Adam Maguire

While the intended buy-out of Tv3 by private equity group Doughty Hanson is old news at this stage the turmoil over the water at ITV plc headquarters has likely squashed whatever remote chance that existed of ITV enacting its pre-emption rights which would allow it to out-bid the group within 90 days of their offer being made.

The waiting period in which the pre-emption can happen is due to end (by my count) on the 17th of August at which point €295m will be paid for 100% of the Irish commercial broadcaster.

It’s hard to say what will happen next; some rumours say Doughty Hanson is acting on behalf of another group while others figure it is investing now in order to sell the company down the line; probably on once it gets a DTT space and renews its TV licence in 2008.

Perhaps come the end of August we will be slightly more informed on the matter but either way don’t expect much to chance on your TV set for the time being.

Just thought I’d point you in the direction of a boards.ie broadcasting thread on the RTÉ News revamp.

Those watching the situation closely will note that the newroom has been moved to a temporary studio to facilitate a studio 3 revamp; the new studio should be revealed in September.

Information is thin on the ground but Telefís details some of the possible improvements here. An LCD wall would certainly bring RTÉ up to date with its British counterparts, namely the BBC and ITV.

This revamp is just one piece in a huge puzzle of rebranding going through the PSB at the moment, from RTÉ.ie to RTÉ One itself.

As some speculation on the thread suggests some of this may be part of a repositioning to facilitate new digital ventures although in my opinion that kind of repositioning will only happen at a channel-wide level; for example we may see RTÉ One move more towards serious programming and aim for a 35+ age group while RTÉ Two continues on its more funky and young venture. It is likely that any new DTT channels (RTÉ Three and Four perhaps) will only happen if each of the existing RTÉ stations is given a more specific role. Look at the way the BBC had tried to reposition BBC One and Two when it brought Three and Four into the public gaze.

Another hot topic is the viability of an RTÉ News channel and under what guise it would take (Rolling news, factual, current affairs etc.); I’ve already discussed the matter here before but I’m sure I’ll return to it soon enough.

The fact is though all of this is speculation; few know for sure what RTÉ News will look like in September or what RTÉ in general has to offer in the digital world; what can be said is that it’s interesting times for media geeks like myself!

Irish media as a whole could never be referred to as trend-setting; DTT is only warming up the engines, DAB the same. It does seem at times that the whole thing is clinging onto the past, the golden era of the traditional media, perhaps. Being optimistic about it though, all we really need are a few organisational changes in different places and things should run relatively smoothly, albeit behind the majority of Europe.

The same cannot be said for the print media, however. Let’s not get into the argument that print is doomed, it’s not. Journalists will keep on working with bloggers and citizen journalists having little negative effect, if anything a positive one; print media will keep defying the internet (and the growth of ebooks etc.) because people will always, at least in our lifetime, have a preference for something tangible and solid to hold, fold and read. Saying that, the inevitably secure future for print across the world has not stopped innovation; The Guardian has embraced blogging and other online content as an appendage to its core print run. The Times in London is doing the same, going so far as to launch a TV channel online. They have also launched a podcast on the back of The Guardian’s hyper-successful Ricky Gervais show.

Ireland’s equivalents have not been so forthcoming, however. The Irish Times is still a subscription site; perhaps it has been extremely lucrative for them but it seems to hold a very closed mindset, one that is not ready for new ideas. The Irish Independent is normally free, but they managed to take a step back and limit some of their content (Kevin Myers’ column) so that those interested would be forced to buy the print version. The Sunday Tribune seems to do the same for their prized possession, Ross O’Carroll Kelly. The Sunday Business Post doesn’t limit content but the website design is quite poor, the archive site is probably one of the least user-friendly sites of a professional organisation I have seen in recent years.

All in all, the best our newspapers can produce is an online version of the print newspaper. There’s on exclusive online content, no online writers, no videos or podcasts, hyperlinked articles, no blogs. Nothing new or original.
Perhaps it is based on the fact that Television has to evolve; the EU has set a deadline (kind of) and Ireland can’t be the only EU country to be stuck on analogue in 2012. The same applies for radio; even with no analogue switch-over present DAB offers so much more possibilities and freedoms, including extra space to broadcast on; that is something irresistible to the radio industry.

All the four newspapers I mentioned have ads on their website; perhaps they haven’t realised how much money these can make, with the right pitch and the right content. Must-see or must-hear content, additional articles (or extended versions of pieces in the print newspaper), and better interaction through blogs would all bring in the crowds and bump up the page impressions. While the benefits of online content aren’t as apparent as with DTT and DAB the internet too offers much greater freedom and space to do anything, and it’s not like they’re expensive; The Guardian seems to be doing pretty well in financial terms even though it is free to read online (after a free registration) and has tons of online-only content.

Perhaps the real reason is that the Irish print media is still trying to get out of battle-mode with the internet; remember when it was going to kill off the newspaper? I have enough reason (and faith) to believe that online developments in Ireland’s newspapers are on their way but I don’t know how long it will take. I also don’t know if Irish newspapers will try something new and original, something completely innovative or just copy what has happened in the UK (once it’s proven to work efficiently).

Television in Ireland has always been compared, fairly or otherwise, with its British equivalent. In many cases the comparison can be unfair however when Irish viewers miss out on services and programming that is becoming a standard in the UK you can’t help but feel like more could be done.

As it stands the face of Irish television is in the middle of a major change. DTT is on its way, at least in trial form, and if the Broadcasting Act 2001 is followed through TG4 will become an independent broadcaster on a par with TV3, Setanta and Channel 6. The BCI will also end and be replaced by the BAI (Broadcasting Association of Ireland), this change will level the playing field and see RTÉ answerable to the same group as every other Irish broadcaster.

In the business side of things TV3 will change hands within the coming weeks and months, if not to Doughty Hanson than to ITV. If Hanson does take control the future of TV3 will be extremely uncertain; private equity groups generally buy businesses in order to turn a profit in its eventual sale and the end of a relationship with ITV will cast doubt on the renewal of the programming deal currently established between the two. One has to wonder also if a private equity group, especially one from outside of Ireland, is likely to put much investment into original homegrown entertainment although that’s not to pretend that TV3 has done any more than it has had to do so far. Another issue that is sure to cast some uncertainty on TV3’s future is the broadcasting contract renewal due for 2008, where homegrown output is sure to be an issue.
In the delivery-side of Irish television, NTL/Chorus have recently appointed a single managing director, coming on the back of offical clearance at the sale of NTL to International company UPC. While nothing is set in stone as of yet, a rebrand is quite likely but whatever the name the company goes on it has lost a lot of ground during the last two years. PVR and HD are both digital TV concepts that NTL/Chorus has made no commitment on whatsoever, forcing any viewers interested to make the switch to Sky. The only decent deal done by NTL over the last 12 months has been the subscription-free availability of Setanta, something that will pay dividends assuming they station gets a decent share of the Irish TV rights for British Premiership soccer.

On the issue of Setanta, and indeed Channel 6, both are new players in the Irish market and their future is more uncertain than anyone elses, however Setanta have ensured a strong footing with two packages in the UK and it is expected to pull of the same or better in Ireland.

By the end of this decade Irish television will have seen a massive change. DTT should be up and running, TV3 is likely have changed hands again (if Doughty Hanson do buy them my bet is that they will sell them on after 2008 when they have a long broadcasting contract to increase value), TG4 and RTÉ should be split the BCI is expected to be no more and NTL/Chorus/UPC will have either gotten its act together or crashed out of the Irish TV market altogether. Of course, all this change is not certain to be positive, all broadcasters and carriers should be acting now to ensure that they future-proof themselves and are ready to change methods to stay competitive. Television is unlikely to see the same scale of changes once Digital switchover is complete and HD and PVR reaches the mainstream but that doesn’t mean that anyone should sit back and relax; most Irish broadcasters have done that already and are now left scrambling to stay in the running.

The development of digital television in this country remains clouded in uncertainty.The tender process for the Government Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) trial is due to conclude by the end of April, with the pilot programme on track for an autumn 2006 launch.But broadcasting representatives have said that a mixture of caution amongst the networks and a lack of political progress since the Broadcasting Act of 2001 have left RTE, TV3 and TG4 unable to develop plans for new services and ideas.

In todays Sunday Business Post I take a look at the slow-moving process that is Irish DTT; it was an extremely interesting piece to work on. Originally the piece was to be a round-up of all Irish broadcasters (including those whom only exist on Cable/digital at present) intentions towards the future DTT service. When it became quite clear that the big three were currently playing a waiting game the focus shifted.

As it stands only TV3 are willing to make any firm commitment on new services for DTT, and even that was a basic statement of intention. DTT is at least two years away from a nationwide launch so there’s still time to change this, as the piece notes however, it’s not the broadcasters that are dragging their feet.

Read the entire article at thepost.ie

In 1999 RTÉ published proposals for a DTT system that they would spearhead (similar to the role the BBC took in the creation of Freeview in the UK). As part of the plans RTÉ would create four new channels; one giving coverage to the Oireachtas, one for children, one for educational programming and a rolling-news channel.

The 1999 plans collapsed some time after and only now is Ireland beginning to make progress on its DTT ambitions again. After speaking to Anne O’Connor (Special Advisor to the Director General at RTÉ) it appears that the original plans of the national broadcaster have shifted substantially; tomorrow’s Sunday Business Post should have more on the matter for those interested, I’ll link to it once it’s online. While Anne stated that RTÉ weren’t ready to publish their plans at present, it did seem to me that a dedicated news channel is less likely than it was before. In her words “the landscape has changed since 1999… there are other rolling-news services around now that weren’t there before”.

That’s not to say that RTÉ News 24 won’t happen, there’s every possibility that it will launch alongside the national DTT network (which is expected some time after 2008). RTÉ must, however, act on the behalf of the licence fee payers; would such a service really benefit enough viewers to justify the cost? Of the four propsed channels from 1999 the news service would be the most expensive, at least in my humble opinion. The Irish Oireachtas already records and streams everything, all RTÉ would need to do is pick up on the feed and rebroadcast it; perhaps a nightly or weekly review programme would accompany the service but this is only a slight extension on the existing “Week In Politics” show currently in RTÉ One. A childrens channel wouldn’t be a huge leap from the existing weekday broadcasts of RTÉ Two either; An example being Monday, where childrens programming broadcasts from 6:35 in the morning until half five in the evening (with the following two hours dedicated to teen-friendly television). As it stands “The Den” already broadcasts as a standalone channel on the NTL platform; to the best of my knowledge it’s no more than a simulcast to put RTÉ kids programming amongst the bona-fide children’s channels. A modest studio, two hyper presenters and some sticky-back plastic could help make the leap to a fully fledged channel. The fact that Childrens channels don’t usually broadcast after six-eight in the evening makes things even easier.
An educational channel could be more of a challenge, but at the same time programming similar to the Channel 4 schools broadcasts couldn’t be seriously expensive and such programming could enlist the help of various schools, colleges and universities in their development.

A news channel for Ireland, done properly, would be superb. To be done properly it would need to follow suit of the BBC rather than Sky; original programming is a must, constant and repetitive rolling news is a mistake. Another issue is the news itself; does enough happen in Ireland to make the broadcasts unique enough from the British and international variant? Running a channel 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, employing additional presenters, researchers, producers and journalists (among other things) would add a big strain to the RTÉ news/current affairs budget, it’s impossible to say at this point if such a strain would be viable and what effect it would have on the licence fee. There are other options, perhaps an hourly news update which would be available on RTÉ Interactive.

A rolling news channel would be something I’d like to see in Ireland, and in my opinion RTÉ would be the people to do it. At the same time I know it would almost certainly come with a big licence fee increase and it may not be value for money for the Irish population; how many people would actually watch it? I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.