TV3 coup puts it streets ahead

Summer ended with a bang this week as a range of corporate and economic stories took centre stage.

If the Eircom a.g.m. had an air of certain chaos about it, the sudden arrival of Granada as a major shareholder in TV3 was undoubtedly the surprise package.

At a stroke, Granada has radically altered the broadcast landscape in the Republic. For the first time, TV3 can truly claim to be a challenger to the State-run RTE network. The weight and experience of Granada alone would have ensured that.

More dramatically, it has robbed RTE of the one programme with which it dominates the viewing figures - Coronation Street - and handed it to the station's commercial rival. Losing viewers is bad enough for RTE; far worse is the loss of advertising revenue that will follow those viewers.

With RTE already budgeting for a deficit and a programme schedule dependent, in large part, on programmes it will lose, it faces a turbulent autumn. TV3, for its part, must build on the success of courting Granada and winning the rights to the European Champions League soccer; it may never have a better chance to break the mould.