The ITV Thread

iseegirls

Infoanon wrote: »

When a competitor is re running old episodes of Jeremy Kyle/Ant and Dec/Graham Norton etc and getting better ratings then the new episodes on UTVI then it is a valid point being made.

But will holding exclusive rights to Jeremy Kyle in late 2016 really cure their daytime ratings? The reason it prob does well on TV3 is because of the lead-in audience of Ireland:AM.

Infoanon

iseegirls wrote: »

But will holding exclusive rights to Jeremy Kyle in late 2016 really cure their daytime ratings? The reason it prob does well on TV3 is because of the lead-in audience of Ireland:AM.

It will certainly help - underlying problems such as EPG are more difficult to resolve. There was no lead in for Ant and Dec/Graham Norton and yet they got high ratings on TV3

Sam Russell

UTVi need to advertise their presence. Bus side adverts, Dart adverts, radio adverts all would help. However better programmes would help a lot - particularly home produced.

Crimsonforce

I've heard it all, exclusive rights to Jeremy Kyle in late 2016, is going to get the station back on track, now that tv3 can't show it.....

God help us all..

Elmo

Sam Russell wrote: »

UTVi need to advertise their presence. Bus side adverts, Dart adverts, radio adverts all would help. However better programmes would help a lot - particularly home produced.

They just simply have to us their dublin and cork radio stations for crossover promotion

smurfs5

irishfeen wrote: »

Big question is whether the people who run UTVI have the ability to see the wood from the trees.. that interview with the MD is very worrying from their point of view... its like they are steadfast in thinking Irish viewers will come round to their way of thinking eventually.

"no point in us saying we’re going to be racing for rights when actually we need to make a return first because sport is very expensive"... big question is do they not realise why sports rights are expensive? ... big sporting event - Champions League, 6 Nations, Irish Rugby/Soccer Internationals, Premier League, Olympics, World Cup, Euro Championships etc. draw massive viewership and in turn big advertisement revenue.

It really is bewildering to read the MD say that viewers will eventually come around or try their product. Do they not realise that a huge number of potential viewers are scrolling through EPGs with huge choice and the programmes UTV Ireland are offering simply aren't appealing. The EPG slots don't help but people these days have Netflix, Sky+, RTE Player, BBC iPlayer, All 4 plus hundreds of channels and the quality of programming on those platforms isn't going to be snubbed by viewers in favour of repeats, repetitive schedules and zero imagination.

I understand that they aren't in a position to bid for the sports rights you mention, though. Their projected losses keep growing and finding sports rights which will get enough viewers to justify spending significant amounts of money on is difficult when you bear in mind their financial situation. Doing a sports magazine/discussion show on a Sunday or Monday night could work. Get a presenter and a few pundits to talk about the weekend's sport could work and would be cheap. Probably the best they could do with no rights.

icdg wrote: »

In fact Havelock House seems to have identified the problem as its branding being "too Irish" which is why it will be getting a rebrand to tune down the "Ireland" aspect in September.

But they never planned to be anything more than ITV with an Irish accent. There is a whole cohort of viewers (mostly UPC subscribers) for whom the problem is that it is not ITV enough.

I'm a UPC subscriber and it isn't ITV enough. Showing programmes which flopped on ITV and showing Jeremy Kyle so many times a day isn't going to work. I'd love UTV NI back with the live sport, ITV News and close resemblance to the ITV schedule but I know it won't happen anytime soon. I wish they'd just show ITV News after their news but again, it won't happen.

The branding is straight out of the 80s. Sweeping shots of landmarks and the god awful fonts and idents belongs with net curtains and Walkmans in the past. Look at ITV and BBC- fresh, innovative, visually pleasing idents and slick continuity announcers. The ones on UTV Ireland sound like they've never been on TV before- awful.

The branding is too Irish. The idea that you need green branding with horrible fonts and shots of landmarks in the idents is painfully old fashioned.

Crimsonforce wrote: »

If your going to start a station try something new and fresh instead of

Jeremy Kyle
Jo frost
Good morning Britain or now they have shortened it on the epg to gmb with Irish news.

I don't know why people have a go at them for showing Good Morning Britain yet RTE escape criticism for showing Teleshopping. It's providing some choice at least and has Irish news inputs. GMB might not be to everyone's taste but I'd rather a live breakfast show with news, sport, entertainment, interviews and live reports than mop adverts.

Crimsonforce

The branding is straight out of the 80s. Sweeping shots of landmarks and the god awful fonts and idents belongs with net curtains and Walkmans in the past. Look at ITV and BBC- fresh, innovative, visually pleasing idents and slick continuity announcers. The ones on UTV Ireland sound like they've never been on TV before- awful.

The branding is too Irish. The idea that you need green branding with horrible fonts and shots of landmarks in the idents is painfully old fashioned.



I don't know why people have a go at them for showing Good Morning Britain yet RTE escape criticism for showing Teleshopping. It's providing some choice at least and has Irish news inputs. GMB might not be to everyone's taste but I'd rather a live breakfast show with news, sport, entertainment, interviews and live reports than mop adverts.[/quote]

I fully agree on the branding, dreadful . Their part of U is one if the worst branding I've ever seen....

On the good morning Britain, at least the rte teleshopping is irish...

Gmb was ok on utv ni as they were not catering specially for the south, we were an overflow.
Now we are, they think they can throw good morning Britain still at us. They only threw news updates at us, after the Irish public complained..

icdg

On the good morning Britain, at least the rte teleshopping is irish...

Gmb was ok on utv ni as they were not catering specially for the south, we were an overflow.
Now we are, they think they can throw good morning Britain still at us. They only threw news updates at us, after the Irish public complained..

Not true. Let's recap what happened shall we? When UTV Ireland launched they omitted GMB (but did show their joined at the hip stablemate Lorraine). It was the complaints from the Irish public that resulted in GMB being added to the schedule in February. The Ireland Live updates were a part of the programme from the first day it was on UTV Ireland.

Crimsonforce

icdg wrote: »

Not true. Let's recap what happened shall we? When UTV Ireland launched they omitted GMB (but did show their joined at the hip stablemate Lorraine). It was the complaints from the Irish public that resulted in GMB being added to the schedule in February. The Ireland Live updates were a part of the programme from the first day it was on UTV Ireland.

Do you really think it was Irish people who complained? That's why they put it on their schedule? Absolute horse manuere.. stinks of a PR project. They were managing the backlash..

iseegirls

A small minority of people complained on their twitter and facebook regarding GMB, amongst other shows and films that weren't being broadcast in January compared to the NI version. They had the option of showing GMB at the very start but decided not to - as they thought it wouldn't connect with their target Irish audience. In the end 2,700 viewers watched it when they started showing it in Feb.

They would have been better off creating a completely different name and trying to distance itself from the UTV brand which is so familiar in Ireland for decades. No wonder people are confused.

MarkK

Crimsonforce wrote: »

Do you really think it was Irish people who complained? That's why they put it on their schedule? Absolute horse manuere.. stinks of a PR project. They were managing the backlash..

We know because there were many on this very thread complaining.

Bellerstring wrote: »

Arrgghhh!!!
I got up today and switched on the TV hoping to see Susanna Reid, who makes me happy to be awake, as I have being doing every workday morning for years.
WTF!!!!
TELE-FCKUING-SHOPPING!!!!!
THIS IS FCKIN MADDENING!!!!!!!:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Does TV3 get abuse for showing "Britain's got Talent"?

MarkK

iseegirls wrote: »

A small minority of people complained on their twitter and facebook regarding GMB, amongst other shows and films that weren't being broadcast in January compared to the NI version. They had the option of showing GMB at the very start but decided not to - as they thought it wouldn't connect with their target Irish audience. In the end 2,700 viewers watched it when they started showing it in Feb.

They would have been better off creating a completely different name and trying to distance itself from the UTV brand which is so familiar in Ireland for decades. No wonder people are confused.

LOL, you yourself liked the pro GMB post from January which I just linked to.

Crimsonforce

MarkK;96385368"]We know because there were many on this very thread complaining.




What would constitute a national t.v station to change their schedule, a group, lets say 60 people on fb and boards complaining that there's no good morning Britain? Come on, in that instance Jeremy Kyle would have been dumped the first day it made its way into tv...

Elmo

smurfs5 wrote: »

I understand that they aren't in a position to bid for the sports rights you mention, though. Their projected losses keep growing and finding sports rights which will get enough viewers to justify spending significant amounts of money on is difficult when you bear in mind their financial situation. Doing a sports magazine/discussion show on a Sunday or Monday night could work. Get a presenter and a few pundits to talk about the weekend's sport could work and would be cheap. Probably the best they could do with no rights.

They were in a position to buy sporting rights in 2014 as they had bought rights in 2013.

The channel "identity" is fine and a re-brand so soon is a waste of money considering all of the other problems.

I don't know why people have a go at them for showing Good Morning Britain yet RTE escape criticism for showing Teleshopping. It's providing some choice at least and has Irish news inputs. GMB might not be to everyone's taste but I'd rather a live breakfast show with news, sport, entertainment, interviews and live reports than mop adverts.

Prime time is far more important than Daytime/Morning TV.

I expect UTV to launch a Daytime/Morning show in September, and I expect it to have low audience levels.

delahuntv

Will utv ireland still be around in 6 months time?

"Uninteresting" is probably the best word to describe it.

I've yet to actually watch a programme on it.

My guess is it will be wound down or simply replaced by normal UTV at some stage when one of the main shareholders shouts stop. Some heads will also roll due to the phenomenal losses incurred.

In today's world of superfast Internet, a new TV channel with no identity or good programming just has no chance especially as it's predecessor UTV was doing a good enough job anyway.

Arrow in the Knee

The main problem is they keep showing the same sh!te.
Nothing new
Same sh!t different day.

icdg

Arrow in the knee welcome to the Cable and Digital forums. We aren't After Hours and expect posts to make some sort of contribution to a topic and avoid strong language. Thanks

MarkK

Crimsonforce wrote: »

MarkK;96385368"]We know because there were many on this very thread complaining.




What would constitute a national t.v station to change their schedule, a group, lets say 60 people on fb and boards complaining that there's no good morning Britain? Come on, in that instance Jeremy Kyle would have been dumped the first day it made its way into tv...

I don't understand your post.

Jeremy Kyle is a successful show for ITV and pretty cheap to make.

I doubt the teleshopping which was dropped in favour of GMB on UTVI was a big ratings hit.

Arrow in the Knee

icdg wrote: »

Arrow in the knee welcome to the Cable and Digital forums. We aren't After Hours and expect posts to make some sort of contribution to a topic and avoid strong language. Thanks

My bad

I'm just disappointed that UTV isn't more individual or original in its content.

When I first heard of the news that UTV was coming south I foolishly thought that we would get maybe more Irish content and more imported US series and shows.

There is not one programme on their schedule that is their 'franchise show' so to speak to make them stand out from the crowd.

ATM I really don't watch UTV but I would like them to improve for the sake of irish television.

political analyst

delahuntv wrote: »

Will utv ireland still be around in 6 months time?

"Uninteresting" is probably the best word to describe it.

I've yet to actually watch a programme on it.

My guess is it will be wound down or simply replaced by normal UTV at some stage when one of the main shareholders shouts stop. Some heads will also roll due to the phenomenal losses incurred.

In today's world of superfast Internet, a new TV channel with no identity or good programming just has no chance especially as it's predecessor UTV was doing a good enough job anyway.

If that happened, it probably wouldn't be on Saorview anymore.

Elmo

delahuntv wrote: »

especially as it's predecessor UTV was doing a good enough job anyway.

In the South UTV had been loosing viewers every year since 2001.


02 - 10.2
03 - 7.7
04 - 6.7
05 - 5.91
06 - 5.6
07 - 5.0
08 - 4.5
09 - 4.53
10 - 4
11 - 3.5
12 - 3.1
13 - 3
14 - 2.9

lertsnim

political analyst wrote: »

If that happened, it probably wouldn't be on Saorview anymore.

I don't think UPC would want it either as it would compete with their latest purchase TV3.

delahuntv

icdg wrote: »

Arrow in the knee welcome to the Cable and Digital forums. We aren't After Hours and expect posts to make some sort of contribution to a topic and avoid strong language. Thanks

That's like asking all Jeremy Kyle guests to switch to Jeremy Paxman!

delahuntv

Elmo wrote: »

In the South UTV had been loosing viewers every year since 2001.


02 - 10.2
03 - 7.7
04 - 6.7
05 - 5.91
06 - 5.6
07 - 5.0
08 - 4.5
09 - 4.53
10 - 4
11 - 3.5
12 - 3.1
13 - 3
14 - 2.9

A combination of TV3 which offers similar programming, the fact that it is not on the "normal" sky listing and the massive variety of similar programing from satelite and the like of netflix, all combine to a drop in viewership - hence it was a crazy idea to open a separate channel.

At least TV3 and RTE have a substantial amount of real Irish programming that ensures reasonable level of viewership.

icdg

It correlates to the rise of Sky as a genuine alternative to cable/MMDS (on which UTV was universally available). Before 2001 Sky was very expensive to install and had no UK or Irish terrestrial channels (other than Channel 5 on Sky analogue). It was used mainly by rural dwellers as an alternative to - or if you were wealthy enough, a bonus on top of - MMDS. Cable was absolutely doninant in urban areas. How times have changed.

Elmo

delahuntv wrote: »

A combination of TV3 which offers similar programming, the fact that it is not on the "normal" sky listing and the massive variety of similar programing from satelite and the like of netflix, all combine to a drop in viewership - hence it was a crazy idea to open a separate channel.

At least TV3 and RTE have a substantial amount of real Irish programming that ensures reasonable level of viewership.

So how do you target the your biggest market for the last 50 without opening a new service aimed at that market?

As was said here several times UTV Ireland (regardless of name/logo) was only ever going to take from 6 - 8% of the audience, while TV3 would do the same. Basically before the opening of UTV Ireland, TV3 and UTV had a combined share of 14% this is pretty much still the case.

Neither have really grown that audience and indeed TV3 will only do so with RWC2015 and then they will both be back down to similar audiences.

channelsurfer2

Saturday nights in September will be interesting. The X Factor although loosing viewers is still a big draw for TV3. I doubt UTVIRL will have anything of interest and will just surrender that timeslot for now.

Leroy42

I just don't see the business case for ever launching this channel.

As stated above, the audience share, due to many factors but increasingly due to outside the main channels choice, meant that audience figures were going to continue to decline. As the interview points out they are pretty happy with the mid-week prime time figures so that just leves the news and mid day & weekend.

SKy NEws Ireland showed ever one how hard it could be to break into that news market, TV3 now have many years in it, and alhtough I have no evidence to back this up, my guess would be that the majority of people that watch news will still turn onto RTE for there main TV news.

Mid-day is always going to be a ghost time, really just meant for stay at home parents/unemployed/retired/sick. I doubt any channel base their survival on this.

They have no sport (or very little) and seem to have no plans in place to get any saying its too expensive! Did they only figure this out now! So they have no sport, are always going to struggle in news & CA (They haven't helped themselves at all here and as far as I can understand seem to have gone completely the wrong direction) due to RTE power, and no weekend 'big ticket'.

All the above, and the interview, would make sense if they were playing the long game. The fact that they have doubled their potential operating loss in 6 months tells me that this was never the plan, and given all the issues with sports rights/general program availability & rights issues I cannot see how they ever thought it would be a success.

iseegirls

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

Saturday nights in September will be interesting. The X Factor although loosing viewers is still a big draw for TV3. I doubt UTVIRL will have anything of interest and will just surrender that timeslot for now.

They've been showing episodes of Poirot from 1989 at 8pm on Saturday nights recently. Sounds like they've already surrendered that slot.

delahuntv

Elmo wrote: »

So how do you target the your biggest market for the last 50 without opening a new service aimed at that market?

As was said here several times UTV Ireland (regardless of name/logo) was only ever going to take from 6 - 8% of the audience, while TV3 would do the same. Basically before the opening of UTV Ireland, TV3 and UTV had a combined share of 14% this is pretty much still the case.

Neither have really grown that audience and indeed TV3 will only do so with RWC2015 and then they will both be back down to similar audiences.

If anything UTV Ireland has less viewers than UTV itself had - and the result simply does not match the costs incurred to date with no end to the losses seen. Hence my guess is some shareholders will call stop at some stage or maybe we'll see a full rebrand or we'll see it as an "all Ireland" channel with just breakouts for the news. (and they still keep their saorview spot)