TV3 put on the glitz yesterday for the official launch in Dublin of Showpal, its new "second-screen" app targeted
at viewers who can't put
their phones down while watching television. As outlined in yesterday's Irish Times, it provides real-time links and updates from the web about TV3 shows as they happen.

The launch took place upstairs in the Science Gallery in a room illuminated by blacklights. What with all the models and ex footballers in the room, it felt a bit like the upstairs bar in Krystal. To give TV3 its dues, it knows how to do showbiz. The production values of the launch were akin to a Eurovision.

Truth serum
David McRedmond, the station's ever ebullient chief executive, sneaked in at the end. He almost swallowed his tongue when I asked him who might buy TV3's loans from Irish Bank Resolution Corporation. You'd have needed truth serum to get a line out of him. The spoilsport.

Stephen Grant, TV3's head of online, told the room it was in "advanced discussions" with several international broadcasters to flog them the Showpal app. I also hear it has been offered to its rival RTÉ, with whom there was some "preliminary discussions". Signs of a detente, perhaps? Don't hold your breath.

Word is that the overall investment in Showpal set
TV3 back something like
€1 million. Show Me The Money, more like. The station is confident it will get its money back.

Also lurking down the back of the room, and looking slightly miffed that they forgot to call him up for his speech, was Vincent Browne.

I doubt he normally hangs out under blacklights.