RTÉ Three

RTÉ Three
Launched	Cancelled
Owned by	Raidió Teilifís Éireann
Audience share	TBC
Slogan	Youthful, Vibrant and Innovative
Country	Ireland
Website	http://www.rte.ie/ten/

RTÉ Three was a proposed channel by RTÉ Television.

It was the working title of a proposed general entertainment channel. It was initially proposed that the channel would air a variety of programming not currently being shown on RTÉ One and RTÉ Two as well as having access to the RTÉ archives, and will be 'a mix of public service and commercial elements'.^[1] The announcement of the channel in May 2008 was timed to coincide with the launch of the Broadcasting Bill 2008, which provided for the switching off of Ireland's analogue signal and the launch of two new government backed stations: the Houses of the Oireachtas Channel and the Irish Film Channel.

According to RTÉ CEL's and UPC Ireland's application for the 3 commercial DTT multiplexes RTÉ Three would broadcast during weekdays, timesharing with RTÉ Sport which airs at weekends.^[2] Given that a children's channel is mooted, it is likely that RTÉ Two will be reconfigured along the lines of RTÉ Three plans with RTÉ Two possibly renamed RTÉ Two-Ten.^[3][4] However, given that the first phase of RTÉ Plus (under the name of RTÉ One +1) has now been launched with a similar genre to RTÉ Three, it is looking increasingly likely that the channel has been cancelled in favour of RTÉ Plus.

References

1. Sunday Business Post, 18 May 2008: 'RTE aims to launch new channel'; retrieved 2008-06-17
2. Easy TV commercial DTT Application form, see page 68.
3. http://www.rte.ie/about/pressreleases/2010/0610/rteten.html
4. http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=MEDIA+AND+MARKETING-qqqs=mediaandmarketing-qqqid=49668-qqqx=1.asp