You know what to expect with Pat Kenny, so VB will have to up his game, given that his rival will be on earlier. As for the news bulletins, that's always been a UTV strong point North of the Border, impossible to capture the brand strength of Six-One or the Nine O'Clock News, but TV3 just do the bare minimum in that regard.

On eVision, channel 108 has kicked in, mostly a rotating UTV logo with little in the way of promos. UTV Ireland HD will be on 120, but idiotically, it's only available as an add-on, when the two RTE and TG4 HD channels are free!

Promos on UTVI are stunning in HD .. TV3 take note!

The programming will be the same boring old ITV shite in SD or HD

ITV shite is better than RTE/TV3 shite though 😃

Seriously though UTV Ireland will hurt both RTE & TV3 commercialy as I suspect advertisers may be drawn to the fledgling channel as its rates are apparently less than the other two.

With just ITV programming UTVI wont come next to near RTÉ's overall dominance - RTÉ News and Current Affairs are though facing their biggest threat possibly ever and will have to up their game accordingly. TV3 never did good news and their output now is just embarrassing for a PSB.

For UTVI to properly compete they will need Irish homegrown content - Just look at RTÉ One's top 10 of 2014 ... if UTVI could even get close to that list it would be a massive achievement -

1. The Late Late Toy Show - 1.357m
2. Love/Hate - 1.005m
3. Love/Hate - 976k
4. Love/Hate - 962k
5. Love/Hate - 880k
6. Love/Hate - 852k
7. The Sunday Game Live - 784k
8. Amber - 779k
9. Love/Hate - 769k
10. Amber - 732k

Remember Rte wont have love/hate next year

The ratings would say that is bollocks.

Actually that's not the case. If you take week to week viewership the top ITV programmes are very popular in Ireland. (always have been) Obviously RTE1 and it's home produced shows would mostly come first but ITV programmes would beat almost anything RTE 2 is showing and TV3 own produced stuff. Now that UTV Ireland is on air there will be far less leakage of Viewers to UTV Ulster. With the audience not devided, you'll likely to see Coronation Street as the most watched Soap and ITV progammes in the top twenty Irish watched programmes every week.

Even Right Now as of last week without that boost 5 of the 20 most Watched Programmes in Ireland were UK shows, (6 if you count Mrs Brown which is filmed in Glasgow, a BBC production with very weak RTE links) Give it 12 months for the figures to settle down and it'll be half and Half.

Bizarrely this should work in TV3's favour at certain times.

Weak RTÉ links? RTÉ co produce it. They even air it before the BBC.

1. RTE regularly do this when they are shows such as Mrs Brown, they put in some money (usually 10 percent of budget but it has been known to be less) They then become a co-producer. It gives them certain rights to the show, for example to be able to show it before BBC 1. RTE have very little input to Mrs Browne as such. The Same could be said of The Fall which was almost entirely a BBC production but RTE had a claim as a co-producer because of a limited amount of money put in. Lets be frank, there was no sign of a Mrs Browne TV Show until the BBC showed an interest.

2. RTE have been known to show Eastenders before BBC in the past, (usually when BBC was running late for some reason). Eastenders in the past used to start on RTE a few minutes before BBC almost all the time, (I haven't checked recently)

This xmas day Mrs Brown is only airing 5mins earlier on rte at 10pm BBC 1 is airing it from 10.05

And the new year special is airing on new years eve on RTÉ and new years day on BBC ONE, a full 24 hrs beforehand.

This is something that RTE has always done with all kinds of programmes. It was normal in the 70's and the 80's for RTE to Claim the European Premier for the likes of Dallas and Dynasty. It's the same with films and shows around Christmas, they always tend to go out on RTE ahead of BBC and ITV so that RTE keeps viewers.

What will TV3 be showing now the UTVI will be showing Corrie and other things that TV3 used to show?

Nobody really knows yet how TV3's schedule will pan out - they will struggle big time without the big ITV soaps though ... if UTVI give Ireland a real go then TV3 could very well be in trouble.

They had the European premiere of Lost and Desperate Housewives too - because RTÉ is encrypted then it only makes sense for them to broadcast shows first.

This is a very fair point. Realistically RTE1 has a very unique selling point and isn't likely to suffer from UTVI. In fact RTE were competing for decades with UTV and it's shows long before TV3 came along. TV3 on the other hand have written the handbook on how not to run a TV station. There really is only room in the Irish Market for 2 big broadcasters, the problem TV3 have is that UTV have most of the ITV programmes and also are probably willing to wait 3 or more years to get the station just right for the market. TV3 have a matter of months and maybe a year at best to get their act together.

Not starting their new evening Lifestyle show from the 5th of January is another huge mistake.

I'm actually surprised that TV3 didn't do a deal with UTV to sell them all their assets such as studios, offices, etc. It'll end one of two ways for TV3 - they'll either rebrand and reinvent themselves, e.g. as an Irish C4/C5 equivalent with films and good import series or there'll be a slow and terminal decline .

Well TV3 have very little to offer any buyer at this stage. If someone is serious about starting a station in the Irish Market, they can go ahead and do so without buying TV3. That way they can make a clean start without debts and frankly a very poor brand.

There probably is room in the Market for a different type of station but TV3 have always been obsessed with the typical ITV viewer. Even after losing the soaps and a lot of the shows they're still going after the same people. Why not go News and current affairs between 7 and 9 which no one else in the Irish Market is doing. Vincent Browne gets some of their best figures outside of ITV shows and he's on at 11. Move him to 8 and see what happens.

I don't think there will be a slow decline, it will be sudden and quick if they do close. I remember Century Radio closing with a few minutes notice to listeners and Staff. If TV3 starts losing lots of money next year and there's no sign of a buyer I don't think their current owners will have much of a problem pulling the plug.

It will be interesting to see what TV3 retains from itv. They lose corrie and emmerdale immediately. However they will continue broadcasting the chase, the cube, tipping point, family fortunes, Mr and Mrs, Ant and Dec's sat night takeaway. I don't know how long this deal runs for. They have the rest of the current series of Graham Norton (bbc one), but utv ire have bought the irish rights to that from the next series. No real clarity on how TV3's schedule will pann out. They really need another soap. They may try and give Hollyoaks another go, but that flopped big time last time they showed it. I wouldn't be surprised if they try and pull a coup on RTE and get the two aussie soaps. That would provide them with an awful lot of broadcasting material and fill their schedule up a good bit.

The Chase, The Cube and Saturday Night Takeaway are all advertised on the UTVI site so either the contract is already up or runs out early in the New Year if they are advertising them now

Yes, "The Chase" is on UTV I January 2nd, so presumably it's on the channel straight away.

This time next week the people of Ireland will be sitting down watching there newest TV channel.

So it was difficult but I have found the schedule for day 3 of utv Ireland. Here is the schedule for the channels first 3 days.

Day 1 - Thursday 1st January 2015

7.25 pm Welcome to UTV
7.30 Emmerdale
8.30 Pat Kenny: Out with the Old - In with the U
9.30 Film - When the Sky Falls
11.30 A night with Olly Murs
12.30 am Teleshopping

Day 2 - Friday 2nd January 2015

6:30 am Teleshopping
7:30 Loose Women
8:25 60 Minute Makeover
9:25 The Jeremy Kyle Show
10:25 Judge Rinder
11:25 Who's doing the Dishes?
12:25 pm Loose Women
1:20 The Jeremy Kyle Show
2:25 FILM: On Golden Pond (1981)
4:30 The Chase
5:30 Lesser Spotted Journeys
6:00 Westlife: For The Last Time
7:00 Emmerdale
7:30 Coronation Street
8:00 James Nesbitt's Ireland
8:30 Coronation Street
9:00 FILM: Far and Away (1992)
11:30 Bette Midler: One Night Only
12:30 am Teleshopping

Day 3 - Saturday 3rd January 2015

6.30 am Teleshopping
7.30 60 minute makeover
8.30 60 minute makeover
9.25 The Jeremy Kyle Show USA
10.20 Judge Rinder
11.20 UTV Ireland Weather
11.25 Ejector Seat
12.25 pm The Chase
1.25 Who's Doing the Dishes?
2.25 Emmerdale
2.55 Emmerdale
3.25 Emmerdale
3.55 Whale Rider
6.00 Peter Pan Live
9.00 The Cube
10.00 Darcy Oake: Edge of Reality
11.00 An Audience with Joan Rivers