Hard Brexit and BBC/UK channels on Virgin Media

10000maniacs

In the event of a hard Brexit, obviously the EU treaties that allow UK channels to be seen in the EU and vice versa will be null and void until they are enveloped by another future treaty. So will the BBC pull their channels on Virgin? Obviously if you have Freesat they will continue to be available because they are FTA but that is not very useful to apartment dwellers who only have Virgin Media and Saorview.

lgs 4

10000maniacs wrote: »

In the event of a hard Brexit, obviously the EU treaties that allow UK channels to be seen in the EU and vice versa will be null and void until they are enveloped by another future treaty. So will the BBC pull their channels on Virgin? Obviously, if you have Freesat they will continue to be available because they are FTA but that is not very useful to apartment dwellers who only have Virgin Media and Saorview.

Good question! BBC Television programming and channels are all over Europe as part of subscription packages.

icdg

They were available on cable here before we joined the EU, so I can’t see it being a problem.

But if it is a problem, it would affect more than the BBC. Aside from a handful of channels (the Saorview channels and VM Sport), nearly all of the channels on Virgin Media Ireland are licensed in the U.K. and the same is true of Sky incidentally. Reportedly Sky has written to every channel on its Irish EPG asking them to confirm their licensing status ahead in the EU ahead of Brexit. Because of the convulted licensing process here it may be other EU jurisdictions with an “on demand” system similar to the U.K. that they go to rather than the BAI.

Elmo

It's up to the BAI to decide, and its unlikely that they would enforce removing the channels.

Also the GF agreement covers carriage of at least BBC ONE and TWO NI, not sure about Channel 4, and UTV's been dropped in any case.

icdg

Neither of those things are true.

The only TV channel mentioned by name in the Good Friday Agreement is Telefis na nGaelige, and only in the context of its availability in Northern Ireland.

And the BAI has no role in authorising television services licensed in other jurisdictions to be carried on platforms here (like the CRTC does in Canada, for instance).

Elmo

icdg wrote: »

Neither of those things are true.

The only TV channel mentioned by name in the Good Friday Agreement is Telefis na nGaelige, and only in the context of its availability in Northern Ireland.

And the BAI has no role in authorising television services licensed in other jurisdictions to be carried on platforms here (like the CRTC does in Canada, for instance).

Sorry I thought there was something signed by Éamon Ryan about coverage after DSO a mou

I am not saying the BAI have a role authorizing TV services in other jurisdictions, re read the post.

Seth Brundle

I recently put a similar question to Virgin Media on here and they wouldn't tell me if they had any agreement in place...
https://www.boards.ie/ttfthread/2057921430/1