TV3 news service and station `still have a long way to go'

Few other Irish television programmes had been subject to such a build-up. TV3's news service was introduced with an advertising campaign which made celebrities of the two main anchors before their programme went on air.

The station's executives promised, "if there's one area we're going to take on RTE, it's news". The news service, they said, would make TV3 unique.

Perhaps inevitably, in the aftermath of such hype, TV3 news disappointed when it finally went on air. The much touted "sexual chemistry" between newsreaders Alan Cantwell and Grainnei Seoige was exposed as being a figment of the marketing people's imagination. "Incredibly bland, uncomfortably stiff" was one critic's verdict of their interaction, while another accused TV3's journalists of "repetitive, aimless wittering".

When it came to news content, the more high-brow media pundits baulked at the amount of time devoted to showbiz news and gossip presented by entertainment correspondent Lorraine Keane.

Within months the sceptics felt vindicated when the station's hour-long 6 p.m. bulletin had to be scrapped and replaced with two half-hour bulletins at 5.30 p.m. and 7 p.m. "Telefloppies" roared the Daily Mirror the day the changes were announced, in a front page splash featuring photos of TV3's news anchors superimposed on the body of Teletubbies.

Head of News at TV3, Andrew O'Hanlon, says such criticism hurt his team of journalists and anchors because much of it was so personalised. He says there has been an "extremely encouraging" response to the changes in the early evening news coverage, which were made on foot of a survey of TV viewers.

"It's frustrating that journalists outside of the organisation haven't gotten their heads around what we're trying to do. We were going for a different style of presentation from the way news is traditionally done in Ireland. The ratings that we've had so far prove that you don't have to do it the RTE way.

"You can give viewers a different mix of stories and present them in a different way and the public will welcome it. Clearly there were times when it's been a bit rough around the edges, but that's inevitable. Just look at the serious technical flaws you often see during RTE's Six One bulletin". He admits the service is at a disadvantage compared to RTE when it comes to resources. "We don't have £70 million from the licence fee or £130 million from the sale of Cablelink to plough into our programming. When you're a commercial broadcaster you've got a finite sum of money at your disposal and you need to use it wisely. We're all very aware of the individual responsibilities we have to making the station viable and commercial".

The "finite" nature of the budget is causing frustration in the TV3 newsroom. Reporters complain the service is understaffed, under-resourced and "stretched to breaking point". At least two key staff are expected to leave in the coming months.

O'Hanlon rejects suggestions that the service is over-stretched, and says the current recruitment round for the breakfast television news bulletins will "bolster" the newsroom as a whole. Ursula Halligan who has worked for the Sunday Times, Sunday Tribune and Magill will be introduced to TV3 viewers in September as the new political correspondent. Her presence will "add a bit more weight to the service" and "beef up political coverage", O'Hanlon says.

He expects another round of criticism from the media when the breakfast service begins. "We don't expect massive numbers for the breakfast programme. The hope is that people who catch the news bulletins in the morning will like what they see and will tune into later bulletins. I can already see the headlines when the first ratings come out, but they can rewrite them. This is part of a plan to build the audience for the station as a whole."

O'Hanlon admits the news service and the station as a whole "still has a long way to go".

"It will take quite a bit of time for people to get used to us and to the fact that there's an alternative to RTE. Success won't come overnight or even in a couple of months."