The announcement that Granada Media, the dominant player in Britain's independent television sector, is to take a 45 per cent stake in TV3 will be greeted with delight by the new station - and something akin to dismay in Montrose. What's good for the shiny, new but narrowly focused upstart is bad for the slightly greying crew at RTE, struggling to fend off attacks from all sides.
The immediate impact of yesterday's announcement by Granada and TV3 will be a boost to the morale of the two year old Irish station, the only independent television broadcaster in the State. Since its launch in September 1998, TV3 has quietly been carving out an audience for itself and currently claims to have a market share of just under 10 per cent of viewers - a creditable performance.
The business of a privately-owned TV station is to make money by attracting, and keeping, viewers. The Granada deal is designed to help TV3 to boost its ratings. An early indication of what viewers can expect is the departure from RTE of the Granada-owned Coronation Street, the most popular programme on Irish television. And because it will have access to the vast stable of other Granada programmes (past and present), TV3 may be expected shortly to dangle before the Irish public such attractions as Stars in their Eyes and Blind Date.
While they may not overly tax the intellect, such programmes are proven audience-grabbers - all of which serves to underline what this deal is not about. There is merely a passing and rather woolly reference to Granada and TV3's other substantive owner, CanWest, setting up an "initiative in Ireland to encourage co-productions with local television production companies". This, set beside less than riveting news and current affairs, brings the whole picture into sharper focus: TV3 is offering a diet of soaps and light entertainment shows that owes much in origin to England's end of pier music hall tradition, combined with a steady flow of low cost US movies.
The mix has worked elsewhere and there is little reason to doubt but that it will work well enough here to allow TV3 prosper and grow. RTE, meanwhile, must continue to fight its corner with an often conflicting remit to make money while simultaneously fulfilling a public service broadcasting agenda. RTE currently runs three television stations - RTE1, Network 2 and TG4 - together with four radio stations - Radio One, 2FM, Lyric FM and Radio na Gaeltachta - and it must also maintain a transmission network. RTE is, and must be, the national broadcaster - with all the responsibilities and duties this implies. The pressures bearing down on RTE seem destined to increase and call for more imaginative - and daring - responses from the station than to date.
Last week, RTE management reported a loss of £16.6 million for 1999, projected a loss of some £12 million for this year and more of the same until 2002 at least. And all this on top of guaranteed licence fee revenue of £65 million - accounting for some 36 per cent of the station's overall revenue. RTE management is now seeking a substantial licence fee increase and will argue than Granada's move into TV3 makes this all the more urgent.
Part of RTE's problem is that it is facing into ever quickening competition - the onslaught from satellite and digital television is radically altering viewer choice and hence viewing habits - without the means to fight back. Had Granada, for instance, sought a strategic partnership with RTE on a basis similar to their new relationship with TV3, it could not have come about. Why? Because RTE is not in a position to share its equity. If the Government wants public service broadcasting to survive - and it ought - it will have to move with greater dispatch to give the national broadcaster the means not just to compete, but perhaps ultimately to survive.