Are you a Young Aspirer, an Affluent Acquirer, a Comfy Full Nester or even a Liberal Sophisticate? If so, and you're aged between 15 and 44, you're part of the target market for Ireland's newest television station, which offered a first peek at its proposed schedules this week. So what will we be seeing when TV3 goes on air on Monday, September 21st?
Of 100 hours of weekly programming, more than 80 per cent will be imported programmes from the US, Australia and Britain. With no locally-produced programming in the can as yet, Thursday's video presentation didn't feature one Irish accent, and it will clearly fall to the news service to provide most of the channel's specifically local flavour, along with sport. TV3 has already announced its coup in securing rights to the Republic of Ireland's away games in the qualifying rounds for the European Championships in 2000, and a nightly sports programme is also promised.
With news, current affairs and sport taking the lion's share of the 18 hours of home-produced programming per week, the remaining Irish content looks pretty slight. An afternoon programme, "focusing on the Housekeeper (sic) issues of the day", a lifestyle show targeted at 18to 35-year-olds, and a series called On Your Bike are among the titles confirmed.
TV3 will be competing on the quality of its imported programmes. Breakers, an early-evening Australian soap opera in the mould of Neighbours or Home and Away, will anchor the schedule, as will the acquisition of Eastenders, to be broadcast simultaneously with BBC1. Other British imports include the sitcom Birds of a Feather, the mini-series Seesaw and the crime drama Touching Evil.
The best American acquisitions seem to be among the mini-series, with the star-studded Merlin and the Tom Hanks-produced From the Earth to the Moon among the notable offerings. There are some significant movie premieres, such as Heat and A Time to Kill, which should attract large audiences, while the channel also plans to broadcast the banned Natural Born Killers in a sanitised television version (RTE has an admirable policy of only screening films in their uncut form, but TV3 appears to have no such qualms).
There is also a good-sized helping of unashamed trash television, from When Stars Were Kids, in which the rich and famous get the dirt dished on them by their childhood friends, to Thailand Backpackers, "in search of drugs, sex, the perfect beach, adventure and spiritual enlightenment".
Some of these shows are new to these shores, although many are already available on British satellite and terrestrial channels. Director of Programming Michael Murphy describes TV3's style as "modern, innovative, intelligent, mainstream and Irish". Take away the news division and this schedule looks suspiciously like Sky One, but without Friends, ER or The Simpsons.
In a competitive multi-channel environment, will the likes of Love Boat - The Next Wave or Team Knight Rider really entice Irish viewers away from their favourite programmes? Only time and the all-important ratings will tell.
