Pending Ireland’s Independent Radio and Television Commission’s decision, CanWest Global’s newest international venture, TV3, could be on air in less than 12 months.

CanWest is dipping into the European market with TV3 after directing a successful turnaround of New Zealand’s TV3 and a controversial yet profitable involvement in Australia’s Network Ten.

CanWest, in a consortium comprised of Windmill Lanes Pictures, U2 manager Paul McGuinnes, and show business accountant Ossi Kilkenny, says TV3, the Republic’s only national free-to-air private broadcaster, will have a signal penetration of approximately 85% of the viewing population. Plans are also set to increase the signal within five years, with hopes of reaching 95%.

Unlike the Australia and New Zealand ventures, which were taken over by CanWest, TV3 will be developed from the ground up. Capital expenditure to launch the station is estimated at $32 million, an investment likely ably balanced by a share of the lucrative Irish market.

Ireland’s economy was troubled a decade ago, but in the last three years the country attracted international corporations through tax incentives and low interest rates. Economic growth has also climbed steadily ­ 25% in 1995, 26% in 1996, and 17% so far this year.

In the last five years, expenditure on television advertising in Ireland has ballooned 71% to a projected £96 million, representing about one-third of Ireland’s total £300 million media advertising pie, including print. Two state-owned television networks currently enjoy 100% of the revenue.

James Morris, head of Windmill Lane Productions, suggests that CanWest’s purchasing power of American programs can only benefit TV3 as a whole.

‘The irtc has been very supportive in the past, and in CanWest we have at last found a dedicated, experienced and financially committed partner to assist with the development of this exciting television opportunity,’ says a confident Morris.

Morris adds that since CanWest’s involvement with the consortium, talks with the irtc have advanced further than when Ulster tv was part of the negotiating team (utv dropped out in September of last year).

CanWest, which has already gained a 48% stake in the TV3 consortium for an estimated $35 million, targeted Ireland because of its booming economy and lackadaisical foreign ownership laws on broadcasters.

CanWest hopes Ireland will garner the same results as its previous New Zealand venture, TV3. If the similarities between the two markets mean anything, look for Ireland’s TV3 to yield big dividends for CanWest.

Gerald Noble, CanWest’s vp operations agrees, saying ‘the populations of New Zealand and Ireland are virtually the same, and both markets share the same history of television with only two state-owned English-language local channels.’

If anything, Noble believes establishing TV3 in Ireland may be more advantageous than the Kiwi station, since ‘Ireland has a well developed cable system which will significantly assist TV3 Ireland’s early launch.’

Leonard Asper, CanWest vp corporate development, currently in Ireland to work out details of the transaction, feels TV3 gives the company some much-needed penetration into the English-speaking market in the European nations.

‘Ireland represents an important new market for CanWest, and TV3 will become our first television operation in Europe. This transaction takes us a major step forward in our often stated objective of establishing a presence in all major English-speaking television markets.

‘Further, it has the added benefit of creating an operating base from which we can monitor developments and opportunities in the broader European marketplace.’

What CanWest might rather avoid with its new station is a controversy similar to that in Australia. CanWest, with 76% economic interest in Network Ten, is under scrutiny for allegedly breaching foreign ownership laws. CanWest chairman Izzy Asper is currently in Australia seeking buyers for the piece of the station the regulator is forcing CanWest to sell.

But the chance that CanWest will encounter a bitter struggle for ownership of the Irish TV3 are slim to none.

The Green Paper on Broadcasting, a consultative document released in 1995 by Michael D. Higgins, Minister for Arts and Culture, reports that ‘the irtc, in considering applications for a sound broadcasting contract, to have regard to the desirability of allowing any person or group of persons to have control of, or a substantial interest in, an undue number of sound broadcasting services.’

Simply speaking, if the irtc stipulates that CanWest is a ‘sound broadcaster,’ then no specific restrictions will be laid.

In 1991, CanWest acquired 20% economic interest in New Zealand’s fledgling TV3 for $10 million. In the last six years, on the strength of blockbuster u.s. programming, the Canadian broadcaster pulled TV3 out of bankruptcy. Five years later and after four years of consecutive growth in New Zealand, CanWest’s share of TV3’s revenue was $43.4 million, up 11.5% from 1995. By 1996, TV3 also enjoyed its highest market share, with 24% of the national audience.

Then in 1992, CanWest, as part of a consortium, purchased a 57.5% economic stake in Australia’s Network Ten at a cost of $33 million. CanWest reported its share of Ten’s revenue in 1996 rose 20.9% from a year earlier to $259.4 million.