UK soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale could well be returning to TV3 after its parent company Virgin Media bought UTV Ireland from ITV for €10 million.
TV3 had lost the two shows to UTV Ireland when the latter was launched at the start of 2015, and they proved to be the most successful shows on the fledgling channel.
Although TV3 launched Red Rock as a replacement for loosing the two established soaps to much critical acclaim, it still doesn't manage to deliver the same market share for the station so there will be huge temptation to migrate them back.
TV3 managing director Pat Kiely yesterday described the takeover as "an exciting new chapter" for the Irish television industry.
"Virgin Media’s investment in TV3 has already supported the expansion of our studio facilities and increased production," he added.
Apart from the destination of both soaps, the other burning question is whether the new owners will merge UTV Ireland with one of the existing channels in the TV3 family or will they keep the channel and rebrand it.
According to media analyst and former deputy director of news with TV3, Bob Hughes, there will be "a certain rationalisation between the three channels [TV3, 3e and UTV Ireland] but at this stage it's too early to say how that will manifest itself" .
However he dd say that if the UTV Ireland is kept on air it would be "difficult to see two newsrooms co-existing". The station's news service, which is currently anchored by Alison Comyn and Claire Brock, was instrumental in getting UTV Ireland a designation which allowed it on the Saorview platform as the former Minister Alex White deemed that it was a "television service having the character of a public service.”
