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 80% of TV3's programming is local, most of which airs in primetime with British and American shows taking up most of the evening schedule.

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. The channel also had it's own theme song which played at the start and end of each day and lasted until 1995, by which time it was only heard at closedown.

Imported programmes at launch included a selection of popular imported soaps such as Coronation Street, EastEnders and Neighbours, which had all previously been broadcast on ERTV1. TV3 continued to invest in British drama in it's early years, winning the rights to broadcast The Bill and Casualty from ERTV in 1990 and 1991 respectively. Another series which TV3 acquired at launch was Home and Away, which similarly proved successful.

Sitcoms such as Cheers and Married... with Children were also part of the launch schedule. A major moment in TV3's history came with it's acquisition of The Simpsons which began airing on the channel in January 1991. The series proved a runaway success for TV3, and became one of the main shows to be associated with the channel to this day.

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.

On 31st October 1995, TV3 launched it's own terrestrial sister network, Channel 4 (now TV4) which was aimed towards a younger demographic than the main channel. At the same time, TV3 rebranded with the start of the "Better On Three" campaign.

Beginning in 1997, TV3 launched Super Saturday, an experimental Saturday night block of children's programmes. It still runs today on the 3C children's channel after TV3 ditched it twice to focus on entertainment programmes on a Saturday evening. For a time, it was also seen on TV4.

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.

The noughties (2001-2007)
TV3 launched the Euroish version of the reality gameshow Big Brother in January 2001 to much ratings success.

TV3 suffered a massive blow in November 2003 when it was announced that Network Two had outbid the channel for the rights to broadcast Australian soap  - which TV3 had shown since launch, beginning in 2005. This same fate occured with the New Zealand medical soap Shortland Street in 2010, after a 16-year run on TV3.

Power of Three (2007-2010)
There was a major reshuffle within TV3 in 2007, in which it was announced that the flagship TV3 channel would be refocused to primarily target young women with a schedule on reality television, soaps, dramas and American series. ZTV would be rebranded TV4 with a male focus with comedy, documentaries, sports, movies, arts, drama and more experimental programmes.

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 18:00.

Schedules

 * 9th January 1998

News and current affairs

 * Three News
 * Three News (7.00pm) (1989-present)
 * Nightline (midnight) (1991-present)
 * Sunrise (1990-present)
 * Early Sunrise (1997-present)
 * Sunrise Extra (2006-present)
 * Liquid News (2001-present; weekly editions)
 * 60 Minutes (1999-present)
 * Bite Back (1997-present)
 * Weekend World (1989-present)

Rights

 * WarnerMedia/HBO
 * The Walt Disney Company
 * 20th Century Studios
 * Marvel Comics
 * Pixar
 * Lucasfilm
 * NBCUniversal
 * StudioCanal
 * A24
 * Film4
 * 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 (2001-2012; 2022-present)
 * Euro Republics' Got Talent (2008-present)
 * Stars In Their Eyes (1991-1996; 1999-2007; 2016-present)
 * Dancing With The Stars (2007-present)
 * Pop Idol (2002-2006; 2022-present)
 * Love Island (2020-present)
 * Stardom (2003-2007; 2018-present - runs bi-annually)
 * Gladiators (1993-2000; 2022-present)
 * Come Dine With Me (2006-present)
 * The Great Euroish Bake Off (2015-present)
 * Educating.... (2014-present)
 * Gogglebox (2022-present)
 * The Traitors (2023-present)



Comedy

 * Matt Hughes’ TV Burp (2003-present)
 * The Comedy Connection (2020-present)
 * You've Been Framed! (1991-present)
 * Mixup (2021-present)
 * 7 Days (1996-present)
 * The Cheap Seats (2021-present)
 * F**k Off Please (2023-present)
 * Would I Lie to You? (2011-present)
 * The News Show (2015-present)
 * Impressionable (2019-present)

Magazine

 * This Morning (1995-present)

Talk show

 * Open Air (2023-present)

Game show

 * Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (1999-2003; 2021-present)
 * Supermarket Sweep (1995-2002; 2020-present)
 * Family Fortunes (1992-present)
 * Blockbusters (1989-2009; 2020-present)
 * Countdown (1990-present)
 * A or B? (2001-present)
 * The Weakest Link (2003-present)

Lifestyle

 * Let's Do Lunch (2008-2013; 2023-present)
 * Homes Under the Hammer (2005-present)
 * Ready, Steady, Cook (2007-2013; 2023-present)

Lottery

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

Arts

 * Opus (2020-present; moved from Spark)
 * The Culture Vulture (2001-present)

Soap opera/drama

 * Buckingham Avenue (2020-present)

Programming blocks

 * 3C (2011-present)

News and current affairs

 * BBC World News (UK) (1995-present)
 * ITV World News (UK) (1995-present)
 * CNN (US) (1989-present)
 * 60 Minutes (US) (1989-present)

Entertainment and reality

 * The Great British Bake Off (UK) (2014-present)
 * Gogglebox (UK) (2013-present)
 * Strictly Come Dancing (UK) (2013-present)

Comedy

 * Have I Got News for You (UK) (1991-present)
 * Gavin & Stacey (UK) (2008-present)
 * The Big Bang Theory (US) (2008-present)
 * Friends (US) (1995-present)
 * Father Ted (UK/IRE) (1996-present)
 * Frasier (US) (1994-present)
 * Would I Lie to You? (UK) (2009-present)
 * QI (UK) (2004-present)
 * The Simpsons (US) (1991-present)
 * Family Guy (US) (2000-present)

Game show

 * Tipping Point (UK) (2013-present)
 * Countdown (UK) (2001-present)
 * Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? (UK) (1998-present)

Arts

 * The South Bank Show (UK) (1989-present)

Soap opera

 * Coronation Street (UK) (1989-present)
 * EastEnders (UK) (1989-present)
 * Neighbours (AUS) (1989-2022; 2023-present)

Drama

 * Casualty (UK) (1990-present)

News & current affairs

 * Inside Edition (1991-2005)
 * The Midday Report (1998-2010)

Entertainment and reality

 * The Masked Singer Euro Republics (2019)
 * Challenge The ER (1992-1998)
 * Popstars (2001-2009)
 * Soapstars (2003)
 * Don't Forget Your Toothbrush (1996-1999; 2003-2005)
 * Live with Paul Mellor (2002-2003)
 * Terrence Tonight (1993-1999)
 * Talking To Mimi (2004)
 * Bob's House Party (1993-1997; 2000-2002; 2018)

Comedy

 * All We Wanted (1990-1993)
 * Full Frontal (1995-2001)
 * Turned World (2006-2009)
 * The Eleventh Hour (2002-2005)
 * Matt Hughes's TV Burp (2003-2011)
 * Some Guys (2016-2021)
 * Sharp Cut (2003-2012)
 * Skithouse (2002-2005)
 * ZYX (1999-2003)

Soap opera

 * Emmerdale (1989-2020; moved from and back to ETV1)
 * Brookside (1989-2004)
 * Barcroft (1989-2020)
 * Chances (1992-1994)
 * Home And Away (1989-2005; moved to Network Two)
 * Shortland Street (1994-2010; moved to Network Two)
 * The Bill (1990-2010)
 * Holby City (1999-2022)
 * 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)
 * Lad Guide (1998-2015; moved to TV4)
 * Photoshoot (2013-2020)
 * Sex/Life (1995-2000)
 * Weekend Feast (2010)

Game show

 * Are You Smarter than a 10 Year Old? (2008-2012)
 * Beat The Star (2008-2013)
 * The Chase (2011)
 * The Kids are All Right (2020-2022)

Programming blocks

 * The Fix (1989-2010)

International availability

 * 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: The Nation's Favourite
 * 2016-2020: Gottaloveit (second incarnation)
 * 2020-present: The One To Watch (second incarnation)