RTE faces Sky News challenge

RTE faces a major new challenge for viewers with the launch tomorrow of satellite channel Sky News Ireland.

It may be a new service but the familiar face of presenter Grainne Seoige, who began her career in the Irish language channel TG4 and then TV3, will be luring people to Sky News Ireland as the battle for viewers commences.

The dedicated news station is kicking off with just two evening bulletins at 7pm and 10pm but it says there are more dimensions to its service.

Michael Wilson, editor of news gathering of Sky News Ireland, said: “It will be a breaking news service which will follow stories.

“There’s two half-hour bulletin programmes for Ireland but we can break into the network to run on Sky News Ireland.”

The new service will have Ms Seoige at the helm of a 21-person operation broadcasting from studios in Dublin and London.

However, the group will face a hard climb as figures showed over the past year to April, only around 1% of the Irish audience tuned into the 9pm Sky News bulletin, though more tuned in for its breaking news over the Iraq War.

The UK-based company, which is believed to have poured several million euros into the start-up, says it is not comparing itself to the three terrestrial stations currently dominating the screens.

It’s a tough evening market as there’s already a string of bulletins for viewers to tune into, as the main rivals, RTE and TV3, broadcast their news bulletins at separate times.

“We are not going to detract. We’ll add a choice. We chose deliberately not to offer another bulletin at the same time,” said Mr Wilson.

“It’s not because we are scared of the opposition. We believe the market needs something in then at a time when people come home from work or are just sitting down to relax.

“They are conventional bulletin times in the UK.”

The company has 315,000 Irish subscribers and Sky News Ireland will follow the format of its parent service which has helped Sky become one of the most successful pay-TV companies in the world.

“The presentation style and the set will be the same. It is part of the same family there’s no doubt,” Mr Wilson added.

The team has spent the last four weeks working together to ensure the first bulletin on May 10 is flawless.

The experienced team includes Irish-born weather girl Lisa Burke and the West of Ireland bureau chief Eibhlin Ni Chonghaile.

“Every day is different and every programme is different. We’ve been improving and fine tuning and honing our skills,” said Ms Seoige.

“Absolutely everyone is multi-skilled. It’s a very good professional and capable team and very hard working.”

Irish viewers already got a taste of what the news service has to offer when the smoking ban came into place last March.

The team also made a strong impression May 1 as the Sky News Ireland delved into the heart of the EU protest at Dublin’s Farmleigh House, moving close enough to have a camera downed by the water spray from the cannons.

“On Saturday night in the Phoenix Park our live footage from the disturbances around May Day helped increase our audience by around 100%,” Mr Wilson said.

However, the station is planning on working on its own stories as well as following the breaking news of the day.

“There’ll be some surprises, there’s some stuff that we’ve been working on which should catch the audiences’ attention,” Mr Wilson said.