Sky’s Irish service to take on RTÉ
It may be a new service but the familiar face of presenter Gráinne Seoige, who began her career at TG4 and then TV3, is intended to lure 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 at 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 over the past year to April show that only about 1% of the Irish audience tuned into the 9pm Sky News bulletin, though more tuned in for its breaking news coverage of the Iraq War.
The British-based company, which is believed to have poured several million euro into the start-up, says it is not comparing itself to the country’s three main terrestrial stations.
The evening market is a tough one to break as there are already a string of bulletins for viewers to tune into. The main rivals, RTÉ and TV3, currently 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.
“It’s not because we are scared of the opposition. We believe the market needs something at a time when people come home from work or are just sitting down to relax,” Mr Wilson insisted.
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 team has spent the last four weeks working together in a bid to ensure that the first bulletin broadcast today is flawless.
The experienced team includes Irish-born weather girl Lisa Burke and the West of Ireland bureau chief Eibhlín Ní Chonghaile.
“Every day is different and every programme is different. We’ve been improving and fine tuning and honing our skills.
“Absolutely everyone is multi-skilled. It’s a very good professional and capable team and very hard-working,” Ms Seoige said ahead of the launch.
Irish viewers already got a taste of what the news team has to offer when they covered the implementation of the smoking ban in March.
The team also boosted its profile on May 1 when 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.
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