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THE DIRECTOR OF Programming at TV3 is to leave the station at the end of this year. Ben Frow will finish up at the Ballymount broadcaster at the end of December, returning to the UK where he had previously worked at Channel 4, among other media companies.
In a statement today, Frow said that it had been a “privilege and a pleasure” to work with TV3 and increase the volume of its homegrown programming. He said:
The last five years have been exciting, demanding, challenging and often frustrating. But they have also been some of the most rewarding and enjoyable of my career – thanks to the skill of wonderful people across TV3 and particularly my talented and enthusiastic team in the Programme Department.
In an interview with TheJournal.ie in August, Frow indicated he had had a difficult time overcoming the financial limitations of the broadcasting market here. He told reporter Hugh O’Connell:
This has been a brutal, brutal, brutal year for me personally, much harder than 2008 and 2009 (his first full years at TV3). Financially it’s been a lot tougher, we don’t seem to be coming out of any kind of recession. Our ambition is limitless but we can only do so much unless some people step up to the plate and help us out a bit. The team are good but we’re not miracle workers.
This referred to the continuing public funding support for RTÉ as well as the revenue they yield from commercial advertising.
In that interview, he also referred to the personal toll the post was taking on him.
I’m a bit knackered by the whole thing frankly. It’s exhausting and it’s really demoralising… I find it utterly depressing that no one will step up to the plate and it’s like nobody cares, you know? I think TV3 has such an important role to play in this country. It’s an independent voice, you can’t just have RTÉ dominating everything. Everyone seems to be utterly terrified of rattling RTÉ’s cage.
He also said that he felt there was “an inherent snobbery towards TV3″ and that “maybe commerciality and snobs don’t go in hand”.
While Frow said that he felt a great responsiblity to the commissioning team and to the channel as a while, he felt that there is “very little room for taking a risk on TV3 because we have such responsibilities, financial responsibilities, there’s no room for chucking… burning money because Ben’s got a whimsy that may or may not work.
Reacting to the announcement of Frow’s departure today, TV3 chief executive David McRedmond said that he felt Frow had made a “distinctive and brilliant mark” on Irish broadcasting and that he was happy that he had been able to persuade him to stay so long. He added:
While I am extremely sad that Ben is leaving TV3, he has all of mine and my colleagues’ gratitude and he leaves with our very best wishes.
TV3 has yet to make a decision on a replacement for Frow at the helm of commissioning. Frow was responsible for launching TV3 shows such as Celebrity Salon, The Forgotten Irish, The Tenements, Dublin Wives, Tallafornia, Midweek, Celebrity Salon as well as bringing Irish version of Come Dine with Me and The Apprentice to air.
- additional reporting by Hugh O’Connell
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“a distinctive and brilliant mark on Irish broadcasting”
Late night psychic readers. I’ll say no more!
What programming?…..ITV Oireland has none!
Well TV3 gave Vincent Browne an outlet after his sacking from RTÉ, shortly after his questioning of Bertie. Midweek is often just as good as Prime Time. And some of their crime documentaries have been good too. Even the fact that they have a breakfast news show which RTÉ never managed is in their favour.
Both RTÉ and TV3 are routinely criticised on here for different reasons, although both tend to be criticised especially when compared with the UK and US TV markets. However given the tiny size of the Irish market, it is very difficult for them to compete on such limited budgets – especially TV3 with 200 staff verses the 2,000 or so at RTÉ.
dreadful station. nothing to recommend it at all. like a kind of bad youtube trailer for satellite tv
The best thing about TV3 is it’s not 3e
OMG no more Tallaghforia ! No more investigations of the Travellers ? No more crime Investigations ! OMG, OMG, OMG.
He must be so proud.
TV what!!!!!!! never heard of them
You could say that he has Frow in the towel.
I agree RTE shouldn’t dominate the license fee. But they haven’t exactly proven an interest in quality.
RTE is getting more and more tacky anyway, so they actually might stand out if they made an effort.
Unlikely. Irish TV is all tabloid crap these days.
I reckon Vincent Browne made him cry a few times.
TV3 had a Director of Programming ??? Who knew ???
Digsy, don’t even get me started on this one, bro.
Totally get where he’s coming from. They need those psychics for revenue and the shitty programs is cos of lack of funds. Rte is unreal in the way its runjust like everything else in this bloody country !
I think the comments on here are proving frows point of snobbery toward the station.. yes, tallafornia is shite, late night psychic’s are ridiculous but the good thing about the station is difference. Difference from the monopoly of rte and it’s uniformed lesson to the people of Ireland. Choice is good.. tv3 has some crap programmes but they were different programmes to rte giving people an option from the home nations broadcasters.. I have sympathy for the station as it looks with envy to Montrose and it’s government grants, licence fees and advertising revenue… it’s doing the best it can with the money it has
Difference for the sake of it isn’t enough. Copying the most banal international formats isn’t enough. I would love to have a talented, clever, edgy, original alternative to RTE (perhaps more akin to Channel 4 than ITV) but TV3 is so disappointing, it’s an embarrassment to Ireland’s creativity.
No Jason, its not doing the best it can.
Its unadulterated sh/t3.
Tallafornia was superb; capturing a snapshot of what it is like to be young and Irish.
Dublin Housewives, TV3′s other fly-on-the-wall docudrama, exposed the real life tragedy of post-tiger Ireland as middle class wives struggled to adjust to life after we had all partied and borrowed too much.
The upcoming European syndication of both series will hopefully help our continental patrons better understand what makes us tick.
Makes us tick, right?
Missing a ‘h’ there, Paul
but the point is that it wont show them anything about what makes ‘us’ t(h)ick except that when it came to programming all we could do was follow outmoded reality tv formats. it isnt lack of money that makes tv3 what it is, its lack of imagination.
i certainly don’t like the idea that these programmes would represent me or anybody i know in any way whatsoever.
you lost the right to any opinion the min you said tallafornia was superb!
Jesus wept, is that what they class as “homegrown” programming????
Stick a camera into a gaff full of 20-something year old, sex-mad, boozed up thicks???
I swear to god, the current affairs department in RTE must be shi::ing themselves!!
ha ha
Obviously that’s Bizzaro-Ben Fro, from the Bizzaro universe where TV3 is good, Breakfast rolls are good for you and the Environment is too clean and needs a good bashing.
This is a perfect example of how Ireland is an awful place to do business. As long as Government insist on state interference in the Broadcast industry, RTÉ will continue to unfairly dominate the market, and like CIE, bloat it’s way to bankruptcy. Fair play to Ben Frow for putting up with our industry for so long.
so
Rte get 160 quid off every household in ireland and tv3 gets what it makes on the ads , so until level a playin field we’ll never know if tv3 could actually make something watchable
I have no problem with TV3 as I never watch it, however they do not charge me a license fee so I cannot complain. RTE on the other hand do if I watch it or not! Almost never watch their TV, but occasionally listen to the radio which has dumbed down to a core recipe of crime,sex or scandal as an integral part of all their news and currant affairs programmes. This is the recipe of “red top ” news, successfully created by the now defunct NOW. So have we now got a ” red top” national radio station?
Pandering to the “add mass” of the lowest common denominator, should not incur a payment of a licence fee for those do not to watch or listen to this overrated and self promoting entity.
Tabloid TV at its best or WORST
“Frow was responsible for launching TV3 shows such as Celebrity Salon, The Forgotten Irish, The Tenements, Dublin Wives, Tallafornia, Midweek, Celebrity Salon as well as bringing Irish version of Come Dine with Me and The Apprentice to air.”
I don’t particularly like being nasty but almost all of those shows are merely Irish re-shoots of shows that are from other countries and most of them make the universe worth less.
Don’t get me wrong – I wish the guy well and TV3 add another channel as an option for most Irish viewers, which (at least theoretically) gives an alternative viewpoint in addition to that of the state broadcaster but I hope that Ben Frow manages to make something worthwhile when he returns to the UK.
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