Three News

3 News (formerly known as Three National News from 1989 to 1998) is the branding of news programmes on the Euro Republican television network TV3.

The channel's news coverage has won awards from the Royal Television Society, Emmy Awards and Euro Television Awards. Between 2004 and 2008, the 7pm bulletin held the title of "News Programme of the Year". The flagship evening edition has won numerous awards, and also being named "ETA News Programme of the Year" in 2011, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021 & 2022.

Three News has the largest television news audience in the Euro Republics (and followed by other broadcasters such as ETV & Prime).

History
The TV3 main evening news bulletin was originally launched in April 1989, where it was originally known as Three National News, and was presented by former ETV news anchor Clint Jennings, joined by sportscaster John Sherry and weathercaster Janet Hayton.

Initally, the bulletin went out at 7pm, clashing directly with ERTV's 7 o'Clock News, until January 1991, when - in the wake of the Gulf War - the bulletin was extended from 30 to 60 minutes, making use of TV3's rights to use footage sourced from the BBC, ITN and CNN. Following the war, TV3 continued with the one hour format, with the second half incorporating sport and national weather.

TV3 used the hour-long Three National News as a unique selling point over The 7 O'Clock News which remained as a 30 minute bulletin, although it ran in a 1-hour slot from 1995 to 2003.

During the nine years in which it was known as Three National News, the flagship programme had three hosts. Clint Jennings quit the programme in 1991 to move back to ERTV, presenting the current affairs programme Agenda which aired at 7.30pm to compete with the hour long TV3 programme. Paul Bradby took over as the main presenter of Three National News at the same time, before leaving in 1997, with Carol Patterson presenting the final year of the original brand.

As part of a rebranding of TV3 on Monday 12th January 1998, Three National News recieved a major rebranding, with the brand being shortened to simply 3 News. For the first time, the bulletin was double headed with two presenters giving out the news and sport, in addition to a weather presenter. Clint Jennings made a dramatic comeback to TV3 after being dismissed from ERTV amid interest from Prime, alongside Carol Patterson.

3 News regularly rebranded during this time period - but keeping the same music all the time. The studio set also remained with little change from 3 National News, heavily made up of wood and world maps, inspired by sets used by American local and cable news. The main change was switching from a light blue studio colour scheme to a mix of purple, brown, gold and green.

There was a small refresh to the studio set in January 2002, with the switch to a darker, modern and more classy black, blue and silver colour scheme.

TV3 announced in January 2003 as part of it's annual plan that the network planned to relaunch it's news output for the Autumn season of 2005 - after a public consultation test by ERN - as part of the company's shift in the 2000s, stated that the design of TV3's news output was "old-fashioned" in comparison with the branding used on ERN's other productions including The Rundown and The Latest, the 24-hour news channel TV8, and broadcasters including the BBC, whose 1999 news revamp proved highly influential for it's theme music by David Lowe and distinctive branding, from Lambie-Nairn.

In response to this, TV3 commisioned Lambie-Nairn and composer Stephen Emmer to transform the brand style of 3 News. The entire style of the programme was given an overhaul, and whereas previous looks were always designed with an American feel in mind, the new look would break away from this trend and carry more of a European influence. The serious and orchestral music was replaced by with a more modern theme tune with electronic drums, bass and beeps. Variations on the new branding and music would also be used on TV8 and The Rundown.

Despite initally being planned for September 2004, this was later delayed when in July 2003 it was announce that Clint Jennings was to retire from newscasting in December 2004.

Amid tons of speculation, it was announced in May 2004 that replacing Jennings as host of the main evening programme from January 2005 would be John Evans, who would join as chief presenter of TV3 News from his role as the main presenter of ZTV's irreverent current affairs programme The Latest.