Sports Extra (TNT/Premier)

Elmo

icdg wrote: »

Thinking some more about this, I wonder if it'll make it very hard for Eir to retain the Saturday Allianz League games, given part of the reason that deal was palatable was Setanta Ireland's basic cable status.

Or maybe Eir were bidding for championship games, which TV3 have said they are bidding for, anti-competition.

or do virgin have to licence the channels to sell, with no guaranteed income if the don't sell enough?

xtal191

So the only way to get BT Sports now is by getting Eirs ****ty broadband?

ziggyman17

Moving to Eir.. We will get what we currently have with Virgin ( broadband, sky sports, BT sports and phone) for 60 euro a month for 6 months then 140 a month thereafter, currently pay 148 euro a month.

jack presley

xtal191 wrote: »

So the only way to get BT Sports now is by getting Eirs ****ty broadband?

Sky and Vodafone have it for moment too.

sigmundv

xtal191 wrote:

So the only way to get BT Sports now is by getting Eirs ****ty braodband?

Either that or through Sky on satellite.

MisterAnarchy

lertsnim wrote: »

I wonder what happened in the negotiations.

Eir were obviously looking for too much money.
I hope they go bust .

Dodge

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

Eir were obviously looking for too much money.
I hope they go bust .

Seeing as Virgin mention the lower number of EPL games, maybe they were looking for a reduction of the fee on that basis? It's probably just spin but it is striking how many times they mention the loss of those 3pm Saturday games

brick tamland

Being replaced by Sky Sports Mix. Anyone any idea what that is?

eir: Tony

[mod edit - removed their advert]

Or visit us on the eir forum here and we can answer your queries.

Tony

ziggyman17

This is going to bite Virgin on the arse.. Can see lots of angry customers jumping ship, I think most people were not 100% happy with Virgin but were too lazy to change, losing these stations will be the push people need to move..

lertsnim

eir: Tony wrote: »

Hi Guys
just thought that I'd confirm that Setanta - now eir Sport is still available.
Virgin customers can get the Setanta Sports Pack (now the eir Sport Pack) totally FREE with eir Broadband. Get 42 Premier League Games, every Champions League and Europa League Game, 35 European Rugby Champions Cup Matches, Allianz Leagues GAA and so much more FREE when you switch to eir Broadband.
You can find out more here and check out our amazing when you place your order online at www.eir.ie, call us on 1800 500 300 or chat to one of our online agents here today.

Or visit us on the eir forum here and we can answer your queries.

Tony

I am curious about future availability on other platforms now as you make no mention of them.

icdg

brick tamland wrote: »

Being replaced by Sky Sports Mix. Anyone any idea what that is?

It's not a replacement, the two are completely unconnected but Virgin are trying to tie them together to try and quell some of the inevitable discontent.

Briefly (because it's not a topic for this thread) Sky Sports Mix is a new basic tier channel launching on Sky Digital and Virgin Media that will offer "tasters" of Sky Sports programming, in the hope of getting you to subscribe to the full package. Don't expect to actually be able to follow any particular sporting competition - you'll get things like random middle tier Premier League games, a small number of F1 races, Thursday's of golf tournaments and the like.

STB.

eir: Tony wrote: »

Hi Guys
just thought that I'd confirm that Setanta - now eir Sport is still available.
Virgin customers can get the Setanta Sports Pack (now the eir Sport Pack) totally FREE with eir Broadband. Get 42 Premier League Games, every Champions League and Europa League Game, 35 European Rugby Champions Cup Matches, Allianz Leagues GAA and so much more FREE when you switch to eir Broadband.
You can find out more here and check out our amazing when you place your order online at www.eir.ie, call us on 1800 500 300 or chat to one of our online agents here today.

Or visit us on the eir forum here and we can answer your queries.

Tony

You are shameless Tony !

Would you not tell us about how the negotiations failed with Virgin

jack presley wrote: »

Does this constitute a change of contract meaning we can get out of whatever's left on our deals?

Most certainly, if you subscribe to those services already.

Virgin T& C's wrote:

12.2 After your cooling off period has expired, you may cancel the Services at any time, and the Minimum Period obligations contained in Paragraph 3 will not apply, in the following circumstances:

(i) if we change the Terms and Conditions as per paragraph 16 you may terminate this Agreement in accordance with that paragraph;
(ii) if we signicantly reduce the content of the Services you may terminate this Agreement by giving us one month’s notice within 30 days of such change.

ziggyman17

Virgin saying Eir wanted too much for there sports package, yet paid 10 million for UTV Ireland,

Gonzo

I doubt BT Sports would ever be removed from Sky since the channel was put there by BT themselves and serves viewers throughout Ireland and the UK. Eir also have a section on their website about activating the BT Sports channels for free using your Sky viewing card so it should be remaining.

icdg

Virgin are already telling people they won't regard this as being grounds to rescind their contracts. Nonetheless I can see them coming under quite some pressure to allow people to get out of their contracts given the circumstances, including the fact that they've had a quite recent sales drive.

I'd be very surprised if they removed it from Sky. They'd be taking on the commercial customer base by doing so, and that won't end well.

Delta2113

Virgin Media are now at war with Eir. Eir lost the Saturday 3pm games yet they wanted to increase, yes increase the charge for the full sports package.

Virgin called their bluff. Virgin (ntl i think) have stood up to Sky in the past - remember no sky one and sky news.

They should stick Sky Sports Mix on 105 and in the four hundred's - it can then be pulled from 105 when Utv Ireland deal is cleared and they decide how to proceed.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Elmo

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Yeah haven't heard anything about eir sport 1 but it looks like it is going from 105 and virgin media but that needs to be confirmed. AFAIK its only basic on Virgin Media.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

icdg

Irish Times article

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/virgin-media-to-drop-eir-sport-and-bt-from-cable-offering-1.2726352

Interesting about the number of Eir Sport Pack subscribers being 30,000. Does Virgin maybe feel that the loss of those 30,000 subscribers (some of whom will be contracted and can't move for now) will hurt it less than the loss of 300,000 homes from Eir Sport 1? Not just in terms of advertising revenue but in how it might impact in negotiations with rights holders (particularly the GAA and the unique view it takes on these things). But then, as I said earlier, maybe Eir regards the broadband revenue as more important than the advertising revenue.

Kensington

icdg wrote: »

Virgin are already telling people they won't regard this as being grounds to rescind their contracts. Nonetheless I can see them coming under quite some pressure to allow people to get out of their contracts given the circumstances, including the fact that they've had a quite recent sales drive.

I'd be very surprised if they removed it from Sky. They'd be taking on the commercial customer base by doing so, and that won't end well.

Can't see them removing it from sky either.

Quite a sizable amount of Eir's customer base don't have the option of a decent broadband line to support streaming on a laptop nevermind eVision. The Sky platform is the only option to supply Eir Sport "free" to these homes.

Virgin have nowhere near the reach of Sky since the discontinuation of MMDS in April gone so anyone who can get Virgin TV today who would be affected by this change will probably be in an eVision capable area anyway.

Delta2113

BT Sport Europe will become BT Sport 3

BT Sport Ultra HD will become BT Sport 4K (not available in ROI)

This happens 4th August 2016.

marno21

Setanta Sports is still being carried on the clear on analogue cable, wonder what'll happen there?

Delta2113

marno21 wrote: »

Setanta Sports is still being carried on the clear on analogue cable, wonder what'll happen there?

- Replace it with Sky Sports Mix I would imagine.

All Customer's includes analogue customer's as far as I'm concerned.

xtal191

So lets say I move from Virgin to Sky TV but keep Virgin BB, does that mean I cant get BT either? I dont see any option on the Sky site to add BT!

icdg

You can do so at www.eirsport.ie - you don't deal with Sky. It's the exact set up I have.

flazio

I reckon that the competition regulators might want to investigate this as it removes an option for people who wish to choose a service to watch sports like Moto GP, certain Premier League games, American sports and whatever takes their fancy. By removing Sports channels from a service you are forcing people to other means which could be construed as anti competitive behaviour.

Why don't Virgin just up the price to subscribers and let them decide whether or not there's value. I think both sides are playing silly beggars here.

STB.

flazio wrote: »

I reckon that the competition regulators might want to investigate this as it removes an option for people who wish to choose a service to watch sports like Moto GP, certain Premier League games, American sports and whatever takes their fancy. By removing Sports channels from a service you are forcing people to other means which could be construed as anti competitive behaviour.

Why don't Virgin just up the price to subscribers and let them decide whether or not there's value. I think both sides are playing silly beggars here.

Platform neutrality for subscription channels owned by large subscription companies. Novel idea. They lovely playing that card when they want the FTAs.

Its always been taken for granted that it would be in the interests of subscription channels to be on as many subscription platforms as they can.

But in this case it hasn't happened.. Its an interesting strategy by Eir.

Kensington

All of the reading gives me the distinct impression the ball was dropped in Virgin's side of the court, not Eir's.

Virgin's excuse that it was dropped as it was poor value for money - why not just up the price to subscribers and point the finger at Eir for jacking up the carriage cost? Let the customer decide what is or is not value for money.

Virgin also had an issue across Europe with Netflix earlier this year where Netflix was practically unusable at peak hours. Traceroutes show the Netflix traffic was coming in from NYC via Amsterdam on peak congested routes. However Liberty Global refuse to peer locally with Netflix in any of the local European internet exchanges (bar London, due to a legacy agreement going back to the ntl/telewest days) as it goes against their ethos of charging anyone to push traffic into their network. So again paying customers of Liberty Global across Europe were denied access to content as a result of inaction by LGI.