[quote=irishmikee;76275236]
Originally Posted by chinamug:
“. If we assume that their News Show at ten gets 140,000 (which would be conservative SKY NEWS Ireland which was only in 60% of houses was bringing in 135,000 Avg for it's 10.00pm Bulletin in 2006 and had far less resources)
This is not true. sky news ireland launched with 35,000 and quickly dropped down to average 12,000 - 20,000 before being removed from the schedule within the year.
UTVI face an uphill struggle to get viewers into this news slot. I think your 140,000 over the long term will be well off the mark. TV3 used to do a nightly news but couldn't sustain it, due to low viewing figures and it was a decent effort on their part, especially their sport coverage on the news.”
In fact Sky was getting an Average of 135,000 in October 2006 and 65,000 for it's earlier News Bulletin. No matter what you think of Sky they gave it a chance to succeed. (However many of the Staff would possibly disagree with that)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_News_Ireland
TV3 Didn't Drop the Nightly News at the time because of Low viewing figures, they Morphed it into Vincent Browne who they had signed up. When He came along figures picked up. He Regularly gets 140,000 at 11pm at Night which when you consider the time is very respectable. Plus his show starts cold, often with the show before it having a totally different audience.
So UTV Ireland expecting 140,000 or More at 10pm (especially if it's a decent bulletin) is more than realistic.
Also you have to consider the reasons that UTV started in the south, If they're not going to get figures like 140,000 for the 10pm bulletin or more for certain other shows they won't make money and the station will close.
As for TV3 ditching it's late night sports bulletin, that was a major fault. but they couldn't afford to broadcast it and Vincent. Ratings wise it also did well for the 11.30 slot.
Plus don't forget their Quiz and Psychics had to start at 12 on the dot.