TV3 (Euro Republics)

TV3 is a Euro Republics commercial television channel, launched on 24th February, 1989 at 8:00 p.m.

TV3 is the Euro Republics’ biggest commercial broadcaster, and is also the most watched channel, having surpassed ETV 1 in 2012, but had been in second place for many years beforehand.

TV3 is a general entertainment channel owned by EuroMedia, with a significant news and current affairs element under the banner of Three News.

About 65% of TV3's programming is local, most of which airs at daytime and later at night, with British and American shows taking up most of the evening schedule.

TV3 used in-vision continuity from 1989-2002, and was reintroduced full-time in 2011, It was still being used however on Friday and Saturday nights between 2002 and 2011.

Pre-launch
Applications to apply for a warrant to operate the Euro Republics’ third English-language national television network opened in 1985. The Broadcasting Authority of the Euro Republics (BAER) announced in 1987 that TV3 had won the warrant. Originally, it was envisaged that the channel would run solely on cable & analouge MMDS, however the channel later was permitted to broadcast terrestrially.

Advertisements for TV3 began to broadcast on ERTV1 & ERTV2 in January 1989, in addition to newspaper ads & leaflets. Test transmissions for the channel began in the same month.

Early years (1989-1993)
TV3 launched on 13th April 1989 at 6:35pm with a large launch party at the channel's headquarters in Euro City, beginning the premiere episodes of Barcroft, Three National News & a four-hour special programme showcasing more of the channel's output, along with special performances from musicans. TV3 was also one of the first channels to be broadcast on the Astra 1A satellite when that launched in 1989, allowing it to broadcast all over Europe.

TV3's news programme was the first in the country to run for one hour, as opposed to ERTV's News running for just 30 minutes.

The channel invested in an extensive news organisation, imported series, youth programmes and new drama/comedy series. The premiere was seen by around 7 million viewers across Europe.

1993 saw the channel break a deal with the then new Euroish National Lottery to show their live programmes & draws on TV3 on Friday & Saturday nights. The draws premiered with an 2 hour-long special event on 8th October, 1993.

In 1995, TV3 launched it's own terrestrial sister network, Channel 4 (now FOX).

Beginning in 1997, TV3 airs Super Saturday, a Saturday night block of children's programmes. It still runs today.

1998 rebranding (1998-2001)
A large programme relaunch was announced in September 1997 and took place in January 1998, which saw the launch of many successful series for the channel, the rebranding of Three National News as 3 News, the launch of The Midday Report & a new presenter lineup for Nightline.

TV3 announced in mid-2000 that a HDTV version of the channel would launch within the next year, and it finally launched on 2nd February, 2001.

At first, TV3 only broadcast few HD programmes, with the 2001-02 UEFA Champions League on TV3. In 2003, TV3 began airing all of their Euro Republican programming in HD, along with their sister channels launching in HD. 95% of their schedule was in HD by 2012.

In 2020, TV3 introduced local news, for the first time since ETV dropped the practise in 2007. Local news shows typically air on the channel at 7:05 pm.

Schedule revamp (2020-present)
On 28th October, 2020, TV3 unveiled a new schedule lineup & branding package set to launch in December 2020, along with the return of "The One To Watch" as a slogan.

This was part of a new schedule to introduce a more varied lineup, which co-incited with the re-launch of Sunday night news & current affairs show Hartman after a 15-year absence, and the re-formatting of Three Eyewitness News with a more news-focused agenda, while the less serious entertainment & sport features were spun-off into a supplementary show on it's sister channel Fox, called Fox Headline News, airing at 17:30

Schedules
See TV3 (Euro Republics)/Schedules

Programming strands

 * 3C: This is TV3's daily block of programmes for children. Using in-vision continuity, 3C airs both original & imported shows. It broadcasts on weekdays between 2:30 pm & 7:05 pm.
 * Super Saturday: Airing once a week, Super Saturday is another kids block on TV3, but unlike 3C, airs in the evenings. It begins at 6pm and ends at 11pm.
 * Star: Airing on Saturday nights from 11:30pm (after Nightline), Star is aimed at an older audience than Super Saturday, with comedy, drama & movies. It is also available as a brand on My ET1, and as a Thursday night strand on TMF.
 * Comedy Night: Starting from 12:00am on late Friday/early Saturday, Comedy Night broadcasts a range of comedy programmes from TV3, FOX, Spark & Premiere. Comedy Night was launched in 1994, originally in primetime, moving to a later slot in 1997 to accommodate That's Life on Friday nights. It was renamed to Too Funny To Sleep in 2002. The original name was brought back in 2005.

News

 * Three News
 * Three News (7:05pm) (1989-present)
 * Nightline (midnight) (1991-present)
 * Sunrise (1990-present)
 * Early Sunrise (1997-present)
 * Sunrise Extra (2006-present)
 * Fox Headline News (2020-present)
 * Liquid News (2001-present; weekly editions)
 * Hartman (1990-2006; 2021-present)

Rights

 * WarnerMedia/HBO
 * The Walt Disney Company
 * 20th Century Studios
 * Marvel Comics
 * Pixar
 * Lucasfilm
 * NBCUniversal
 * MGM Holdings
 * Entertainment One
 * Most independent producers
 * A24
 * Gaumont
 * Amblin Partners

Movie blocks

 * Friday Night Movie (1989-present) (typically family, comedy or sci-fi film)
 * Saturday Afternoon Movie (1989-present) (typically "modern classics" movies from the 1980's to the 2000's)
 * Sunday Night Movie (1989-present) (typically sci-fi, horror, thriller or action film)

Entertainment & reality

 * Big Brother Euro Republics (2001-present)
 * Euro Republics' Got Talent (2008-present)
 * Stars In Their Eyes (1991-1996; 1999-2007; 2016-present)
 * Dancing With The Stars (2007-present)
 * Euro Republican Idol (2003-present)
 * Stardom (2003-present)
 * The X Factor Euro Republics (2005-present)
 * Come Dine With Me (2006-present)
 * The Euro Republics Bake Off (2015-present)
 * Educating,,, Euro Republics (2014-present)

Cooking

 * Sink or Swim (2009-present)
 * Masterchef (2011-present)
 * The Euro Republican Bake Off (2021-present)

Comedy

 * Matt Hughes’ TV Burp (2003-present)
 * The Comedy Connection (2020-present)
 * You've Been Framed! Euro Republics (1991-present)
 * Mixup (2021-present)
 * The Oddjobs (2021-present)

Game show

 * Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (1999-present)
 * Supermarket Sweep (2020-present)
 * Family Fortunes ER (1992-present)
 * Blockbusters ER (1989-2001; 2005-2009; 2020-present)
 * Catchphrase (1990-present)
 * A or B? (2001-present)
 * The Weakest Link (2003-present)
 * Countdown (2008-present)
 * Domino (1992-present)
 * Challenger (2002-present)

Lottery shows

 * The National Lottery: In It To Win It (2005-present)
 * The National Lottery: Winning Streak (1995-present)

Arts

 * ArtsClub (2020-present; moved from Spark)

Soap opera/drama

 * Buckingham Avenue (2020-present)

Programming blocks

 * 3C (2011-present)
 * Super Saturday (1997-2009; 2020-present)

News & current affairs

 * The Midday Report (1998-2010)
 * Page One (1990-2001; moved to Channel 4 as Liquid News)

Reality

 * The Masked Singer Euro Republics (2019; now on Network Two)
 * Challenge The ER (1995-2020)
 * Love Island Euro Republics (2019-2020; now on Prime)
 * Popstars (2001-2009; 2012-2018; now on Network Two)

Comedy

 * All We Wanted (1990-1993)
 * Cut Hour (2002-2003)
 * Fast Forward (1992-1997)
 * Gone Places (2001-2003)
 * Tilted World (2006-2009)
 * Some Guys (2016-2021)
 * Sharp Cut (2011-2012)
 * SketchHouse (2002-2005)
 * ZYX (1999-2003)

Drama

 * Emmerdale (1989-2020; moved from and back to ETV1)
 * Chances (1992-1994)
 * Brookside (1989-2003)
 * Barcroft (1989-2020)
 * Home And Away (1989-2005; moved to Network Two)
 * Shortland Street (1996-2010; moved to Network Two)
 * The Bill (1989-2010)
 * Echo Beach (2008)

Lifestyle

 * The Aerobics Show (1995-96)
 * Better Homes & Gardens (1999-2020)
 * Bright Ideas (1998-2003)
 * Cook Daily (2012-2015)
 * Everyday Life (2009-2013)
 * Home Today (1989-2017)
 * Kitchen Rescue (2018)
 * Ladsworld (1998-2015; moved to TV4)
 * Let's Do Lunch (2007-2013)
 * Photoshoot (2013-2020)
 * Sex/Life (1995-2000)
 * Weekend Feast (2010)

Children’s

 * The Disney Club (1990-2000)

Programming blocks

 * The Fix (1989-2011)

International availability

 * In El Kadsre, TV3 is available on Punto+ channel 505.
 * In the UK & Ireland, TV3 and other EuroMedia FTA channels can be manually tuned on BSB.

Slogans

 * 1989-1990: Come Home To Entertainment
 * 1990-1993: The Entertainment Network
 * 1993-1995: Three Is The Magic Number
 * March-October 1995: Gotta Be Three
 * October 1995-August 1996: Better On Three
 * 1996-1998: It's Here On 3
 * January-September 1998: It's All New, It's All Great, It's TV3.
 * 1998-2007: The One To Watch (first incarnation)
 * 2007-2012: Gottaloveit (first incarnation)
 * 2012-2016: Still The One
 * 2016-2020: Gottaloveit (second incarnation)
 * 2020-present: The One To Watch (second incarnation)