Virgin Media Two

3e

Country	Ireland
Ownership
Owner	TV3 Group

3e is a television service operated in Ireland by the TV3 Group. The channel operates daily between 08:45 and 01:00.

The channel launched on January 5, 2009 replacing Channel 6 (which launched on March 30, 2006). The channel targets 16 to 35 year olds with a mixture of homegrown and international programming.

The channel was the first Irish general entertainment channel not to provide news bulletins or sport; however 3e has since started to air news bulletins every hour during their prime time schedule each weekday and for the first time 3e began showing live sports in September 2009 with live coverage of the UEFA Europa League. 3e is available to more than 80% of the country through cable and satellite television, and may also be available on the new Irish digital terrestrial television system (DTT), which has yet to launch.

History

Concept

The channel's founders were a consortium that had little experience in the media, and included the Barrys family and the Gowan Group, a motor dealership chain, who between them, raised more than €14 million to fund the project. The idea behind Channel 6 was to compete with the Irish state-owned station RTÉ Two, the independent station TV3 and British networks such as Channel 4. To do so, the station focused on acquiring the rights to cult American shows such as Friends and Family Guy, and through locally produced magazine shows about music, movies and entertainment news. It also hoped the absence of any news or current affairs programming would attract younger audiences.

The channel was originally founded by a group of investors that included the Barry's Tea family and Senator Feargal Quinn, however, in July 2008, it was confirmed that Ireland's first independent broadcaster, TV3, was to buy the channel for around €10 million. The deal was given the approval of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, and was approved by the Irish Competition Authority thereafter. TV3 immediately landed itself in hot water when it set about lowering standards of home-produced broadcasts on the channel to a level similar to its own style.

In December 2008 it axed Night Shift, the popular night-time music show and Ireland's main outlet for its band's music videos. An online petition has been set up to reinstate the show in a move similar to the No Disco fiasco of the early 2000s. Channel 6's other music shows, Day Shift and Pop Scene were also cancelled with the TV3 takeover of the channel, as was the Channel 6 movie show Take 6. TV3 do not provide exclusive shows for the channel, rather it depends on repeats of Xposé and hourly TV3 News updates. After a 36% drop (1.1% to 0.7%) in audience in January 2009 the new owners have been trying to quickly relaunch the channel, they have steadily regained their audience over the course of 2009. Several changes to 3e's schedule have taken place over the course of 2009; this has led to the eventual decision to provided an extra news service on 3e, 3e News.

Launch

Channel 6 began broadcasting a preview loop on 26 March 2006 on UPC on the same day as it launched a national marketing strategy aimed at building interest in the channel ahead of its launch, and included double-page spreads across a number of national newspapers, outdoor advertising and a radio campaign.The station was officially launched on Thursday 30 March 2006 with the first programme being a mock newscast by Michelle Doherty, explaining the focus of the channel on entertainment, followed by an episode of Take Six. Despite the publicity campaign however, the launch came amid confusion among the public and those in the media sector. This was because of a number of issues, including a mix up where the station's website implied that the channel would not launch for another two weeks.

File:Ireland-channel-6.jpg

Channel 6 Logo

As well as this, the station's initial plans to take out a licence from the UK regulator, Ofcom, and to broadcast only on Sky, also posed some issues during the launch of the channel. Disputes over the positioning of the channel on Sky's EPG, meant that it was withdrawn from Sky's platform, plunging the network into a grey-area had it tried to broadcast on cable with only a UK licence. Following the dispute with Sky, Channel 6 returned its Ofcom licence and was subsequently granted one by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland to broadcast on the NTL and Chorus cable platforms. The station also faced issues in trying to get included in the TV listings of the main national newspapers, often given much less room than the other Irish channels and placed in the satellite channels section.

The station's first Managing Director was Martin Drake, who left the company after just eight months, and after a period under interim CEO Mark Kellett, the channel's top job was taken by Managing Director Michael Murphy, who later left the channel when it was fully transferred over to TV3 and integrated into the TV3 Group.

Disputes with Sky

A dispute occurred with British Sky Broadcasting over a refusal to assign Channel 6 EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) channel 106 (the position the station had on both NTL and Chorus) on its Sky system, which was used by one of its flagship channels, Sky1 or 105 (a vacant slot between TG4 and Sky One), next to the other Irish channels. Instead Sky offered to place Channel 6 in the 200s at the bottom of the entertainment category as it was a general entertainment channel, and did not carry any public service remit, this being Sky's justification for placing the four Irish terrestrial channels in positions 101-104, as (unlike NTL or Chorus) they are accountable to Ofcom in the UK rather than the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland.

The moving of Sky1 would also have been complicated further, as its sister channels Sky2 and Sky3 would also have to be reallocated to new positions. As a result, Channel 6 was launched outside of the Sky package, however, the station's low ratings led the company to accept Sky's original offer and it was placed on the EPG from 5 February 2007 at channel 223, which later moved to 190 and then moved again to 182.

On 29 September 2009 TV3 and Sky came to an agreement and from 12 October 2009 3e moved from channel 182 to channel 105 on Sky's Irish EPG. As of November 12, 2009 3e report that its viewing figures have increased since moving to Sky 105. Its audience share has increased by 25% from 0.9% to 1.1% - this brings them back to the audience Channel 6 had attend by the end of 2008. Unlike the 4 Irish terrestrial television channels 3e has not been made available on the Bonus package provide to Irish customers for channels such as RTÉ One, RTÉ Two, TV3, TG4, BBC One NI, BBC Two NI, Channel 4, E4 and More 4. 3e is only available to subscribers of the Variety package of channels.

Sale to TV3

In July 2008, the channel's owners (Kish Media) accepted a takeover bid from rival broadcaster TV3, who had been looking to expand further with the launch of the new DTT system. TV3 had made an unsuccessful bid through 'One Vision' along with Setanta Sports, Arqiva and Eircom, to operate the new DTT system, losing out to Boxer TV (Boxer TV pulled out of the DTT project and One Vision were later in discussions which also ended in April 2010 for the licence), under the proposal, the station had planned to launch two new channels: '3Xposé', a general entertainment channel based on the Xposé programme, and '3Today' a news and current affairs channel. The TV3 takeover was worth around €10 million and was subject to regulatory approval. TV3 had considered changing the format of the station, including rebranding it to make a strong connection between the two stations, as well as sharing TV rights for sporting competitions and working together on homemade productions. TV3 also moved the station's base to its headquarters at Ballymount. On 5 January 2009, Channel 6 became 3e, associating itself with its new sister station.

It was reported on 24 July 2009 that the TV3 Group sought to change 3e's licensing from the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland. On 29 July 2009 the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland announced that the 3e licence would be licensed under Section 34, rather than Sections 36 and 41, of the Broadcasting Act 2001. This means that 3e is no longer a separate cable and satellite service rather it will be covered by the main terms and conditions of the existing TV3 contract.

In 2010 3e's parent company recorded losses at the station during 2009. A pretax loss of €5million was reported to the Irish Company Registrars Office (CRO). Kish Media will not look to recoup their €14.5million investment until such time as the channel begins to make profits and when all liabilities at the station are paid as they fall due. It is expected that the channel will move into profit in 2010, however the downturn in the Irish market and falling advertising rates did cause the channel problems during 2009. Revenue was down in 2008 from 2007, while expenses during 2008 had be reduced slightly.

Programming

In 2009 several rearrangements of the 3e schedule occurred - as it re-branded from Channel 6 - including showing repeats of Xpose and Emmerdale straight after TV3, followed by putting Xpose on at 17:30 instead of 18:30 and removing repeat showings ofEmmerdale and replacing them with repeat showings of Coronation Street. Each of the changes failed to ignite 3e audience share, at first a small drop was seen. As you can see Xpose was returned to 18:30, while a Coronation Street omnibus was on a Sunday afternoon, however ultimately both ITV soaps were dropped from the schedule.

Homegrown

As Channel 6 the channel produced several shows to compete with both RTÉ Two's and TV3's youth orientated programming, such as, Cois Farraige an Irish surfing and surf culture show hosted by Jenny Buckley , Access Hollywood also hosted by Jenny Buckley, Day Shift a weekend morning music show, Game On a video games show, Night Shift a late night interactive music show hosted by Michelle Doherty, Quiz 6 a phone-in quiz show, where viewers could answer on screen puzzles to win cash and Take Six a movie show hosted by Elisa Jones, Sean Musanje and Serena Bellissimo. Channel 6 had cancelled all but Day Shift, Night Shift, Pop Scene and Take 6 by the time TV3 had bought the station. TV3 cancelled all of the remaining Channel 6 programmes as they relaunch the channel as 3e.

With the relaunch of the channel to 3e the Channel 6 programming was replaced by repeats of TV3's Xposé, XposéXTRA and The Holiday Show. Towards the end of 2009 TV3 began to produce more programming Xccelerate a weekly motoring show for 3e, produced by City Productions for TV3.

In 2010 TV3 will bring their mix of homegrown morning shows to the channel as repeats. Ireland AM will be repeated on 3e each morning at 10:15, The Morning Show will be repeated the following morning on 3e at 09:25 and Midday will be repeated the following morning on 3e at 08:35.

News and sports

Although designed as an entertainment channel, 3e started broadcasting news updates shortly after the station rebranded to 3e. 3e News Update is a minute long news broadcast from TV3 News. 3e News Update broadcasts Monday to Friday at 18:59, 19:59, 20:59, and 21:59. The News Updates were presented by TV3 News presenters.

Since September 2009 TV3 Sport has provided live coverage of the UEFA Europa League (formerly the UEFA Cup) on 3e, the Irish rights for which TV3 shares with Setanta Ireland.

CEO of the TV3 Group David McRedmond revealed in an interview with Hot Press on Thursday, October 8, 2009 that 3e would produce a new news programme targeting a demographic between 15 to 34 years of age. The show will air every evening and it is expected to start broadcasting at the end of October 2009, however the show's launch was put back until the end of November 2009.

3e News began broadcasting November 23, 2009 at 18:00. It broadcasts Monday to Friday each week. The main news anchor is Caroline Twohig, The sports anchor is Paul Walsh and the cyber reporter is Cassie Stokes. 3e News is to be renamed as FYI(Fresh Young Independent) from March 10, 2010. The show's presenters remain on in their current roles and the format of an Interactive news aimed at the 15 to 35 year old age group remains. 3e News Update has been replaced with FYI. Update at 7:58, FYI. Online at 8:58 and FYI. Download at 9:58.

Imports

As Channel 6 the channel launched several new high profiled US serials including Heroes, House, Rachel Ray, My Name is Earl, American Dad, Dexter, Family Guy and The Closer however due to the channels lack of coverage it was unable to launch these serials to Irish Audiences. Other high profiled well known serials were bought in the hope that they would help launch the channel to viewers used to shows like CSI, Fraiser, Friends, Sex and the City, Scrubs, The Sopranos, Swingtown and The Wire.

With the take over of the channel by TV3 and its relaunch to 3e they have been able to add some of TV3's imports to their service including the ITV package of shows used by TV3 and other late night shows such as Jimmy Kimmel Live! and the first series of In Treatment. TV3 have since moved most of their American shows to the channel tending to show ITV programming or imported documentaries on TV3.

In mid-2009 Jimmy Kimmel Live stopped broadcasting on the channel. The latest US import to be broadcast on 3e is the comedy-musical Glee, which has its first showing every Friday night at 21:00 on 3e before TV3 on Wednesday Night. The Cleveland Show now broadcasts along side Family Guy and American Dad. The second season of In Treatment has yet to be aired on the channel. Documentaries from ITV such as Britain's Youngest Boozers and Addicted to Boob Jobs are now broadcast on the channel, as well as repeats of I'm a Celebrity...., Dancing on Ice, X-Factor, Xtra-Factor and Britain's Got Talent as they air on TV3. 3e will simulcast Five's new reality TV series Don't Stop Believing.

Basic 3e schedule

	Hours	Programme Type
Early Morning	05:00 - 08:00	The Morning Show/ Teleshopping
Morning	08:00 - 12:00	TV3's Ireland AM / The Morning Show / Midday
Daytime	12:00 - 17:00	US & UK Daytime Chat Shows
	17:00 - 18:00	US Sitcoms
Prime Time	18:00 - 19:00	FYI / Xpose
	19:00 - 21:00	ITV / TV3 Reality TV Repeats
	21:00 - 23:00	US Programming such as Family Guy / American Dad
Late Night	23:00 - 05:00	Teleshopping / US TV

On air identification

March 2006 to Present

Channel 6 launched it first set of idents in March 2006 and they remained on the channel up to December 2008 with the re-brand of the channel. The presentation package was produced by Cleverality. There were several indents during this period. The 'blue dot' in the center of the six would be transformed from a symbol representing entertainment into the 'blue dot'. Examples of those symbols include, the masks for drama and comedy, film reels, a television set etc.

January 2009 to Present

Channel 6 was rebranded 3e in January 2009. The new idents were made by Dublin based 'Image Now'. The 3e idents consists of the 'e' bouncing around the screen next to the '3' , one is generic while the other one has the 'e' in flames trying to put them out. A third ident was added in October 2009 for use before soccer matches, it shows the 'e' kicking a football against the '3'. A fourth ident was added in October 2010, which features the e slipping on a banana skin as a pie and rake hits it.

Christmas idents

During the Channel 6 era the 'blue dot' would turn from a Christmas figure - such as snowmen, mistletoe and holly - into the 'blue dot'.

3e's Christmas idents were made in-house at TV3. Three idents were introduced 'Missletoe', 'Snowballs' and 'Lights' The new idents were first show on Saturday 19 December.

See also

• TV3
• Media in Ireland
• List of Irish television channels

External links

• 3e website
• 3e @ Twitter