Sky News poaches more staff from TV3

SKY News has moved more clouds on to TV3’s horizon after poaching another two well-known faces from its rival to join Grainne Seoige on its new Irish news service.

The latest pair to defect from TV3 are early morning news anchor Brian Daly, currently hosting the station’s breakfast TV programme, Ireland AM, and roving reporter Jerome Hughes.

Other new signings announced by Sky yesterday are RTÉ reporter Ray Kennedy who was also a former TV3 anchor; TG4 news mainstay, Eibhlín Ní Chonghaile, and a new face to television, Jonathan Healy, currently head of news at Dublin radio station, FM104.

No definite start date for the new nightly news broadcast has been announced yet with Sky saying only that it is building up its Irish bureau for a launch in late spring, understood to mean the end of May.

The broadcaster has also declined to confirm at what time the bulletin will be broadcast although it is expected to be shown before 9pm and again around 11pm when, according to Sky, it will be available to two-thirds of Irish households through their existing cable service, MMDS or satellite service.

Some 300,000 Irish subscribers to Sky Digital, as well as seven million subscribers in Britain, will also be able to watch the bulletin any time during the evening as it will be run on a continuous loop after the initial broadcast.

The half-hour bulletin will not consist entirely of Irish news however, as it will incorporate the main British and international stories along with weather and sport.

Content from the Republic will be supplemented by reports from the station’s two existing Northern Ireland correspondents, Gary Honeyford and David Blevins.

Unveiling the new signings, Mark Deering, director of Sky Ireland, said the appointments “strengthened Sky’s commitment to providing a top-class service to Irish viewers”.

“Brian and Ray bring a wealth of experience and are established presenters. Eibhlín has an impressive track record in covering both domestic and international stories and Jerome and Jonathan are real rising stars who will make excellent video-journalists,” he said.

Eibhlín Ní Chonghaile is to be based in Limerick from where she will work as west of Ireland correspondent, while Ray Kennedy will have the title of Ireland correspondent, and a wide-ranging brief which he will share with Brian Daly who is also being appointed a correspondent.

Jerome Hughes and Jonathan Healy will run one-man-shows as video-journalists with responsibility for sourcing, filming, editing and reporting news stories from around the Republic.

Grainne Seoige’s appointment as anchor was announced last month.

The high-profile presenter was lured away from her starring role at TV3 after eight years with the independent broadcaster.