Crowning moment for TV3

Although the festive season is over, the celebrations go on and on out in the Westgate Business Park, the home of TV3. The station is riding high on its latest triumph: securing the high-ratings soap Coronation Street. On New Year's Eve, RTE bid farewell to the Street after a 24-year relationship. TV3 has been showing the soap for just over a week now and already it is achieving the highest ratings the station has ever scored. On the first night it was broadcast, Monday January 1st, the programme attracted just under 500,000 viewers. By the second night, Wednesday January 3rd, this had risen to almost 600,000, giving the station an overall audience share of 42 per cent - it's best-ever rating.

TV3's director of programming, Matthew Salway, describes the acquisition of Coronation Street as "the best opportunity" the station has had since it began in September 1998. TV3 is confident that the soap will have a big impact on the station's fortunes, strengthening its hand against RTE.

"January will be a huge month," says TV3 sales director Pat Kiely. "In fact the whole first quarter of 2001 will be huge."

Kiely says that TV3 is seeking to gain 50 per cent of the audience. He says that the station's audience is now "virtually the same size as Network 2" and there is still "lots of room for growth".

The market share of the station (the percentage of all Irish TV viewing that goes to TV3) has recently increased to 12 per cent, says Kiely. "We're absolutely delighted with the share and the Champions League is a big part of that." The acquisition of Champions League soccer matches, which have been shown from last September, was the last major coup for the station. Since then TV3's audience share has grown by 50 per cent. Kiely says that in excess of 300,000 viewers tuned in for many of the exclusive matches, "taking the lion's share of young male viewers in the country".

TV3, however, still relies on movies rather than its regular programmes to achieve higher ratings. Its Sunday-night movie has always gained its highest ratings of the week - until Coronation Street came along. The Street has very quickly established itself as the lynchpin of the TV3 schedule, and it is certainly being very heavily promoted, with the station giving away a car during the ad break of each of the first 12 episodes.

The truly significant development for the station lies not in the initial ratings buzz created by the soap, but in the intentions of the owners of Coronation Street, Granada Media. Last September, Granada bought a 45 per cent stake in TV3 in a £38.05 million deal. Granada paid £24.3 million and took on a £13.75 million debt. James Morris, who founded TV3, got approximately £3 million, while the station's other two founders, Ossie Kilkenny and Paul McGuinness, received around £1 million each. Between them, they retain a 10 per cent stake in the company.

Under Granada, TV3 secures not only Coronation Street, but also Emmerdale, Heartbeat and Cold Feet. However Muiris Mac Conghail, a former controller of programming at RTE who now teaches in the DIT school of media, says the celebration of Coronation Street coup is premature. "Granada are unlikely to be impressed with the current scheduling of TV3, which is already almost entirely made up of imported programming." Granada, he says, will not give TV3 the liberty to load up on more imports. They are likely to readjust the schedule to include more home-grown productions.

"Granada has a quality brand name and will not be a silent partner. I believe it will increase the amount of Irish culturally-related programming to strengthen the station's arm against RTE."

Dr Colum Kenny, senior lecturer in communications at DCU, also believes that TV3 needs to invest more in Irish productions. "TV3 still has a relatively small proportion of the audience figures. If it is not to run into a ceiling, it has to have more Irish programming. What will make it a success will be its ability to relate to an Irish audience." RTE, however, does seem to be feeling the loss of the imported soap and has cited the competition generated by Granada's arrival as part-justification for a £50 increase in the licence fee.

Kenny supports the call for an increase in the licence fee for RTE, but he warns: "It cannot be used to compete unfairly with TV3 for imported programmes. It would be a shame if the result of competition was more money for Hollywood."