MORE ADS. FOR TV3

The Sunday Times reports that TV3 is to be allowed to run twice as much advertising as RTE. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has given the go-ahead for independent stations like TV3 to run an extra two minutes of advertising per hour, bringing them into line with UK channels broadcasting here. It has increased their daily limit on advertising from 15 per cent of broadcasting time to 20 per cent – twice as much as RTE is permitted.
The BAI said the independent commercial television sector had been “required to cut costs significantly, resulting in reductions in original programming, staff and salary levels”.
David McRedmond, chief executive of TV3, said the increase in “minutage” put them on par with other European broadcasters and in particular with the hundreds of British broadcasters available in Ireland. He said it would certainly help them to invest more in Irish programming