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UTV IRELAND HAS officially become part of TV3, with the loss of some jobs expected as a result.
Irish commercial broadcaster TV3 – which is owned by Virgin Media – announced today that it has officially completed the acquisition of UTV Ireland.
It is expected that there will be some jobs losses at the network as a result of the merger.
UTV Ireland currently employs 61 permanent staff.
In a statement today, Virgin Media announced a “restructuring programme” around consolidating the two businesses into one.
It said it has 40 open job vacancies at TV3, “many of which it is hoped will be filled by current UTV Ireland staff”.
“The proposed changes may result in unavoidable redundancies in UTV Ireland,” a Virgin Media Spokesperson said.
But where possible, staff will be offered redeployment opportunities within TV3.
The company will enter into a 30 day consultation period with effect from 5 December.
UTV Ireland will become part will rebrand and become part of Virgin Media’s Irish broadcast operation by the end of January, joining TV3 and 3e.
As a result of the merger, UTV Ireland will move from its base at Macken House in Dublin 1 to TV3 HQ in Ballymount.
Today’s merger announcement was preceded by a confirmation last week that leading primetime soaps Emmerdale and Coronation Street will be returning to TV3 from UTV Ireland as a result.
Redundancies
Commenting on the merger, Seamus Dooley, Irish secretary of the National Union of Journalists, said that he hoped Virgin Media would honour its “moral obligation” and offer redundancy packages to UTV Ireland staff who lose their jobs as a result.
“We would hope that the company would meet a moral obligation,” Dooley told TheJournal.ie.
That anyone who loses their job as a result is offered a redundancy package or a transfer.
Dooley said that the merger between the two broadcasters arose out of a transfer of shares and so employee rights aren’t protected under current laws.
The law which protects employees when companies merge (known as TUPE) does not apply when a transfer of shares take place.
It is unclear at this stage whether UTV Ireland employees who lose their jobs will be awarded redundancy packages following the merger.
Dooley said the NUJ was calling on Virgin Media to “do the right thing” and ensure that redundancies are offered, and that anyone reemployed by TV3 doesn’t suffer diminished working conditions.
“We call on employer to honour the agreement, do the decent thing and ensure that people that transfer over don’t suffer diminished conditions,” he said.
When asked whether it would be providing redundancy packages to UTV Ireland staff, a spokesperson for Virgin Media said it will “not be disclosing any detail regarding our discussions with staff at UTV Ireland at this time”.
Dooley encouraged any members of UTV Ireland to contact the NUJ if they had concerns.
Struggle
From its inception in January 2015, UTV Ireland struggled to compete for ratings with established broadcasters RTÉ and TV3.
UTV Media which owned the station said last November it expected to lose €18.4 million on the station in its first year.
That trading update came a month after it was announced the company was selling its entire TV operation to ITV, including its long-running Northern Ireland-based service.
It was announced in July that the station was to be sold to Virgin Media for the price tag of about €10 million.
Commenting today on the acquisition, Pat Kiely, managing director of TV3 said that it “strengthens independent television broadcasting in Ireland”.
“We can now also play an increasingly bigger role in the development of Irish originated production and broadcasting.
I am confident that our new three channel structure will drive the future potential and long term growth of the business.
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I feel bad for people losing their jobs but this is the least surprising news ever. The only bit i of a surprise is that it lasted this long.
And so concludes the worst idea in Irish television history…
You forgot about Channel 6.
Channel 6 was actually a decent idea, a channel aimed primarily at a young adult audience. The problem was when it got taken over by TV3 and turned into 3e. They could easily have kept it the way it was but no instead of looking at Michelle Doherty showing decent music videos there was yet more Ant & Dec with X factor loonies
One island two UTV’s
A endless farce.
Does this mean that the real ITV/Ulster TV will be available to Irish viewers again?
@Carm(Orange Vampire): There’s no legal obligation on TV carriers in Ireland to carry any of the ITV franchises so it’s probably not going to happen. In any case the ITV shows licenced to the TV3 group would be liable to geo locking; that would make it as good as a non option to carry UTV/ITV here so all you’d get is Julian or Good Evening Ulster. Certainly Virgin Media would have no incentive to carry it, they being its opposition.
@David Walsh: Didn’t the EU just pass a bill that ends geoblocking within the EU?
Julian on camera is no longer on the air. He does prerecorded voice overs controlled by ITV HQ. Changed a couple of weeks ago.
UTV will never be on Virgin again. Why would Virgin have a competitor showing the same rubbish stuff on their rubbish channels
@Seán J. Troy:
1) It is only a draft resolution and not a law as of yet
2) It excludes copyright protected services; this included media and broadcasting.
3) UK will soon be outside of the EU and not regulated by EU laws.
Created to fail. Somethings just don’t work.
So will it stay on as a third TV3 channel or be wound up altogether? If it’s wound up will we be getting UTV NI back in its place?
UTVNITV3
@Paul Furey: I heard of that one, it’s a an African rebel group.
@,Seán the geoblocking thing was more about making sure that your can access your Irish Netflix or Sky on demand content while temporarily visiting another EU country
Great – even more Jeremy Kyle repeats!
A few years back TV3 had plans to start 3 classics 3 kids 3 sports and TV3+1 and a Sony HD Studio they commenced the Studios but scrapped the extra channels so maybe now they’ll rebrand UTV to 3 Classics or 3 sports.
It would be very interesting to see what a TV3 “cassic” is. Perhaps a selection of Vincent Brown’s crankiest episodes?
UTV Ireland didn’t serve the deaf & hard of hearing community well because when it was first launched, there were no subtitles to be had at the time. Glad to see this god-awful channel go because of endless repeats as well!
What?
That is not the fault of the TV station rather a fault in Ireland not having ‘CC’ services like they have in Canada and the U.S.A. CC = closed captioning. The technology is out there. Ireland just lags behind in using it.
This is very disappointing. Now I won’t be able to use utv Ireland player. It had most of the stuff available on itv.
TV3 own a lot of those programmes rights for the next ten years as part of the deal so they’ll put them somewhere.
All I say is I wish TV3 the best of luck with the 3 channels, whatever we might say. I only wish they would upgrade their picture quality on saorview especially for large screen tvs, the same applies to TG4.
If you want UTV, get FREEVIEW Ireland via satellite. Best thing going. Pay for set up or DIY and NO fees afterward.
You’re getting mixed up with FREESAT. Freevirw is the terrestrial TV service. Both of which are miles better than saorview.
both Saorview and Freeview into a single Digital Terrestrial Receiver allowing you to receive all the Free UK & Irish Digital TV Channels on a single box.
@John Flood: you’re still missing Shane’s point. You can’t get “Freeview” here that’s only available within the bounds of the UK. What we can get is “Freesat”. The only reason we have it at all is that the satellites have to cover all of the UK and can’t do that without also covering Ireland.
Also available for the few percent of Irish homes that can’t get “Saorview” is “Saorsat” with RTÉ 1, RTÉ 2 and TG4 only, no purely commercial telly.
I just cut n pasted text from my owners manual. Apparently not all of Ireland can receive the FTA channels of the satellite. I’m in Wicklow, my friend in Cork can’t get same.
@Dónal O’Flynn: there are plans on the cards to make most of the Freeview channels available to Saorview customers.
@David Walsh:
Is this what you’re referring to?
TV3 2? I don’t think so.
@Paddy Flynn: 3ee more like
This is a sad day for freedom of the press, steps towards democracy and the people who will loose their jobs. Ireland is large enough to support Three tv stations. Rte should loose RTE2 and save tax payers money. #SadDay #UTVIreland
From TV 3 Ah well we can get rid of all the people who kept us alive for months but now we have Emmerdale and Corrie dory guys we don’t meed you. Bye bye.
And the fat cats get fatter.
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