TV3

TV3 is a privately owned free-to-air television network operated within the Republic of Ireland. The channel is owned by Tullamore Beta Ltd. a subsidiary of Doughty Hanson & Co. The channel launched on 20 September 20 1998 becoming the country's first commercial broadcaster. As of 2011, TV3 is the second most watched channel in the Republic of Ireland competing with RTÉ Television's RTÉ One for the title of Ireland's most watched channel.

The TV3 Group
The TV3 Group was established in January 2009. The network operates TV3 and its sister channel 3e and its online service tv3.ie. The networks studios is located at Ballymount, Dublin. TV3 was initially the first channel from the network launched in 1998. The network expanded in 2008 when TV3 purchased rival channel Channel 6 and rebranded the channel in January 2009 as 3e. In November 2008, tv3.ie website was rebranded, with the intention to develop it into an entertainment portal. Catch up facilities, as well as exclusive content is available for TV3 programming as are news, weather, sport and entertainment updates. In October 2011, 3Player a video-on-demand service was launched.

Initial idea and setbacks
TV3, which was intended to be Ireland's third terrestrial channel, took almost ten years to bring from initial planning to debut. In October 1988 the Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC) was created to regulate new independent stations. The original TV3 licence to broadcast was granted in 1990 to a consortium including members of U2 and the owner of the Windmill Lane Studios where the group had made many of their records. Initially it was envisaged that the station would only broadcast on cable and MMDS but it was later decided that the station should broadcast on terrestrial UHF also. Because of delays in setting up the station, the licence was revoked by the IRTC. After a court battle, the licence was eventually restored in 1993.



At this stage, an agreement was made to sell 49% of the company to UTV, the ITV franchise in Northern Ireland, to raise much-needed cash for investment in facilities. However, as TV3 were trying to convince Irish cable and MMDS carriers to replace UTV with their channel, the new shareholders pulled out in 1995. Given that UTV had the third largest audience in the Republic, the carriers declined to drop them in favour of TV3. The result was that the project was on hold again. In 1997, CanWest, decided to step in and buy a major stake in the new company.

Launch and development
TV3 finally took to the air on 20 September 1998 at 17:30. A preview of the station's programming formed the first half-hour of transmissions, followed by the first TV3 News at 18:00. TV3 was the fourth national station to be launched in Ireland; after RTÉ One in 1961 (as Teilifís Éireann), RTÉ Two in 1978 and TG4 in 1996 (as TnaG). It was the first Irish station which was not publicly funded.

TV3's initial on-air branding referred to the station as 'tvthree', although this was part of the corporate logo up to 2009 it was dropped from their on-screen brand in 2001. The Schoolhouse Rock! song, "Three Is A Magic Number", was the station's theme tune, played every day during start-up and close-down.

In September 2000, Granada Media plc (a predecessor company of ITV plc which then owned six ITV franchises) agreed to acquire 45% of the company from the original TV3 consortium. This was part of deal which gave TV3 the right to simulcast with ITV certain Granada programming. The Granada plc shareholding was taken over by ITV plc upon the merger of Granada with Carlton on 2 February 2004.

In early 2001, the station officially launched threetext, the teletext service, much of the content from Thomas Crosbie Media. Test transmissions of this service commenced in late 2000, but as early as 1999 limited programming content was provided. However, in 2004, the news and sports were dropped as part of a rebranding to an 'entertainment portal'.

On 16 January 2006, Canwest announced to TV3 staff, that it was selling its stake in the channel, in an effort to reduce its debt, resulting in it leaving the European market. A purchaser for this stake for (for €103 million), rights to buy ITV Plc's stake (for €103 million), and the remaining 10% (for €59 million) was announced on 19 May as Doughty Hanson & Co, a venture capital firm.

It was later confirmed that ITVplc would also sell its share.

The channel began broadcasting in widescreen format on Sky Ireland from 6 March 2006 and subsequently on UPC in 2007.

In July 2008 TV3 bought rival Irish Broadcaster Channel 6 and in January 2009 rebranded the channel as 3e, in line with it main service TV3.

In January 2009 TV3 relaunched under the corporate name of The TV3 Group (Officially they remain TV3 Television Network Limited). The TV3 Group consists of TV3, 3e and tv3.i.e.

TV3 also sought a Radio licence from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) for a Multicity service, known as More FM the service was aimed at an over 45 age group, the licence was won by 4FM, TV3 have not sought to enter the radio market since.

Analogue terrestrial television
Upon its launch in 1998, TV3 utilized the existing RTÉNL main transmitter masts around the country. It also utilizes three relay services located in Cork City and Limerick City. Availability of TV3 in some rural areas has been limited as TV3 have failed to invest in relay stations for most notably in County Donegal, County Kerry and County Cork. Many rural areas are reliant on satellite reception to receive TV3 via Sky Ireland, this option requires a subscription service. Effectively, TV3 is now available to 98% of homes through Saorview and Saorsat. Similar to other broadcasters in Europe, TV3 will cease broadcasting on analogue from December 2012 or thereafter.

Digital terrestrial television
In 29 October 2010, as Ireland moved towards full integration of digital terrestrial television through Saorview. Both TV3 and its sister channel 3e have been available on test trials of Saorview since 29 October 2010. As of May 2011, both channels are now available to 98% of the population.

Between 2008 and 2010, with the development of digital terrestrial television (dtt) within Ireland. The TV3 Group had ambitions to play a significant role in helping to develop the pay television element of DTT in Ireland. TV3 Group helped to shape a consortium known as One Vision (DTT) which was also made up of Arqiva, Eircom and Setanta Sports. OneVision submitted its proposal to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (then the BCI). Initially, Onevision was unsuccessful at gaining the opportunity to operate the pay television element of Ireland's national DTT service. Negotiations between Boxer TV and BCI failed and on 1 May 2009 Fintan Drury, chairperson of the OneVision consortium announced that OneVision was to enter negotiations with the BCI with the view to take over operations of the pay DTT service. It was later confirmed on 29 April 2010 that the consortium had pulled out of negotiations with the BAI. As of 2011, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland have restarted negotiations to find a suitable service provider for the forthcoming pay DTT service. This service is not expected to launch until late 2012 or thereafter.

TV3 iPhone app
On Friday, 24 September 2010 TV3 launched its iPhone application. The service is free to download and offers TV3 viewers the opportunity to watch TV3 content including news, showbiz and sport. It also supplies audiences with an on-demand catch-up service which allows its viewers to watch streamed content.

3Player
TV3's Video on Demand (VOD) relaunched on Saturday, 8 October 2011. 3Player replaces the original TV3 Catch-Up service previously available at tv3.ie and through its iPhone/iPad app. The new service was revealed at a press call on Friday, 7 October 2011. It is estimated by the TV3 Group that the service will be worth about €7.5 million by 2015. 3Player is in HTML5 format which makes it available on the majority of operating systems.

Future
In 2011 TV3 proposed 3 new services and a HD version of TV3 to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. 3KIDS a children's service for the over 6s, which is to timeshare with 3CLASSICS a documentary and rerun service. They have also suggested a timeshift channel known as TV3+1. The BAI have suggested that these channel will begin broadcasting closer to (or after) analogue switch off in October 2012, TV3 suggested a launch in September 2012.

TV3 Group initially proposed to launch two channels to appear on the OneVision pay television service. These channels included a news and current affairs channel called 3TODAY and a channel skewed towards women called 3XPOSÉ /. Onevision withdrew from offering the pay television element to Ireland's digital terrestrial television Saorview after negotiations with the BAI failed due to difficulties with the terms of RTÉ NL apparently regarding multiplexing, marketing for DTT and other issues. The 3Today service was expected to appear on the Onevision DTT service. The channel was expected to air both Irish and international bespoke programing in current affairs as well as drama, comedy and documentary titles from some of the world’s best producers.

As of August 2011, it has now emerged that TV3 propose to launch three new channels in late 2012, which vary from their original plans. The first channel is TV3 HD which will air TV3 content in high-definition. TV3 confirmed its plan to build a new HD studio in 2011. The new studio will be used to provide new programming in HD and it will also allow independent companies to make use of the new studios also., TV3+1 which will act as a timeshift channel to TV3. 3 Kids which will air programming aimed at 4-12 year olds and 3 Classics a channel which focuses on Irish documentaries and film. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland suggests that these channels will launch in October 2012 before ASO/DSO takes place.

As of July 2012, the TV3 Group have confirmed a restructuring programme. It has confirmed that the sales and advertising department has moved to Setanta. It also confirmed it will revamp the TV3 website (www.tv3.ie) in the autumn along with a new schedule and a revamped TV3 News. Its €5 million HD studio has been completed and the television network has increased it's spending on new broadcasting technologies. The company is currently in negotiations with US on-demand player Roku to broadcast TV3 programming for people living in the US. TV3 Group also anticipate the launch of a female skewed website based on the Xpose brand.

TV3 will confirm its autumn 2012 schedule at a special press release on 24 August 2012

Broadcasting policy
TV3 broadcasts a wide range of programming which in its early years depended heavily on international acquisitions. In 2008, the TV3 Group produced a three-year strategy to increase the amount of homegrown productions on the channel. Under their contract with the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland(BCI), TV3 are required since 2008 to have 30% of their programming coming from Ireland though TV3 now produces 40% Irish produced content (Most of this content comes from in studio productions such as Ireland AM and Xposé). In 2010 TV3 announced a target of 50% Irish programming by 2012. TV3 has also confirmed its plan to build a major new studio in 2011 which will be fully HD capable with audience capacity.

They have a small staff of 200 employees to run two television channels and one on-demand online service. On average, TV3 spend about €10 million on internal productions which are generally for daytime viewers. They do not have a history of strong prime-time content: generally their home produced programmes consist of at least one independently produced programme, e.g. The Apprentice, a number of internal documentaries such as Ireland Undercover and a number of BCI licence fee-funded independent products such as School Run,Diary of... andModern Ireland.

As of October 2009, TV3 claim they are the most watched television channel by people aged 15–24 years old. This group was previously captured by RTÉ One. This is an important group to capture as it is often these viewers whom advertisers wish to target. In reaction to this press release from TV3, RTÉ rebutted their claims stating that RTÉ One outdoes TV3 in far more demographic categories and that TV3's press release, "In terms of the selective audiences focussed upon by TV3 in their release, it's clear this is a recent phenomenon and only pertains to a narrow sub-demographic of young viewers in this country. By contrast, the year-to-date equivalent (1 January - 20 October), all day national share, sees RTÉ One with a 16.2% share of the 15-24s; TV3 with a 13.3% share."

Budget
In 2009 TV3 had revenues of €54,300,000. In the previous year (2008), TV3 received €62 million in advertising revenue. Increases in programme cost during 2008 included new sporting contracts with the GAA and UEFA, the first renewal of their contract with the British broadcaster ITV for shows such as The X Factor and Coronation Street, a small but significant increase in programmes commissioned from independent producers and their takeover of Channel 6 (now 3e). They also increased their investment in online technology, with their online service earning a profit for the first time.

In 2008, TV3 received €3 million in funding from the licence fee for independent productions on the channel.

In 2009, two rounds of redundancies reduced TV3 staff to 213 people. Staff savings have been augmented by agreed reductions in wages. The 200 staff working in TV3 now provide seven hours of live television five days a week, an increase of two hours and a staff reduction of 50 since 2007.

In February 2012 the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) restructure TV3's outstanding loans to the bank. The owners of TV3, Doherty Hanson & Co., have loans of €140million with the bank. €51million will continue to be repaid over the next 5 years, while €81.1 will be frozen until a "liquidity event", according to the IBRC this is in the event of a sale of TV3.

Product placement
Product placement within Irish produced programming had previously been banned by broadcasting authorities in Ireland, though in the past Irish viewers have been used to product placement as seen on US television and film productions. Due to an EU ruling made in 2007, Irish broadcasters can now place products within programming mainly entertainment shows, though excludes programming which is deemed mainly 'news and current affairs' and programming aimed at children. On 15 August 2011 it was confirmed that TV3 would become the first official broadcaster to implement the new broadcasting terms. Kenco reportedly paid TV3 Group a six-figure sum to place their branding on two key early morning television shows mainly, The Morning Show and Midday from September 2011. Similar to RTE and TG4 broadcasters will have to air a logo 'PP' at the beginning and end of the show to inform viewers that products will appear on the show. RTE Television has previously used Product Placement on its seriesThe Late Late Show.

Irish-produced programming
TV3 programming has often been criticised for having no "distinctive, clearly Irish identity". In spring 2008, a major effort was made by the station to change this situation. In general TV3 spend around €10 million on their Irish productions each year, in 2008 they significantly increased the number of prime time shows produced in Ireland, TV3 are required by law to use 15% of its total Irish production budget for Independent Productions. Since 2004 Independent Productions for TV3 have been able to avail of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland's (BCI) Sound and Vision Fund, a fund provided to the BCI from RTÉ. In 2008 Independent producers received €3million from the Sound and Vision fund for programming that they produced for TV3.

News and Current Affairs
TV3's 3 News and Information department looks after all of TV3s in-house productions, from Entertainment to Current Affair. Andrew Hanlon is TV3's Director of News, he has held that position since the channel first began airing. At its launch TV3 had 2 main news programmes News @ 6 and News Tonight. A round-up of the weeks news was shown on Sunday nights called The Week In Review from 1998-2008. The news team includes Alan Cantwell, Colette Fitzpatrick, Elaine Crowley and Vincent Browne, as well as weather presenter Martin King. TV3 News on weekdays consists of four main bulletins - Ireland AM, Midday, News @ 5.30 and Nightly News.

Sports
TV3 produced a weekday sports round-up programme called Sports Tonight for over a decade, broadcast late in the day (at 23.30/23.40 Monday through Friday), until it was cancelled as of 23 March 2009. Other original sports programming includes match analysis and commentary for UEFA Cup matches. In 2008 the station began broadcasting a selection of GAA All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship matches as part of Championship Live, as well as a weekly preview show called Championship Throw In. The station also aired coverage of the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

A sports quiz show A Game Of Two Halves hosted by Trevor Welsh ran for 13 episodes in 1999; in 2005 they produced The Offside Show, presented by Dermot Whelan, that lasted 12 episodes.

2011 UEFA Europa League Final
A milestone in TV3 broadcasting history came with coverage of the 2011 UEFA Europa League Final, held at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. 40 cameras were used to broadcast to an audience in the tens of millions.

Entertainment
Since its inception Entertainment played an important role in making up the TV3 schedule. Upon its launch TV3's first daytime show was called Speakeasy it ran during the 1998/1999 season and was replaced by TV3's morning show Ireland AM. Speakeasy was a prerecorded chat show that opened TV3 each weekday during its opening year, it began at 12:00 and ran until 12:30. TV3 produced its own version of the Pepsi Chart Show which provided a countdown to the top 40 music sales for Ireland. It was broadcast in many European countries using different presenters from each region. This was later replaced by Dynamite TV which was similar in format to RTÉ's Top 30 Hits. TV3 had three other music shows, the first was Pop On 3 which was similar in format to RTÉ's 2TV, The Sound Room presented by Darragh Purcell and 3 cubed which was a late night non-stop broadcast of music videos. Messrs Tylak and Rooney was a short lived travel comedy series in which Joe Rooney and Paul Tykla travelled around Ireland's tourist spots. In 2000, TV3 commissioned the dating game Perfect Match hosted by Twink (Adele King), this show only aired for one season. From 2001 TV3 began to produce Irish versions of hit international television shows including The Weakest Link hosted by Eamon Dunphy. In 2003, TV3 launched The Dunphy Show Eamon Dunphy, was built up to be a contender with RTÉ's The Late Late Show. In spite of the flurry of media attention, The Dunphy Show's failed to perform to expectations, and was cancelled a week before the initial season was due to conclude. Popcorn, which regularly billed itself as "Ireland's favourite movie show" ran for 5 years and over 200 episodes before the axe fell - giving an irreverent look at the movie releases, both at the cinema and on DVD. In 2005, TV3 produced its second late night chat show hosted by Brendan Courtney and called The Brendan Courtney Show which lasted for only two seasons, it aired Wednesdays at 22:00. Richard Eberle and Maura Derrane presented The Property Game for TV3 the same year.

Since 2007, TV3 has increased its Irish entertainment programmes Xposé began airing in April 2007. It is an entertainment and celebrity focused show airing weeknights at 18.00. Beauty tips, fashion segments and celebrity interviews are the main components of the show. An Irish version of Deal or No Deal in association with the Irish National Lottery was launched in 2009. It is produced by Endemol for TV3. It has not returned to the schedule since its first run. In 2010 TV3 launched an Irish version of the hit international dating show Take Me Out for their 2010/2011 schedule'. Take Me Out is presented by Today FM presenter Ray Foley. They also plan a second dating series called Pecking Order in which 5 girls rate themselves as they see guys rating them.

A second season of Take me Out was announced on 18 August 2011. Give Adele a Bell hosted by Adele King, Deception hosted by Keith Barry, an Irish version of Alan Hughes Family Fortunes and the Irish version of the classic quiz show Mastermind were announced as part of the 2011 schedule, while Adele King returns to TV3 with Give Adele a Bell.

Reality television
TV3's first reality TV series was Haunted House. It started in May 2002. Haunted House started out with about 26 contestants who would be ultimately voted out of the Haunted House by the public. The tasks were similar to that of I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!.

In 2006 reality TV3 produced their second reality TV series. The Box, fronted by Keith Duffy, debuted on Monday 9 October 2006.

The Apprentice is a localised version of the original Donald Trump reality series, the first series of which was broadcast in autumn 2008. The show returned in autumn 2009, making it the first time that a prime time TV3 show was renew following the first season. The Apprentice won the Best Entertainment Category at the 2009 IFTA awards. TV3 snubbed the ceremony due to their concern over the number of RTÉ staff in the Academy. As part of the second series TV3 also launched their version of The Apprentice: You're Fired! the spin-off show hosted by Brendan O'Connor. Brendan O'Connor left the series for his chat show The Saturday Night Show on rival network RTÉ One, Anton Savage replaced him as host of The Apprentice: You're Fired!. They have also added The Apprentice: At Home to the 3rd season.

On 21 April 2009 it was announced that the main presenter of Xposé (Lorraine Keane) was to leave the series. TV3 announced a nationwide search for a new presenter of the show, on 4 June they announce that Michael O'Doherty, Emma Ledden and Gerry Lundberg would judge the applicants on a new TV show called Total Xposure. On 11 June Sean Munsanje was declared the winner of Total Xposure, winning a 6 month contract with TV3 as the newest member of the Xposé Team, which was not renewed.

Celebrity Salon began on the channel on Monday 7 June 2010. It follows six celebrities (Brian Dowling, Pippa O'Connor, Leigh Arnold, Virginia Macari, Celia Holman Lee and Breffny Morgan) as they train over a 12 day period to become hairdressers. A fashion reality TV series Style Wars began in June 2010 to searched for Ireland's top fashion designer in a similar format to Project Runway. The same year they produced a localized version of the BBC Three series Young, Dumb and Living Off Mum.

Head Chef aired on TV3 from 8 April 2011 to 27 May 2011 and was won by Harry Marquart. A Celebrity version of the show (Celebrity Head Chef) is coming soon and applications are currently being accepted for Junior Head Chef.

TV3 announced a new Irish version of the international reality format Come Dine With Me for their 2010/2011 schedule which will be produced by ITV for the channel. A second series of Celebrity Salon began airing in June 2011 along with Irish version of Come Dine With Me. A second series of Come Dine With Me was announced on 18 August 2011 along with a third series of Celebrity Salon and a fourth series of The Apprentice. Other reality programmes for 2011 include Tallafornia (Similar to RTÉ's Fade Street and ITV2's The Only Way Is Essex) and Tearaway Teen to Beauty Queen (Similar to Channel 5's ASBO Teen to Beauty Queen and ITV's Ladette to Lady).

Drama
TV3 is not known for vast amount of TV drama. In 2008 it produced its first one-off drama School Run, made in Ireland for TV3 with the assistance of the BCI's Sound and Vision Fund. It was the first original Irish drama produced by the station and aired at Christmas 2008. In 2009 broadcast Laura Windermere's Bag a contemporary adaptation of the Oscar Wilde play Lady Windermere's Fan set on the south of Dublin - this also received funding from the Sound and Vision Fund.

The Tudors is made in Ireland for Showtime, but shown by TV3. Another series, Rock Rivals, was filmed in Ireland for ITV in the UK and shown by the station in early 2008.

During November 2009 rival broadcaster RTÉ announced that their hit medical drama, The Clinic, was cancelled after seven series. Rumours spread around the Internet that TV3 were in talks with producers of the show. On 26 November, TV3's Xposé confirmed the reports, and TV3's Director of Programming, Ben Frow, confirmed that the station has been in talks with the shows producers, to bring the show to the station. On Monday, 29 March 2010 Leigh Arnold - who starred in The Clinic - revealed on the Podge and Rodge show on RTÉ Two that TV3 will not be taking on the series.

TV3 announcedThe Guards as part of the 2009/2010 season. Initially slated for early 2010 the series has been pushed back again until late summer 2010, however reports suggest that the series has increase its number of episodes from two episodes to six. The producers of the show are actively promoting the series as Ireland's answer to The Wire. as of 2011 the series has not aired on TV3 and seems unlikely. In 2010 TV3 aired the RTL commissioned Irish based Jack Taylor series.

TV3 and ITV will co-produce Titantic which will air in 2012. TV3 have suggested a new Irish soap opera with a working title of Taylor Hill in an interview with The Irish Times Pat Kiely said “It’s a big, big step for us into weekly drama ....Our intention, our aspiration, is to invest more in drama and, dare I say it, have our own Irish soap.”

Children's TV
In its first year TV3 produced its own Children's strand called Gimme 3. It was presented by Hector and Clodagh. Hector was none other than TG4 star Hector Ó hEochagáin. It ran for one hour between 16:00 and 17:00, it included shows such as The Ren and Stimpy Show & Conan the Adventurer. It also aired a Sunday morning three hour show, using the same studio at their weekly show. Programmes shown included Conan And The Young Warriors, Hot Rod Dogs, Loggerheads and Brothers Flub. It was axed in 1999. Clodagh continued to introduce children's programming for a further 12 months in an untitled show. TV3 do not produce or broadcast any children's television now, however they will be showing a documentary on Irish children's television called The History of Irish Children's Television.

TV3 are planning a new children's TV service called 3Kids, which will time share with 3Classics, both will launch towards the end of 2012.

Factual
In early 2008, TV3 made a serious effort to produce more Irish programming in response to criticism of its schedule. Factual programmes launched as part of this change included Me and The Big C, charting different people's struggle with cancer; Inside and Out, a makeover show hosted by Sinead O' Carroll; Dirty Money: The Story of the Criminal Assets Bureau, a crime documentary fronted by Paul Williams and Diary of... which followed six people as they went through life-changing events.

The autumn 2008 schedule continued this trend, with several Irish produced series including Now Then: How the Irish Have Sex, CCTV Cities with Donal MacIntyre, Living With Murder, presented by Maura Derrane, and Corrupt - examining corruption in Ireland. Crunch Time was a three part documentary exploring Ireland's property crisis.

Many of TV3's factual programming is produced with the assistance of the licence fee through the BCI's Sound and Vision Fund or are produced in house by TV3's News and Information Department. The Cosmetic Surgery Show that looks at the world of cosmetic surgery presented by Dr. 90210 and Caroline Morahan was broadcast in 2009.

TV3 announced a new raft of TV documentaries for 2011 including The Irish of 9/11, The Hospice, Paul Connolly Investigates, Anatomy of a Car Crash, Challenging God, 24 Hours to Kill, The Day the Germans Bombed Dublin, The Rise and Fall of Fianna Fáil, Sex Lives, Hen Parties, Paddies in Paradise, Strictly Irish Dancing, Ireland's Disco Kids, Dejunk Your Life and Ireland's Top Teens.

TV3 are planning a Documentary/Film channel called 3Classics, which will time share with 3Kids, both will launch towards the end of 2012.

3 Cubed
In the early 2000s (decade) TV3 launched a late night interactive music service. 3 Cubed aired each day from 1am to 6am. Audiences were invited to send text messages to the show and to send in requests via a premium rate phone number.

Imported programming
In its early years, the station aired a large amount of US programmes such as Sex and the City, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Just Shoot Me!. US programming has become less of an attraction on TV3 with many of their US shows airing on their sister channel 3e.

In the early years of TV3 introduced two UK soaps to Irish Audiences Family Affairs (which was broadcast 18 months after Channel 5) and EastEnders (which was broadcast with advertising simultaneously with BBC 1), and also the short lived Australian soap Breakers and the US soap Sunset Beach. TV3 broadcast of Family Affairs ended in June 2007, and was initially replace by Channel 4's Hollyoaks. Due to the high number of Irish viewers with Channel 4 TV3's broadcast of the show soon ended, TV3 were a month behind Channel 4 unlike their ITV soaps which are simultaneously broadcast and unlike Family Affairs as five is not as prevalent in Ireland. Hollyoaks was then replaced by the short lived The Royal Today and finally by repeats of Friends in 2009 with their takeover of Channel 6 now 3e.

Following Granada/ITV's acquisition of a 45% share in the station in 2000 (which ended in 2006), Granada allowed TV3 to simulcast several of its programmes including soaps like Coronation Street and Emmerdale (both previously aired on RTÉ One) as well as drama series such asBad Girls and Footballers' Wives. TV3 also simulcast EastEnders from 1998 to 2001 (EastEnders is now broadcasting on RTÉ One and has been doing so since 2001). ITV reality shows including The X Factor, Dancing on Ice,I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! and Britain's Got Talent are also simulcast on the station. In 2010 TV3 began broadcasting the BBC'sOver the Rainbow, initially broadcast on Saturday night but moved to Sunday nights to make room for ITV's Britain's Got Talent.

With regards to its daytime schedule, TV3's programming mainly consists of repeats of Coronation Street and Emmerdale, as well as UK and US versions of lifestyle shows such as Judge Judy, 10 Years Younger, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Jeremy Kyle Show and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Along with the UK's X-factor TV3 will broadcast the US version of the TV show The X Factor US starting 8 September 2011. Other imports include the US version of Prime Suspect and the return of ITV's Downton Abbey. TV3 currently show the following US programmes, Glee, V, Modern Family, and Law & Order:SVU. American Idol has been broadcast on TV3 quite close to its American airing for several years now.

On-air presentation
September 1998 to July 2000: The original logo and design for the channel was devised by Dynamo. In the lead-up to the network's launch, TV3's logo was unveiled during promotion ads on RTÉ and TG4. The logo consisted of a redesigned number 3. The upper half of the 3 was separated from the lower half; the two halves came together to form two swooshing arches that would form the 3. There were a number of different idents from September 1998 to July 2000 including 'Bubbles', 'Camera Lenses', 'Robot', 'Umbrella', 'Fan', 'Planets', 'Children's Toy', 'Bumper Cars' and 'Roller-Coaster'. Each of the idents would end with a girl whispering the word 'three' a number of times.

July 2000 to September 2003 In July 2000, TV3 developed new idents. The new idents removed the words 'TVthree' from beneath the stylized 3 logo. The project was directed by Dynamo's creative head of broadcast media, Brian Williams. These were TV3's first idents to feature live action – actors would be seen in the background of the logo doing various day-to-day activities with the 3 logo spinning around to reveal itself. In 2001, some of these idents would have characters from Granada TV programming appear in the background, such as characters from Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Heartbeat.

September 2003 to March 2006: In September 2003, TV3 again launched a new set of idents. Again, this series of idents consisted of live action scenes. The final scene would see a large 'swoosh' effect in the center of the screen with the 3 logo appearing in the centre of the screen. These idents consisted of outdoor activities such as a walk at the beach, children playing football, children playing, people walking over the Ha'penny bridge etc. The presentation package was produced by Bruce Dunlop Associates.

March 2006 to January 2009: In March 2006, TV3 took steps to rebrand as Channel 6 (now 3e) in an attempt to become a competitor in the Irish market. These idents consisted of live action scenes often involving the number 3 such as three drops of water into a river. The 3 logo now moved from just the stylized 3 into three circles with the stylized 3 in the last circle. The presentation package was produced by Cleverality.

January 2009 - August 2009: In January 2009, TV3 unveiled its new station logo – a simple sans-serif number 3 similar in style to that of TV3 (Viasat)'s logo. This revamp co coincided with the re-launch of Channel 6 as '3e'. Officially, the TV3 logo is that of a box with a 3 cut out of the right hand side – this design is used on all news programmes. However, the idents consisted of a set of simple graphical 3s in a domino effect with different colours such as grey, purple and blue. The idents were produced by Image Now.

August 2009 – August 2011: Between August 2009 and February 2009 TV3 introduced 8 new idents. The first two idents - known as 'Orchard' and 'Elevator' - launched TV3's live action idents. In September, a third ident entitled 'Wave' was added, followed in October by a fourth ident known as 'Bridge'. A edited version of the Bridge ident (to promote the series V), a sixth new ident known as 'Dog' was introduced in November 2009 and in December 2009 the ident 'snowman' was added and in February 2010 the 8th ident was added, 'bubbles'. TV3 has been working with Image Now to create these idents.

August 2011 to present: On Monday, 22 August 2011, TV3 revealed a new on-air look. While utilizing its existing logo, TV3 revealed new idents which are CGI in design and are based around specific themes i.e. crime, urban, entertainment. The new look idents were designed by Image Now, who have previously worked on the channel's branding since 2009.

Continuity announcers
In-vision continuity links are broadcast during the 3 Daytime strand introduced in January 2008. This has since ended with the last in vision appearance in December 2009. The network employs two announcers - Conor Clear and Andrea Hayes. All announcements are pre-recorded, unlike live continuity in RTE. Conor is also a host of "Monday Million" in association with the National Lottery.

Lack of original programming
Many media commentators have criticised TV3 for the lack of original programming on the station, although a major effort has been made in 2008 to deal with this criticism. The view of many commentators such as Stephen Price of The Sunday Times and Tom McGurk of The Sunday Business Post is that TV3 need to differentiate themselves in the growing Irish multi-channel market by making more original programming than at present.

Play TV and Brainbox
Play TV was an interactive phone-in quiz show on TV3: it ran from May 2009 until March 2010.

On 21 September 2009, callers to the Liveline radio show on RTÉ Radio 1 complained about the phone charges and methods surrounding TV3's late night quiz show Play TV. Host Joe Duffy stated that many of his listeners and callers to the show had not got a satisfactory reply from TV3 in relation to their complaints and hence his reason for this section of the his show, and that TV3 was unwilling to be a part of the discussion show having been asked by RTÉ Radio. Some of the contestants had not been paid their prize money. TV3 advised viewers who played the game to go to RegTel with any complaints.

On 25 September 2009, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) met to review 20 complaints made to it by individuals in relation to Play TV; 15 were upheld, 1 was rejected, 1 was determined to be invalid and 2 remained under investigation.

In January 2010, the compliance committee of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland up held 10 more complaints against TV3. In February the BAI up held 3 more complaints.

On 5 March 2010, TV3 announced that Play TV's contract was terminated immediately. In their statement they put the removal of the "infomercial" down purely to audience figures rather than the complaints received and upheld by the BAI. They did not apologise for their conduct.

At the launch of TV3's Autumn (18 August 2010) schedule David McRedmond (CEO TV3) was interviewed by The Irish Times where he admitted mistakes had been made but and admitted that Play TV was axed not just due to falling audience figures but also to the bad press and the regulators constant scrutiny of the show. He still refused to apologise to viewers on behalf of TV3 again stating that “It was an essential part of getting us through the recession” regardless of what the BAI called a “misleading and unfair” programme.

Brain Box is an interactive phone-in quiz show on UTV and STV. As part of their Autumn schedule 2010 TV3 announced the re-broadcast of UTV's Brainbox TV show. The show began airing on TV3 on 9 September 2010, just 7 months after the axing of the controversial Play TV. It ceased broadcasting less than a week later.

Health of Brian Lenihan
Many Irish people were shocked in December 2009 at the manner in which TV3 News disclosed that the then Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan was suffering from a serious illness. Senior government sources spoke of "outrage" across the political spectrum at the insensitive content and tone of a news bulletin broadcast, which the station had earlier flagged as a "news story of national importance". However, the station's decision was defended by The Irish Times and the political magazine The Phoenix. The BAI ruled in favour of TV3 in relation to this announcement, rejecting all 14 complaints made against TV3 to the regulator.