UTV moves news time to be in competition with TV3

UTV Ireland has announced today that it’s moving its daily live news teatime programme from 6.30pm to 5.30pm.

Not only that, the channel has also announced that it is ramping up its news coverage with new hourly updates throughout the day from 6am to 5pm and from 7pm to 9pm.

These updates include the hour-long Ireland Live news programme that will continue to broadcast at 10pm.

This puts Ireland Live in direct competition with TV3's early evening news programme.

"We carried out significant research with our audience which indicated the desire for an earlier teatime news and we are, therefore, moving Ireland Live to meet those demands," head of UTV, Mary Curtis revealed.

TV3 broadcasts news at 12.30pm, 5.30pm and 8pm while RTE One broadcasts news at 1pm, 6pm and 9pm.

Let the news war begin …