Not too long ago hardly anyone had heard of TV schedulers. It was not a well-known career path. If they were known at all they were regarded as sort of nerdish figures who simply decided what programme was put on at what time. It was considered a relatively easy task: Watch the watershed, put on a main evening news, place a film here or there and make sure the children's programmes are on early. Not much more.
With competition increasing, however, and with so many channels showing the same or similar programmes, the scheduler has become one of the secret weapons of each company - the magicians or alchemists with the knowledge to exploit the smallest advantage to gain ratings. Nowadays the nerds are out and about giving lectures at television conferences and media festivals; their movements from one company to another are chronicled in the trade press. Scheduling programmes at RTE has always been a somewhat surreal process. The competition - British-based channels - paid no attention. If RTE got a blockbuster on minutes before the BBC and captured the audience, the BBC hardly worried.
All that is about to change, however, with the advent of TV3.
RTE's secret weapon in the new television war is a 34-year-old native of Cumbria who occupies a small crowded office in Montrose House, the old white house that can been seen in front of the television centre from the Stillorgan Road. Andrew Burns has the boyish, smooth good looks of the television announcer he once was. His journey to that small office in Montrose has been a circuitous one, from the bank after finishing school to Border Television as an announcer and news reader.
In 1994 he was appointed head of programme planning after he developed an interest in the visual side of television and making "promos" - the graphics, or even small films that give a channel its identity. Scheduling is both art and science, he says. You apply common sense to all the data, market research and focus groups.
In June 1996 he moved to UK Gold satellite TV as head of programmes, and later responded to an RTE advertisement for a scheduler last summer. He is now responsible for promotions, schedules and presentations.
He has already brought huge changes to RTE. Think back only one year. Both RTE television channels opened late morning or early afternoon and continued until about midnight. Network 2 had no clear identity, it was a place where many of the programmes seemed to be dumped without rhyme or reason. Now RTE television is approaching a 24-hour service on both channels and Network 2 has undergone a radical make-over, clearly aimed at a younger audience between the ages of 15 to 24, with bright graphics and brash news presentation. There have been changes on RTE 1 as well, but they have been more cautious.
As a product of the competitive, commercial world of British television, TV3 does not worry Burns. RTE was changing anyway, he insists. He has a two-year plan to make RTE more commercial, "without losing its public service responsibilities". The changes to Network 2 were not made in response to the coming of TV3, he says, not entirely convincingly. "The changes were necessary. It needed a total revamp and a new image." Network 2 was given a younger feel ensuring that TV3 did not get a free run at a younger audience.
Maybe RTE needed to change, but this time last year RTE knew that TV3 was at last on its way and just as pirate radio and the success of local commercial radio provided a catalyst for 2FM and led RTE to look at its radio schedule, TV3 also prompted changes.
TV3's target of a 6 per cent audience share is achievable without hurting RTE, he maintains. There is room for everyone, he says. "Competition for RTE is not a new phenomenon."
TV3's schedule is not innovative and was probably never intended to be. Many of the programmes have a familiar feel to them already, like East- Enders. The philosophy behind its schedule is also familiar. The schedule is "stripped and stranded" a format brought to this side of the Atlantic by Sky Television. Stripping and stranding is a way of scheduling that relies on increasing familiarity, by transmitting the same type of programmes every day, so that the daily soap is always followed by a sitcom, a film and the sports programme, for example.
Burns says the schedule and the feel of the channel is very like Sky. "I wonder if viewers will realise they are watching an Irish channel," he says. He believes the hour-long news programme between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. is an interesting idea, but points out it is up against Home and Away on Network 2, which is addressing the same age group that TV3 is targeting. He is doubtful about TV3 having enough material for its nightly half-hour sports programme.
RTE, it must be assumed, has looked into the priorities of its new rival and knows that it is unlikely to topple it from its top position in terms of market share. In New Zealand, a country with a similar-sized population, but without the same television overspill from another country, CanWest - the major investor in TV3 - also runs a channel called TV3. It is highly successful, although it takes third place after the two public service channels, NZ1 and NZ2. Relying on relatively inexpensive acquired programmes still allows it to be commercially successful.
Looking at his own role, Burns believes the look of the channel is vitally important: "How you promote is as important as the schedule. The branding is as important as the content." He loves themed nights such as the recent "American Dream night" on Network 2 and the "Princess Diana weekend".
Branding and promotions become increasingly popular when the same handful of programmes are used to sell the schedule. RTE and Sky both have Friends and ER, for example, but it is branding and promotion which makes a viewer look at it on a particular channel.
"We will continue to react to market forces rather than TV3," he says. To go up against TV3 would be counterproductive. He believes RTE's schedule is strong - Deirdre Purcell's Falling for a Dancer is well-positioned on Sunday night, for example. And better still, RTE has done a deal and has access to premier league football on Saturday on Network 2.
RTE will counter TV3's opening night with a screening of the film Mrs Doubtfire, starring Robin Williams. Andrew Burns, however, will probably be watching TV3.