BROWSING THROUGH TV3’s programme catalogue, it’s hard not to feel a little depressed. Every show seems to be more improbably grim than the next: Pound Shop Wars, Lapdance Ladies, Can’t Pay? We’ll Take It Away… At Christmas. When they’re not treating us to programmes from Channel 5’s rejection pile, they’re known for airing soaps, British game shows, reality competitions, Xposé, the odd bit of sport, programmes about travellers getting married and, lest we forget, anti-vaccine documentaries. With the exception of Tonight with Vincent Browne and the very endearing Gogglebox Ireland, there’s little on TV3 that feels nourishing.
So when TV3 announced their intentions to rebrand UTV Ireland as a new ‘female-focused’ channel called be3, you can understand why I was skeptical.
Bill Malone, Director of Programming, explained at a launch earlier this week that TV3 would be the ‘grown-ups channel’ while 3e would assume the mantle as the group’s ‘fun’ channel. be3, meanwhile, would be marketed as a more ‘female-oriented channel,’ likely taking its cues (and name) from ITVBe, a free-to-air lifestyle and entertainment channel in the UK.
So, what does be3 have in store for us women? Factual programming made by and for women? Television dedicated to wellness, self-care and fashion? More comedies and dramas starring women?
Er, not quite.
be3 will be home to drama and chat and give viewers a second chance to see their favourite soaps. be3 will be home to popular programmes such as Midsomer Murders, Loose Women and Benidorm. be3’s programming schedule will complement and enhance the TV3 and 3e output and will keep its audience up to date with national and international news with two half hour news bulletins every weekday evening. ‘3Kids’, TV3 Group’s daily three hour children’s programming block also moves to be3 from Monday 9th January.
Wow, I’ve never felt so seen and understood. How did be3 know that I, as a woman, have an insatiable thirst for repeats of soaps and ITV programmes? Or that I secretly can’t get enough of the programme Benidorm, a sitcom about British holidaymakers?
It’s almost as if Mel Gibson’s character in What Women Want is in charge of the channel!
The most striking thing about be3’s rebranding is that it looks an awful lot like its predecessor, UTV Ireland, a channel that failed to leave much of a mark on the Irish television landscape by virtue of how reliant it was on British imports. Instead of learning from UTV Ireland’s mistakes, however, TV3 has decided to inexplicably repackage this content and try to sell it as ‘female-focused’.
To add insult to injury, TV3’s Bill Malone made a cack-handed distinction between TV3, the ‘grown-up’ channel and be3, the ‘female-focused’ channel. Is he implying that anything deemed female-focused is by default frivolous and disposable? Is he suggesting that there’s no intersection between ‘grown-up’ telly and ‘female-focused’ television?
I consume a great deal of media — websites, podcasts, magazines, television shows, newsletters — that one could describe as ‘female-focused’ or feminist. But just because it’s made with a female reader/listener/viewer in mind doesn’t mean that it’s not enlightening, intelligent or humorous and it doesn’t mean that men are precluded from consuming or, God forbid, enjoying it. (After all, how many all-male panels have I endured over the years?)
I happen to believe that there is a real need for more television and radio made by and for women here in Ireland, particularly when the power structure is still tilted heavily in favour of men. (Case in point? I have to listen to commentators like George Hook decry ‘radical feminism’ on a semi-regular basis and yet I still haven’t been afforded a national platform to discuss why certain people shouldn’t have been allowed renege on their pledge to retire. Cough, cough.)
Which is why I feel frustrated when a supposed ‘female-focused’ channel is dangled in front of me only to find out it’s the televisual equivalent of the grim dregs found at the end of a can.
Representation is important. Hearing from women of all ages and backgrounds is important. Allowing female programme-makers and broadcasters the opportunity to have their programmes seen in primetime is vital. (For instance, an all-female panel programme like TV3’s Midday is nice in theory, but not when it’s relegated to an hour that prohibits most working women from watching it.)
Imagine how exhilarating it would be to have a chat show hosted by a woman who wasn’t Miriam O’Callaghan. Or more coverage of women’s sport. Or smart, incisive TV/radio about women’s health and self-care. Or more comedies written by and starring women so that Can’t Cope Won’t Cope doesn’t have to bear the burden of being The Girl Comedy. Or just a show where Irish gals can begas and shoot the shit without having any men around to be like, “Sexism isn’t real! You have the Diet Coke ad!”
Unfortunately, I think we’re going to be waiting a while on each of those fronts. Earlier this week, be3 announced its schedule for its first week on air. The highlights include new episodes of Loose Women, Wentworth, Bull and Midsomer Murders, and a 10.30pm repeat of Emmerdale.
“Just what you women like.”
