Licence hike blamed as Dunphy axed

THE battle of the chat-shows might be over but a new war of words has broken out between TV3 and RTÉ over the reason behind the decision to scrap its flagship programme hosted by Eamon Dunphy.

TV3 blamed the decision to axe The Dunphy Show half-way through its planned season on increases in the TV licence fee over the past two years. The station claimed the current regulatory system for broadcasting in Ireland made it impossible to continue the show in the New Year.

TV3 also confirmed that next Friday's show will be the last in the series just 15 weeks after it first went on air.

Although The Dunphy Show attracted an average 300,000 viewers per show compared to 647,000 for Pat Kenny's Late Late Show, it faced an uphill struggle to attract strong advertising revenues.

However, sources indicate that executives from the UK television giant, Granada which owns 45% of TV3 were instrumental in yesterday's decision to pull the plug on the show due to unhappiness about the performance of Dunphy.

The colourful broadcaster has rarely strayed far from controversy such as his recent admission live on air that he used recreational drugs, while critics have also slammed the chat show for its soft-focus and blokey style despite several high-profile guests including Alistair Campbell, Roy Keane and the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.

Recent media reports have also highlighted how Dunphy's show intended to take a six-week "holiday" over Christmas leaving rival Pat Kenny with no competition over the busy holiday period.

In a statement, however, TV3 insisted that its ambition to produce programmes like The Dunphy Show had been frustrated by the "massive negative impact" of the licence fee. "TV3 has long sought a fair, competitive and regulated environment that will be attractive to private investment in indigenous programming. That has not occurred," read the statement.

Dunphy made no reference to the issue on last night's show as it had been pre-recorded due to a prior booking at the Helix Theatre venue.

Reacting to TV3's criticism of the impact of TV licence fees on its home-produced output, RTÉ said TV3 had again sought to blame RTÉ's excellent programming skills for its own failure to deliver indigenous programmes to Irish audiences.

"It is nonsense to suggest that the licence fee increase was used to target any possible success of The Dunphy Show," said an RTÉ spokesperson. One TV3 insider also said the station's official reason for discontinuing the programme "lacked credibility".

Esat BT, the show's official sponsors, expressed disappointment that the company had learnt of the decision to axe the show through the media. "It would have been nice to have received a courtesy call," said a spokesperson.

In a statement, Dunphy said he felt privileged to work with a brilliant team all of whom he believed will go on to enjoy successful careers. "Like me, they have learned much from the experience working on the show," he said.