UTV Ireland set for rebrand

ITV soap opera Coronation Street will return to TV3

UTV Ireland is to rebrand as a female-skewing channel from next month as part of a “three-channel strategy” at commercial broadcaster TV3.

The channel, to be renamed be3, will offer drama and soap repeats and three hours of children’s programming daily.

TV3 will remain the group’s flagship channel, focusing on premium Irish content as well as acquired programming, while 3e will target 15-44s.

Liberty Global subsidiary Virgin, which owns TV3, received regulatory and competition approval to acquire UTV Ireland from ITV for €10m (US$11m) last month. TV3 told C21 recently that UTV Ireland would become part of a “three-channel business” after the merger.

It was announced in November that UK soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale would be returning to TV3 as part of the deal.

Bill Malone, TV3’s recently appointed group director of programming, said: ”Our commitment to Irish programming is clearly evident – we are now an Irish broadcaster of scale.”

UTV Ireland had lost money and audience share since its launch in January 2015.