TV3 Win 6 Nations rights

[Dave Cahill]

I'd love to meet the person who came up with the idea for UTV Ireland and just ask them what they were thinking.

It was a great idea that got overtaken by events. No one expected TV3 to find a buyer and especially not one with Virgin Medias deep pockets. The plan was that TV3 would go tits up and UTV would buy back the rights for stuff like the Champions League and Downton Abbey at a song.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

What could possiblye go wrong?

PossibLY go wrong...that's the first thing that's ever gone wrong.

[simonokeeffe]

here, who gets the Wolfpuppies, Wolfhounds and the Shewolves out of this deal?

[rooster]

Ah but you're confusing the locals.

There is ITV (the network) which is part owned by ITV (the channe)l which is itself fully owned by ITV (the company). ITV (the network) is branded as UTV (the channel) in Northern Ireland and UTV (the company) which owns UTV (the channel) and part owns ITV (the network) has been sold to ITV (the company).

Think I might need to work that out over a bottle of Jamesons !
Anyway they have said in the short term they will run under the UTV brand up here and I would like to think that they will broadcast the rugby for us otherwise anyone on terrestrial will have no access

[TerenureJim]

What exactly are RTE doing with the license money that they were outbid by TV3? How can you be a national broadcaster and loose one of the longest running most culturally significant sporting events in Ireland. Is this their shameful treatment of the Pro12 and AIL coming home to roost?

RTE can't exactly blat away their share of the Licence money on sporting rights. FIrstly, not everyone likes sports. Secondly, not everyone who likes sports likes rugby. I guarantee you that if the viewing public were given the choice of RTE spending that money on winning back the rights for the rugby or for the GAA (thats on Sky), TV3 wouldn't need to cancel that dome polish order for Woody.

The licence fee should be, and in the main is (though not as much as it used to be), used for the creation and development of indigenous programming that otherwise would not be commercially viable and supporting new broadcasting technology in its incubation phase like it was for DTT and DAB

Don't get me wrong Dave I like what RTE stand for and do on certain levels I just think that maybe there is someone asleep at the wheel when so much money goes on questionable talent, argument being they bring sponsors/advertisers I guess, to then turn around and loose possibly the blue ribboned event in terms of high end ABC1 advertising € coupled with the fact that live sport is one of the few parts of tv not yet wholly supplanted by online offerings. I also stand by the six nations, like the all Ireland, being of a unique and historic importance culturally that goes beyond sport. People who don't like rugby still get caught up in the "event" that the six nations is.

[TerenureJim]

I'd question RTE's interest in rugby given the lack of enthusiasm in the pro12 when they had it and general ignoring of AIL aside from a few "and also" bits on the 4 episodes of against the head they produced in any given year. There was definitely a market for a "rugby special" type show,relatively cheap to produce, couple of talking heads in a club bar somewhere, changing week by week, showing a few highlights of the pro game and women's rugby but also bringing attention to AIL and having the odd guest but they never bothered.

[RoboProp]

I'm sticking with blaming Hook in the first place. RTE were unwatchable for years, I have watched on BBC for ages, thinking that Hooks bluster was the way coverage should be poisoned rugby in Ireland.

I can't figure out why TV3 have Murray Kinsella doing crowd stuff rather than rugby stuff. Williams would do that better.

Hope ogara gets hired. He was one of the big positives from recent years on RTE.

I'm gonna watch the panel that doesn't have Woodie, I'm kinda bored hearing about how things were in his day.

So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Give me five bees for a quarter, you'd say.

Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...

Thanks Keith