The Virgin Media Television thread

RoTelly

TBH VMTV is the National Commercial Independent Public Service Television Broadcaster in the state, at the very least VMTV ONE should be in HD on Saorview. Though I suspect CnaM gave them a further licence does not care and nor does anyone else at this stage.

Remove National, Commercial, Independent and Public Service as VMTV sees fit on any given day. I suspect for HD on Saorview they are just the National Commercial Broadcaster.

deezell

It all goes back to when the Analog channels were digitised. A single analog carrier channel, say ch33, which carried analog SD Rte2 (or 1?) only can now carry ten TV channels, with several HD if required. TV3 were mightily miffed at being asked to pay more for the small share of a digital channel bandwidth than they had paid for an entire channel bandwidth when they were analog.

Their entire suite of current channels could fit in a bit of a single UHF channel or MUX, yet they had two full UHF bandwidths before digital. It's not surprising they opted for the lowest level/cost of digital delivery, even poorer than SD, as the conflict with RTEnetworks, the transmission arm of RTE, now 2RN, sought to maximise and monetise what they though would be a huge digital TV broadcast market, with room for maybe 40 TV channels instead if the 4 analog. There was bandwidth alright, but no takers in a very small commercial market.

UTV Ireland tried and failed, to be hoovered up by TV3 as Be3 until it became VM3. TV3 had the HD kit, which supplied their astra satellite channels, but these were behind the Sky paywall to this day. The unused digital capacity just sits there, with a few tweaks and additions from time to time. Good nerdy data here; https://www.digitalbitrate.com/dtv.php?lang=en&liste=1&live=15&mux=PSB-MUX-1-THREE-ROCK&nav=mux

icdg

I’ve said this before but it needs repeating, the Media Commission do not care about VMTV being in HD because they are not entitled to care; they can’t just attach conditions to broadcasting contracts that about things that are not within their remit. In fact the Commission do not issue broadcasting licenses at all - Comreg do, but they have no discretion about this; because they are required to issue to the Commission a broadcasting licence in respect of every broadcaster that the Commision sign a broadcasting contract with. It’s a perfect storm, sure, but public bodies can only act within the remit they are given. This doesn’t arise in the UK where Ofcom are both the content and technical regulator, but for better or worse we retained that split.

RoTelly

Regardless guys can you imagine if ITV, C4 and C5 was unavailable in HD in the UK on freeview and freesat.

Do we have costs for VMTV ONE, TWO, THREE and FOUR on Soarview, those cost must be significantly lower than TV3 analogue and that of the initial saorview offering.

After the number new RTÉ, Sky and TG4 channels added.

We basically have regulators who are uninterested. I didn't see VMTV not applying for a renew of the license.

deezell

Time has overtaken this discussion, broadcast media is no longer centre stage, corporate sized content creators coexist with YTers and tiktokers in their bedroom or kitchen. Regulation bloats even as it vanishes. Everything you know is wrong, as Bono unoriginally postulated.

RoTelly

Even when it was centre stage Irish Regulators and Broadcasters didn't care.

icdg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121073341#Comment_121073341

To an extent that’s absolutely true; we have a 1980s regulatory framework for a 2020s society, and we get by only because that regulatory regime is not imposed or implemented on the internet, or to the extent that it is, its only done so against “traditional” broadcasters and not against the small time creators. I’m not arguing that it should be, btw, but the new legislation was a golden opportunity to update the regime and that didn’t happen; the Media Commission may have a shiney new name and identity but it has all of the same powers under the Broadcasting Act 2009 as the BAI did before and nothing has changed really bar who is taking the decisions.

iseegirls

Off topic, but there will be special Celebrity Gogglebox on the 25th birthday of TV3/VM on the 20th Sep. I believe looking back at 25 years of the broadcaster.

Tommy Bowe also stated in their New Schedule special, (a 30minute special on VM More this week) that they will be delving into the archives to broadcast some older shows to celebrate the occasion. No visual clips explaining what programmes, but maybe The Apprentice, Weakest Link, Take Me Out might make an appearance.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121074022#Comment_121074022

It is strange because for the last 5 years they seems to have wanted to erase the history of TV3. Many shows pre-VM takeover nearly all have a VMTV end board.

medoc

What should have happened is that the then TV3 should have been given one complete mux. They were paying the almost equivalent to broadcast one channel to most of the country already. If they wanted to continue broadcasting they would need to pay for Mux 2 in its entirety. They could then if they wish tent out space on it to anyone who wanted it to broadcast. Likewise TG4 could have had a mux 3 to likewise do with as they wish. With RTÉ on mux 1. TV3 and TG4 could also have shared 50:50. It would have been the fairest way and would possibly have led to more channels on Saorview. But that ship has sailed.

gijoees

Any ideas where is the best place to watch the highlights of games? I am finding it very difficult to find and the offical app won't let you see them 'in your region' which is bizarre because its Ireland.

I honestly don't think I am ever found any sporting event so difficult to get the highlights within a reasonably time frame.

Any help would be great, thank you.

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121096753#Comment_121096753

VMPLAYER and RTE player have 6 full matches between them. RTE have France, Oz, England, Japan, VM have Italy, Ireland. I'd expect ITV X to have Scotland and Wales. RWC website highlights is daft, only 3 minutes but not allowed watch.

deezell

I can confirm ITVX has all 8 games in highlight form, very short 8-10 minutes. You can get ITVX on a browser, and you can register as a user, if its region blocked you'll need DNS proxy to mask your location.

https://www.itv.com/watch/rugby-world-cup-2023-highlights/10a4850

icdg

There’s no discussion of circumventing regional restrictions.

iseegirls

Odd how VM didn't bother with their 1 hour scheduled highlights of the football last night after the live game at 10pm.

gijoees

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121098322#Comment_121098322

Yeah very strange.

gijoees

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121097256#Comment_121097256

Any recommendation on a free DNS proxy

Delta2113

I wonder if Virgin will get the Oscars next March - ITV just got rights.

icdg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121100020#Comment_121100020

48 hour ban for ignoring warning two posts up.

icdg

Just to say though, that RTE are running a highlights show on a Monday night (billed as “Against the Head” if you’re having trouble finding it on the RTE Player). A word of warning though, the highlights of the Ireland game (and only the Ireland game) had some weird filters applied to them and some backing music to boot. The other games were done in the traditional format.

iseegirls

Virgin Media More have a 30mins highlights show after each day of rugby. Doesn't seem to appear on any of their other channels or VM Player.

icdg

VMTV Player only does shows on VMTV One, Two, or Three, not Four or More.

I’m sure there’s a good reason for this somewhere....

batistuta9

There's rugby highlights from 5 games on the player

Isn't more exclusive to cable, kinda defeats the purpose if they stick it on the player after. Never looked for VM four shows on it but aren't they all repeats?

RoTelly

Haven't seen a report in a while about VMTV finances usually they are wrapped up in Virgin Media Ireland's finances, which makes the point of saying that they don't release those figures due to their status as a public company.

But losses of €6.1m - VMTV ONE (AKA TV3)

profit of €8.5m - VMTV TWO (AKA CHANNEL 6)

losses of €2.4m - VMTV THREE (AKA Cullen AKA UTV Ireland)

That's breakeven.

Total turnover across those 3 companies €55.3m + €14.7m + €3.8m = €73.8 (Though I think it could be around €80m????)

I assume most of their money is going to Sporting Rights and ITV Studios, they'd need to reflect on their ITV Studios suit of programmes IMO. I don't really see the need for VMTV FOUR or MORE.

No results for VMTV FOUR or MORE

https://www.irishtimes.com/media/2023/09/14/virgin-media-television-narrows-losses-in-2022-after-costs-fall/

Raoul Duke III

looking for help\advice please!

I'm a Virgin Media subscriber. I subscribe to broadband and TV, including all the sports channels and Sky Cinema.

Since approx 5 weeks ago, none of the sports or cinema channels have been available. They all just show a 'click OK to subscribe' message and a black screen with a stop sign. Virgin are still quite efficiently collecting the full payment for these channels!

I have rung them three times. The operators don't seem to have any technical knowledge whatsoever, are superficially helpful, promise action...and then nothing happens! Everything else works fine i.e. normal channels and broadband.

I would switch, except I am stuck in a non-fibre area.

Anyone any smart tips on how to resolve this? Thanks in advance.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121127172#Comment_121127172

you might find answer here https://www.boards.ie/categories/cable-mmds-iptv

This thread is about VMTV channels.

iseegirls

TV3 / Virgin Media TV 25 years old today.

A few new articles around today. I found this piece very interesting in the Indo relating to them shedding staff:

it is difficult for any broadcaster to really up its game if it continuously losing staff. They're constantly shedding people. There's been a conveyer belt of talent there, but it's going towards RTE rather than the other way around. Paul Farrell stated "We lose an average of 1 person to RTE each week. Most of them would be working behind the camera

deezell

Tech staff always mobile, but I doubt they're all going to RTE. They've been shedding production staff for decades, in favour of subbies.

mackersdublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121133123#Comment_121133123

25 years on and the only programmes I've watched on a regular basis were Red Rock, Living With Lucy and Gogglebox Ireland. I honestly can't think of anything else

iseegirls

Gogglebox Ireland did show some clips from the launch show 'This Is TV3' which included Hector and Grainne Seoige. They also showed Twink's Perfect Match, and an old clip from Ireland AM. Apart from that, they didn't show that much older stuff at all.