!!! Yeah it's ironic given ITV showed it - viewers in England and Wales can't vote for any of the parties, we can vote for one of them so it's arguably more relevant to us, That said they may have been afraid that they would be breaking imparitality by giving said party the extra airtime, particularly since we are in a referendum period and the clock rules apply.

Actually, although viewers in England and Wales (and Scotland) can't vote for Northern Irish parties, the UTV debate is slightly more relevant to people in Great Britain (I don't know whether or not STV showed the UTV debate) than to people in the Republic because of the fact that Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, i.e. some of the Northern Irish parties might be relied upon to support a minority government in Westminster.

irishfeen

I honestly can't understand why people expect UTVI to broadcast their NI election coverage.. UTVI are broadcasting to the south, it would be like UTVNI covering live the election coverage of the next Irish general election.

There are many things to have a go at UTV for but this isn't one..

Elmo

political analyst wrote: »

Actually, although viewers in England and Wales (and Scotland) can't vote for Northern Irish parties, the UTV debate is slightly more relevant to people in Great Britain (I don't know whether or not STV showed the UTV debate) than to people in the Republic because of the fact that Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, i.e. some of the Northern Irish parties might be relied upon to support a minority government in Westminster.

It's funny how we re-arrange arguments when we talk about our connection to the "mainland". Ireland has clear economic, political and cultural ties to "England", though largely we mean "Britain" and at that we bizarrely don't mean "the North" even though economically, politically and culturally we're probable more connected to that part of the "UK".

I don't think anyone could provide me with a link to an online forum where even Northern Irish people (not just soccer supporters) have argued that NI soccer internationals should be available on FTA TV in NI, but if England games disappeared!. In the past 3 months boards, facebook and twitter has bemoaned the loss of the English games from UTV, god forbid that you'd not support England due to the fear that we might be considered "immature".

You could turn around and say well the NI debate may give more air time to SF than the other RoI parties, in fairness there is really nothing stopping FF or FG putting forward candidates or even setting up cummans in NI, indeed if they truly come from the "republican" tradition they should. (Labour are closely aligned to SDLP so I'll take them as that party but really they too could have NI candidates as their predecessor party DL had in the past.)

Of course the idea that SF may for the first time (in their 40 or 100 year history) might enter Westminister to avoid a Tory government, or that they might not enter Westminister causing a Tory government might be cause for concern this side of the border??? Indeed if they did allow such a thing happen FG and FF would be quick to talk about British Austerity when SF could have put in an anti-Austerity gov in the UK along with the SNP, The Greens and CP, instead allowing the DUP get in there. No sure a NI debate is really no concern to the Irish punter, imagine if SF became the largest party both north and south of the border in the GE and MLA elections. You'd soon see a merger of the 2 unionist parties to prevent a SF 1st Minister and a FG/FF coalition to prevent an SF lead government.

The audience viewing figures for both TV3 and UTV suggest their audience won't really care if they decide to show or provide coverage to the British GE or that the might show an NI soccer match. It will be interesting to see if UTV and UTV Ireland might try to get that RoI v NI match if it is made available to broadcasters, I some how can't see UTV going near the game.

TV3's and UTV Ireland's line up of News and In-studio programming suggests that if they wanted to provide some UKGE coverage (not rolling coverage) they could.

IMO as public service broadcasters where the two government's have signed a broadcasting MoU to allow for the provision of Cultural, political and economic links to both sides of the boarder then the Irish broadcasters on Saorview should provide some of their coverage particularly when that company has a clear link to the North, indeed this would be a the very heart of the Irish minister's decision to give UTV Ireland PSB status.

Of course RTÉ News Now could be used to provide coverage of many many European elections if RTÉ had the inclination. Of course RTÉ News Now could air BBC Newsline and other BBC NI news programming, it has very little else to show after all. (Indeed it prob should have aired all the GE debates from ITV, UTV, BBC NI, BBC Scotland, BBC, BBC Wales, Sky and Channel 4 etc). Again it has very little to offer.

lertsnim

The Northern Ireland debate was people bickering and talking over each other. I'm glad it wasn't shown here.