Advertisers say CanWest input will help newcomer

Advertising agencies are optimistic about TV3, believing that the Canadian stakeholder, CanWest Global Communications, is bringing valuable experience to the precarious project of launching a television station.

Going on the air in the autumn will allow TV3 to secure some preChristmas advertising and companies considering their 1999 advertising budgets in October will have received a flavour of the new station before they commit money. TV3 will also be targeting 15 to 44-year-olds, a fickle viewer category, but one advertisers prefer to reach.

"That is a high-spending sector for a broad range of advertisers' products," says Mr Paul Moran, media managing director at Peter Owens Advertising. He says the station will have to go through a period before it gets the right mix.

"If you look at new media coming into the marketplace, experience has shown that, particularly for radio and TV stations, that they must have patience and deep pockets," he says.

He gives the example of the launches of RTE 2 in 1978, Radio Ireland succeeding now as Today FM and Teilifis na Gaeilge, also beginning to consolidate a niche position.

"One of the key problems in the electronic media sector is to get the audience to bother to tune into the channel," says Mr Moran.

Unlike the T na G service, which required many viewers to buy a special aerial, TV3 will be received by 85 per cent of the State when it broadcasts.

Mr Moran describes as "a media coup" the channel's winning of the rights to Ireland's away matches in the European Championship, guaranteed to focus the minds of football enthusiasts.

The emphasis on an independent news service is expected to comprise a major part of the 15 per cent of TV3's budget given over to home-produced programmes. E, so I think the problem for TV3 is simply the cost of home-produced programmes," Mr Moran says.

Programming for children is also important for advertising. TV3 will be able to draw on children's programmes produced by CanWest for its Canadian network or bought from other producers.

"The clients will go where the audiences are and the reality is that if TV3 can create an audience, they will get support," says Mr Ian Young, managing director of Irish International Advertising and Marketing.

Mr Aidan Dunne, media director at McConnell's, says that everyone is welcoming the notion of having more TV, but advertisers would be looking carefully at the "overall shape and tone" of the station.

"The greater part of your audience is achieved through the way you schedule your programmes and the way you promote them," he said. CanWest, which owns 45 per cent of the station, has a Canadian TV network and runs a station in New Zealand, similar in scope to TV3.

"The impression that most people have of TV3, in particular the CanWest people, is that they are very professional, very focussed," he says. Compared to RTE which has to be a public service broadcaster, TV3 will be driven by commercial considerations primarily. "When all is said and done their first objective is to make money and that makes life simple for everyone," he says.