UTV Ireland has announced it’s launching an hourly news update and moving their tea-time news slot to the earlier time of 5.30pm.
Ireland Live will no be in direct competition with RTE One’s 6 O’clock news and will instead face-off with TV3’s early evening news programme.
Starting Monday May 25th, the station will begin an hourly news update starting from 6am to 5pm and 7pm to 9pm with their flagship news show moving to the new time of 5:30pm from 6.30pm.
Anchor: UTV to produce hourly news updates |Â Â FENNELL PHOTOGRAPHY
The hour-long Ireland Live news show at 10 will however continue to broadcast in it’s current slot.
“It is important that we inform viewers on what UTV Ireland has to offer, as well as giving our news programmes every opportunity to reach a wide-ranging audience,” said Head of Channel Mary Curtis.
“The introduction of hourly updates and the time-shift for Ireland Live will allow us to demonstrate our quality offering to larger audiences”.
News: UTV Ireland have moved Ireland Live time slots | UTV IRELAND
“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,” she added.
Speaking about the introduction of an hourly news update, Head of News Marcus Lehnan revealed it means they can deliver breaking news as it happens compared to their competitors.Â
“The introduction of hourly news updates means that we will be delivering the latest breaking news and developments, as they happen, ahead of any other Irish television broadcaster,” he said.
