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| WHERE TO NOW FOR TV3? AS UTV PREPARES TO WIN AUDIENCE IN THE REPUBLIC, COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR PAT KIELY AND CONTENT DIRECTOR JEFF FORD SET OUT PLANS TO ATTRACT ADVERTISERS AND DIVERSIFY |
With so much going on in TV3 these days, the demands on Pat Kielys time are greater than ever. He may not clock up quite as many meetings as President Obama but he is more elusive than the Scarlet Pimpernel. When he shows up a tad late for an interview in the Westbury Hotel to discuss what TV3 intends to do to ensure what it has, it holds, he is at ease.
Upbeat yet a little distracted, Kiely is like the proverbial swan for all the world appearing graceful but paddling like bejaysus below the surface. With cappuccinos on order, we begin by revisiting the interview we did almost three years ago when we spoke about commercial priorities. TV is not just about winning audiences, its also about picking up unique viewers.
Is that still true? Very much so, he says, it absolutely holds true and even more so as we see competition grow. You see around the world free-to-air terrestrial TV is growing in value. Traditional TV has seen a huge revival, despite digital. If anything, social media has become a powering force behind TV. Most Twitter conversations revolve around TV shows.
Technology like PVRs (personal video recorders) allows people watch more TV and at a time when suits them best. So more people are viewing regularly now than they were 10 years ago.
With young people multi-screening and demanding to watch TV in all sorts of places, TV3 developed 3e as a channel targeting 15-34 year olds, along with ShowPal and the 3Player.
Since 2006, when Doughty Hanson invested in the business, TV3 went out to the agencies and said they would reduce their reliance on acquired programming. At that point, they were producing about 20 per cent Irish content, now they are at about 40 per cent. From next January, over half of all content will be Irish, delivering unique audience advertisers seek.
While TV audience generally is up to where it was 10 years ago, the market is fragmented and the share is split among 40 or so channels. But, Kiely adds with some emphasis, the fact is two TV3 channels and three RTE channels (RTE One, RTE Two and TG4) still command 75 per cent of TV ad spend. It shows clearly, Irish people want to watch Irish content on TV.
Kiely says last year was encouraging and this year got going with a bang. In January, they were the only Irish broadcaster in the market to grow share. The TV3 release goes into more detail: audience was up by 3.6 per cent, while the share for adults 15 and over was up by five points to 10.68, the biggest increase for any terrestrial channel in Ireland.
It was a tough market last year but we did well in delivering audiences, Kiely adds. We started to see signs of recovery. But what about the elephant in the foyer? UTVs move south and its ambition to mark itself out from TV3 and RTE by airing more regional content through news and current affairs broadcasts from studios in Cork, Limerick and Galway.
Kiely offers a somewhat curious take. He says over the last 17 years, we have seen a lot of new channels. UTV is already in the market but they are now moving into opt-out, not unlike what Sky, the Viacom channels and most recently, Channel 4, have done. They see an opportunity to convert the ad breaks into Republic of Ireland-targeted ad breaks.
What about the regional focus UTV promises? Lets wait and see, he replies. We saw that previously with Sky News Ireland. We know from the experience we had with Living that Britains Next Top Model became Britain & Irelands Next Top Model. Beyond that, Im not aware of any other programming plans, so to all intents and purposes its an opt-out.
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WIDER PLATFORMTV3 commercial director Pat Kiely is optimistic the groups strategy is paying off. Talent and game shows are setting the trend, largely thanks to the huge response to X-Factor, which still commands handsome audiences. TV3s HD roll-out is still a few years down the road. |
Under the contract which UTV signed with the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI), 10 per cent of programming will have to be made by independent producers. It said it will make Irish content similar to Lesser Spotted Ulster and Paul & Nicks Big Food Trip, and a series of documentaries like Mission Titanic will go out soon after Coronation Street.
As TV3s group content director, Jeff Ford is responsible for the channel's content strategy and output across TV3, 3e and the 3Player. A year in the job since replacing Ben Frow, Ford, a happy-go-lucky Cockney, earned a reputation of shaking things up while programming boss at Channel 5. It became the only free-to-air channel to grow audience in the UK in 2012.
He began his career as a film editor at the BBC where he worked for ten years. He knew that Frow had brought TV3 as far as it could go in one direction and a new content strategy was inevitable. When I arrived, Ford said, the content division was already looking for the next step. Ive a great team working with me and we are all on the same page.
Tallafornia and Dublin Wives were shelved in favour of news and quiz shows. Ford is shaping a schedule with less reliance on shock docs. The focus is on home entertainment with game shows like Crossfire with Sean Moncrieff and The Lie, hosted by Moncrieffs Newstalk sidekick Jonathan McCrea, which Ford says will return for a second series.
The Lie averaged 209,000 viewers or a 13.5 per cent share in its first three episodes. Crossfire, made by TV3s 3Studios and Nices Gong Media, is the third co-production from the groups Sony HD studio. The 20-part, half-hour show has four people trying to force each other out of the game during three general knowledge rounds. The prize is 2,000.
Four celebrity versions of the show will also be broadcast. Ford says the move into studio shows is the biggest programming innovation he has brought about so far at TV3. Its not just about being local producers, we have to be global content suppliers, he remarked. As it tries to diversity its revenue sources, the group is on a drive to sell its shows overseas.
As TV3 prepares to lose flagship shows like Coronation Street and Emmerdale next year, it is branching out. TV3 has sold its productions to stations in 28 markets. It has won agreements with franchise distributors and TV3 executives plan to show up at TV distribution conventions like MIP in Cannes next month, where they will highlight their shows.
The Lie and the heavily-promoted Keith Barry: Brain Hacker, reached over 1.6 million viewers in its six-week run, will be pushed hard at MIP. The Lie has already attracted some commissioning interest from a French broadcaster. Of course, the big talking point in recent days is TV3s plan to launch a new soap to challenge RTEs Fair City and UTVs Corrie.
After a tender process which began in October and involved 18 companies in these islands, TV3 sent a letter of intent to Ed Guiney and Andrew Love at Element Pictures and Company Pictures, run by former BBC drama production controller John Yorke, who turned around EastEnders. Company Pictures is best known for Skins and the black comedy Shameless.
Elements credits include The Guard with Brendan Gleeson and Lenny Abrahamsons Adam and Paul and What Richard Did. Not surprisingly, Pat Kiely is remaining tight-lipped about what the new soap may be about. Will it be centred around a suburban cul-de-sac like Brookside, or will be aimed at a young audience in the same vein as Channel 4s Hollyoaks?
The TV3 tender document suggested the settings could include community, medical, Garda-based or any precinct-type location. The budget is said to be somewhere between 5m-10m and will be funded by TV3, Element and section 481 finance. While the working title is under raps, Kiely is prepared to confirm that the new soap will be filmed in and around Dublin.
When asked what genres he would like to see more of on TV3, ones which may have been under-represented so far, Ford says drama can be brand-defining. So the new soap will be crucial. Ford says it will stand for what TV3 is all about. TV3 currently produce about 2,000 hours a year. Come next year, they aim to double peak in-house originated content.
Audiences tend to be more attracted to shows that reflect their stories and culture than shows from overseas, he adds. You have to be aware of what people are talking about and what concerns them. The People's Debate with Vincent Browne will capture imaginations. Plus, remember, we won't be losing shows like Downton, X Factor and Britain's Got Talent.
Ford told the Herald that TV3 has signed a contract with Late Lunch Live co-host Lucy Kennedy and they have plans to do more with her in new formats. People still watch on average 3
