UTV IRELAND WILL air its final live news programme from its Dublin studio this evening.
The channel, which was launched in January 2015, was recently taken over by Virgin Media and will be replaced from Monday with a new “female orientated” channel called Be3.
The move has resulted in a number of job losses for UTV Ireland staff. As the team prepared for the final live broadcast of its news programme Ireland Live this week, one employee told TheJournal.ie there is a “morale deficit” in the newsroom.
“Most of the people left behind haven’t been offered jobs, but we still have to put out the show,” they said.
“The atmosphere has been different, but everybody is still doing the job and doing it well.”
Ireland Live’s final broadcast will air at 5.30pm this evening. The newsroom and studio at Macken House is expected to be stripped over the weekend.
The relaunch of the channel is part of a TV3 rebrand, which will see 3e become the “fun” channel, while a centralised news hub will deliver increased current affairs content across all three channels.
The new Be3 channel which will replace UTV Ireland will be female focused and will show second viewings of the soaps, as well as shows such as Midsomer Murders, Loose Women and Benidorm.
Children’s programming will also move to the new station.
Though the last live broadcast from Dublin will air this evening, normal scheduled programming for UTV Ireland will continue up until the official Be3 changeover at 7am on Monday.
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