The Virgin Media Television thread

icdg

icdg wrote: »

I’d have thought that the goal would be to launch the sports channel on or around 21st August for the Champions League play off round.

One of the issues they had with that 8:00pm News before is that it clashes with the European football. That won’t be an issue of course if all the football is on the sports channel.

This reorganisation is turning to be a very bad deal for those who don't have access to the Virgin Media platform where this sports channel will be available for no extra charge. Effectively means that the majority of CL & EL football disappears behind a paywall if it resides on the new channel since the TV3 group did better from the latest RoI UEFA TV rights deal than RTE did.

mikeym

We will have to wait and see if the best Champions League matches end up on Virgin Media Sport.

marno21

It would be disappointing if VM Sport was exclusive to the VM platform, and even more so if it takes some of the programming currently broadcast FTA.

There isn't a single VM customer in Kerry due to the short-sightedness of their predecessors Horizon Multichannel. Instead of laying cable, they setup 3 MMDS sites in Kerry, which are now defunct.

channelsurfer2

probably one main match on virgin1 per week the rest on virgin sports. but eir will still have the bt matches anyway.

Elmo

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

probably one main match on virgin1 per week the rest on virgin sports. but eir will still have the bt matches anyway.

You might see some europa league games on Virgin Media TWO.

icdg

I wonder if there was a timely call from Sky between the launch and Sunday reminding Virgin Media that they have have Sky Sports on their platform, because they seemed to have changed their tune on the exclusivity thing in the Sindo piece. I would also be surprised if they don’t put one Wednesday fixture each week FTA, though UEFA seem to have given up on that - they’ve released BT from even the very limited FTA obligation that they had in the last contract.

An Ciarraioch

icdg wrote: »

I wonder if there was a timely call from Sky between the launch and Sunday reminding Virgin Media that they have have Sky Sports on their platform, because they seemed to have changed their tune on the exclusivity thing in the Sindo piece. I would also be surprised if they don’t put one Wednesday fixture each week FTA, though UEFA seem to have given up on that - they’ve released BT from even the very limited FTA obligation that they had in the last contract.

Indeed - they were getting 250-300,000 viewers per match on TV3, whereas it could be a third of that on VM Sport.

Mickey Mike

Wouldn't it be better if they turned be3 into VM sports! what are all the channels for? By the looks of it VM will be bigger than RTE. If they put their channels in HD on Saorview they will be bigger, but then again they are more pay than FTA.

icdg

At a group level they already are much, much bigger than RTE - they are the biggest cable operator in Europe at present, although they have deals in place to offload a chunk of their assets to Vodafone and T Mobile (pretty much everything that’s still trading as UPC).

mikeym

Is there a date set for the big change from Tv3 to Virgin Media 1?

Koloman

mikeym wrote: »

Is there a date set for the big change from Tv3 to Virgin Media 1?

August 30th they say.

icdg

30th August I think was the date mentioned. 3e and Be3 will change on the same date but as I say I could see the sports channel launching earlier to cover the Champions League play off round.

irishfeen

I really do wonder do they actually know for sure about the sports channel - I don’t think they will keep it exclusive to the Virgin platform at all and if they do they are completely mad because it cannot work as most people don’t have access to it (not of their own accord).

I think we will see the sport channel launch on all platforms probably SD and the exclusive bit being HD and a full choice of all HD streams via their own platform.

They would lose massive advertising revenue if they kept the best CL games behind the paywall.

Tigerandahalf

If the sports channel is in SD on saorview that will be 4 channels on the platform. That must be dearer than having 2 in HD.
It would be good to have another channel on the platform especially a sports one.

deezell

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

If the sports channel is in SD on saorview that will be 4 channels on the platform. That must be dearer than having 2 in HD.
It would be good to have another channel on the platform especially a sports one.

Most likely some Champions league and mandatory FTA sport such as 6 nations will show on VM1 or 2 in sub SD as at present. The HD versions will be on Sky (direct or via VM) as TV3 HD is already available here behind the Sky HD paywall. The CL matches on Saorview will have to be chosen carefully. No point in putting a premiership CL fixture on the payment channels and some obscure fixture on Saorview just to try and up subscriptions, while their advertising income plummets. There's one certainty, it will be poorer for those in Saorview only land. This is all about monetising the most desirable media. They outbid RTE for the 6 nations due to the loophole of their sub SD broadcast qualifying as free to air (it's inferior to the previous analogue system). The law/legislation that protects fta access to national sports events needs updating to include a minimum standard. Broadcasting the Irish national team on shopping channel quality is a disgrace.

deezell

deezell wrote: »

Most likely some Champions league and mandatory FTA sport such as 6 nations will show on VM1 or 2 in sub SD as at present. The HD versions will be on Sky (direct or via VM) as TV3 HD is already available here behind the Sky HD paywall. The CL matches on Saorview will have to be chosen carefully. No point in putting a premiership CL fixture on the payment channels and some obscure fixture on Saorview just to try and up subscriptions, while their advertising income plummets. There's one certainty, it will be poorer for those in Saorview only land. This is all about monetising the most desirable media. They outbid RTE for the 6 nations due to the loophole of their sub SD broadcast qualifying as free to air (it's inferior to the previous analogue system). The law/legislation that protects fta access to national sports events needs updating to include a minimum standard. Broadcasting the Irish national team on shopping channel quality is a disgrace.

Yep, plus it needs to be specifically stated what the minimum spec should be. It shouldn't just say 'HD', but actually something like '1920x1080'.

lertsnim

The minister probably has no idea what that means.

Harry Palmr

deezell wrote: »

. The law/legislation that protects fta access to national sports events needs updating to include a minimum standard. Broadcasting the Irish national team on shopping channel quality is a disgrace.

Worth pointing out QVC's PQ is far better than that of TV3 on saorview!

Mickey Mike

I'd love to see RTE 1&2 move up to 1920×1080i whatever about the rest of them, I've given up on them.

An Ciarraioch

Strange that the Irish channels are free in HD with Eir, but not on Saorview.

Sam Russell

Mickey Mike wrote: »

I'd love to see RTE 1&2 move up to 1920×1080i whatever about the rest of them, I've given up on them.

If RTE increased their resolution to 1920 by 1080i, and all SD channels went 720 by 576i, then the current Saorview charges would remain much the same as is.

Ireland trains

Any chance RTE 3 will ever happen
Or maby rte 1+ can be rte 3 till 7pm
And RTEjr as RTE2+ from 7pm
Then during the day the lineup would be
1 RTE One
2 RTE 2
3 RTE 3
4 TG4
5 VM1
6 VM2
7 VM3
8 RTEjr
21 RTE news now

Sam Russell

Ireland trains wrote: »

Any chance RTE 3 will ever happen
Or maby rte 1+ can be rte 3 till 7pm
And RTEjr as RTE2+ from 7pm
Then during the day the lineup would be
1 RTE One
2 RTE 2
3 RTE 3
4 TG4
5 VM1
6 VM2
7 VM3
8 RTEjr
21 RTE news now

That increases the contribution that RTE make to Saorview - 5 channels instead of four.

RTE 3 would replace RTE 1 +1.

What RTE need is a relaxing of their advertising restrictions - such as allowing RTE NN to carry paid for advertising, and allowing RTE more minutes per hour on all their channels. Also a more equitable division of charges for Saorview - currently RTE pay €8 million of the €12 million cost. They also contribute to TG4.

What is needed to an increase in resolution on Saorview.

iseegirls

Can Virgin Media move RTE out of the top 2 slots of 101 and 102, and move VM1-3 on their own platform?

The Cush

Ireland trains wrote: »

Then during the day the lineup would be
1 RTE One
2 RTE 2
3 RTE 3
4 TG4
5 VM1
6 VM2
7 VM3
8 RTEjr
21 RTE news now

Any RTE3 would be be given the next available LCN, most likely 7 with RTEjr moving to 8. Unlikely we'll ever see an RTE3.

icdg

Can we take the RTE stuff elsewhere please.

Irelandtrains, take a warning for dragging a thread off topic with a post which wasn’t even tangiably connected either to the thread topic or to the previous posts

dublinman1990

When Virgin Media Sports begin their football coverage in August; do they have any plan in place to show any matches online through their player at the same time when they are shown on their free to air channels? If VM were showing any of their sports coverage online; will they be shown to everyone online for free or to VM subscribers only?

Mickey Mike

When TV3 is rebranded on the 30th of August it must be removed from the 3 channel slot, TG4 should go back to TnaG on the third channel.
VM1 ch4, VM2 ch5 and VM3 on ch6. Its much tidery, keep all VM channels together and please upscale to 720×576i. I have no more to say on TV3 group of channels.

EdgeCase

An Ciarraioch wrote: »

Strange that the Irish channels are free in HD with Eir, but not on Saorview.

Is Saorview still charging some kind of premium for broadcasting HD?
You'd think they would want to promote the platform!

Mickey Mike

iseegirls wrote: »

Can Virgin Media move RTE out of the top 2 slots of 101 and 102, and move VM1-3 on their own platform?

They can do what they like