Mercury TV

Mercury TV is the name of the group of channels provided by Mercury TV Ltd. Mercury TV, once launched will broadcast 21 channels (15 of which will be available in HD). These range from general entertainment to sports and movies. The channels will launch on October 1 2009.

Channels

There will be 21 channels. They are as follows. MERCURY|ONE*, MERCURY|TWO*, MERCURY|MIX*, MERCURY|NEWS, MERCURY|SPORTS NEWS, MERCURY|ARTS*, MERCURY|AUTO, MERCURY|TECH*, MERCURY|FOOD1, MERCURY|FOOD2, MERCURY|LIFE1, MERCURY|LIFE2, MERCURY|SPORTS1*, MERCURY|SPORTS2*, MERCURY|SPORTS3*, MERCURY|MOVIES1*, MERCURY|MOVIES2*, MERCURY|MOVIES3*, MERCURY|MOVIES4*, MERCURY|MOVIES5*, MERCURY|MOVIES MIX* as well as MERCURY|HD*.

  • Also in high definition.

MERCURY|ONE|TWO|MIX

MERCURY|ONE will broadcast a wide variety of entertainment that will be anjoyable to all age groups. MERCURY|TWO will broadcast a wide variety of entertainment that will be enjoyable to all age groups, but will mainly be aimed at the 16-35 year old age groups.

MERCURY|SPORTS NEWS|NEWS

These channels will broadcast live news 24 hours a day with NEWS concentrating on general news and current affairs as well as weather and SPORTS NEWS concentrating on sports news only.

MERCURY|ARTS

This channel will concentrate mainly on painting, sculpture, classical music and shows relating to art. These shows include a show in which budding artists must compete against each other to earn €200,000 to fund an art project which will be on display in a popular museum.

MERCURY|TECH

This channel will broadcast programming pertaining to the world of technology including computers and video games.

MERCURY|FOOD1|FOOD2|LIFE1|LIFE2

The FOOD channels will broadcast programmes such as cooking shows and documentaries on food and the LIFE channel will broadcast shows pertaining to real life stories and the game show, LIFE|SWAP in which 2 families swap lives for a week.

MERCURY|SPORTS

These channels will broadcast sports from around the world, such as football, rugby, cricket, GAA, golf, etc.

MERCURY|MOVIES

MERCURY|MOVIES channels 1-5 will concentrate on certain themes, e.g. 1=comedy, 2=drama, 3=action, 4=classics, 5=other. MIX will broadcast a mix of movies from these channels, but will broadcast them 3 weeks after their original showing.

Launch

The channels will all launch at 12:01am on October 1 2009. Although, MERCURY|MIX is currently available to view on the Mercury TV website, although it is only showing original programming and test transmissions, at irregular periods. The channels will be available on Sky Digital/Sky+/Sky+HD, Virgin Media and Chorus:NTL. It is not known at this point what the channel numbers will be.

Idea

The idea to launch a TV service was devised by Andrew Duncan in 2007. He wanted to create a range of TV channels to rival the likes of Sky. At first, he wished to create a whole service, similar to Sky whereby you would be provided with a Mercury TV set-top box. You would then receive Mercury TV channels as well as other, free-to-air channels. He later scrapped this idea as it would cost too much to implement. Then, in mid-2008 he came up with the idea of launching a range of subscription channels for other TV services. The range of channels were finalised in late 2008. He then began hiring more staff and rented a building from which to broadcast. IN May 2009, the channels were ready to be broadcast. A channel similar to MERCURY|MIX was broadcast on the Mercury site of the time. It was called Mercury TV, it broadcast test transmission online for one month. In July 2009, the development of several programmes began, the majority of these shows would be produced by Mercury themselves, along with another production company. Some shows where made entirely by outside companies. In August 2009, the website was set up and the channels are now being tested online and via television.

Shows

There are several shows in development, some have even been completed. Others are just planned for now. Below is a list of them.

MERCURY|ONE|TWO

Fantasy Hotel - TV show surrounding the goings on in a Dublin hotel. (Mercury Prods/Hazy TV) Fantasy Estates - TV show surrounding the staff of a Dublin estate agents. (Mercury Prods/Hazy TV) The Money Show - TV game show in which contestants can win €500,000. (Mercury Prods/GameTV) The Phone Store - Comedy about the staff of a Galway branch of PhoneHouse. (Hazy TV/ComCom) GamesNight - Interactive phone-in quiz show which callers phone in to give the correct answers and can win up to €7,000. Will be broadcast nightly. (GameTV/Call-Me Prods)

MERCURY|LIFE|FOOD

LifeSwap - Series in which families swap lives which each other for 1 week. (Mercury Prods/SWAP) Garden World - TV show in which we examine gardens of the world. (Mercury Prods/SWAP) Garden Makeover - A persons garden in is made over. They are unaware until they arrive home and see it. (Mercury Prods/Hazy TV) Kid Kooks - Teenagers must battle against adults to make the perfect dish. A food critic decides the best dish without knowing who made which dish. The winner gets €30,000. (Mercury Prods/GameTV) Cooking Clash - Two people must compete to get their dish made the quickest. (Hazy TV) In Search of Great Food - Host, Michael Kardes searches for the best offering of a certain dish in London restaurants. The winning restaurant gets €5,000. (Mercury Prods/GameTV)

MERCURY|ARTS|TECH

ArtScene - Weekly art review show. (Mercury Prods/AliveArtTV) Making the Grade - Game show in which budding artists try to get to the final to win €200,000 to fund an art project. (Mercury Prods/GameTV) Tech-Talk - Weekly talk show in which new gadgets, electronics and software is discussed. Each episode features a guest from the world of technology and a celebrity. (Hazy TV) GameChat - Show in which video games are reviewed and previewed. (Hazy TV) Computer Weekly - Show in which computers are reviewed and the audience is shown things that they can do with their computers. (Hazy TV)

MERCURY|MOVIE

The Review Show - Movie reviews. (Mercury Prods/Moovy TV) The Preview Show - Movie previews. (Mercury Prods/Moovy TV)

MERCURY|AUTO

World Race - Competitors take place in a race around a different coutry each episode. (Hazy TV) Souped - Two teams compete to 'soup' their car the best. They then test them out through several challenges. The winner receives €10,000. (Mercury Prods/GameTV)

[*merucrytveurope.weebly.com -Mercury TV Website]