UEFA European Qualifiers & Nations League 2022-28

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: The Virgin Media Television thread.

dublinman1990

The UK rights for the Nations League games for England are now going over to Channel 4 from this summer. I wonder what Virgin would do here about these games if they are showing them on their own channels. Would Virgin block the games on Channel 4 to prioritize viewership for VM More or to any of the VM Extra channels.

iseegirls

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118962850#Comment_118962850

Their own contract on it is probably up as well. I really think they'd be better off investing in getting the Irish games instead in the new deal.

Dodge

Virgin didn’t get the ‘England’ rights. They got the League A rights. Now England is their marquee name but they showed a lot of other games

Still felt odd they showed games at the same time as Ireland were playing of course

Delta2113

Virgin will only block stuff the actual channel has no ROI rights. If they ever went further than that (remove the channel completely - Nuclear option) it might be game over for cable tv in Ireland.

icdg

Exactly. Furthermore they are only likely to block the channel at that channels own request (a la ITV4). If they operate on any other basis there will be a dispute because C4 sell Irish advertising and will be selling on the basis of being available.

That deal (England Nations League games to C4) is not announced yet btw, and the only source is the ever reliable (!) Daily Mail.

iseegirls

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118963566#Comment_118963566

They got all games, apart from the Rep Of Ireland Nations League games, which were exclusive for Sky Sports in Ireland. Virgin Media showed group games involving nations from Scotland, Wales, Ukraine, which weren't exclusively in Group A.

Then with the euro and WC Qualification games, RTE had the ROI exclusive games along with Sky Sports, with Virgin Media taking the rest.

Again, it seemed very odd deal. Many times the panel would be discussing the Ireland game before and after a match, in which VM weren't actually showing live, but instead they had another match on. Made little sense.

icdg

Looks like a massive pick up of international football rights in the UK for the European Qualifiers and Nations League games, not involving England, for Viaplay, a Scandinavian based streaming service.

https://www.nentgroup.com/news/news-releases/viaplay-show-scottish-welsh-and-northern-irish-national-team-football-uk-2013340

So this deal doesn’t involve Ireland, and now gives a big opportunity for an Ireland only player to pick up a whole pile of international football at a time when there’s not normally much football on the telly.

So will VMTV renew their deal, which would now be exclusive and worth a lot more. Or having closed their sports channel down is there room for it?

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118983983#Comment_118983983

Viasat? aka the nordics TV3, could they be interested in VMTV as an acquisition?

icdg

Same crowd (NENT Group) yes, though the actual Viasat pay tv service was hived off into a separate company a while back and doesn’t go by that name anymore. Maybe, their focus seems to be streaming now (like most others I guess).

dublinman1990

If VM wanted to go on a place a bid for these games; they have to contemplate these options while they offer them to Irish audiences. The rights for the UEFA European Qualifiers for the Republic of Ireland are currently listed as crown jewel events under Irish legislation. This would stipulate these matches would have to be shown on FTA television. However the UEFA Nations League rights for the Republic of Ireland are not listed events so those games can be placed behind VM's paywall if they get to win them.

The UK rights for the ROI games are going to become very interesting now as further on in a few years time; unless an abrupt intervention came from Sky; the ROI will be the only home nation where their games are shown via the Sky paywall in the UK. Most of the matches for the other home nations, including NI will be aired on a streaming service. According to a post via Twitter this evening; Some of Scotland's matches and maybe some games from Wales under this new Viaplay deal could be shown FTA in the UK as well.

Delta2113

Republic of Ireland is not a home nation certainly when you are talking about football (soccer) and I'm not trying to start an argument but just being factual.

L1011

If there's a chance of those games going behind a paywall, the list will be updated. It has been reactively updated before.

Dodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118986794#Comment_118986794

The list already has EC and WC qualifiers (and tournament games). The Nations League games are already behind a paywall

icdg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118986780#Comment_118986780

We won’t pursue this argument, I’m not sure who if anyone started it in the first place, but we won’t pursue it further.

My understanding is that this deal is basically similar to the one VMTV had in the last rights period, ie just as VMTV’s deal was for all games except Republic of Ireland, this deal is for all games except England. (Hence there’s no “home nations” terminology attached; England isn’t included).Furthermore while there’s no Irish rights attached, from what I can tell the deal does include U.K. rights to Republic of Ireland games.

Thats important because Sky are basically now out, and somewhere else will be the home of Republic of Ireland Nations League games. (I mean they could go for ROI-only rights, which they’ve done in the past with 3pms, but it’s a whole pile of complex for them, and they prefer rights they can hold simultaneously in both U.K. and ROI). So an opening for VMTV here.

RoTelly

Looks like Channel 4 have taken the following rights

https://twitter.com/C4Sport/status/1519964722497560576

I feel Channel 4 large views Ireland as part of their strategy, so I can't see VMTV doing anything with these rights, would they be interest in the other "nations"?

icdg

Here’s the press release:

https://www.channel4.com/press/news/channel-4-wins-rights-englands-european-qualifiers-and-uefa-nations-league-matches

note this is only for the 22-24 cycle up to Uefa Euro 24 and not the longer term deal which has been done for Scotland/Wales/NI. (Indeed as I understand Scotland/Wales/NI don’t currently have a deal for 22-24 as the Viaplay deal only kicks in from 2024).

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118992851#Comment_118992851

I am surprised they've never split this rights up locally

e.g. Rights for Scotland given on a FTA basis in Scotland, while the UK rights are sold separately to a UK-wide broadcaster.

e.g. BBC Scotland airs Scotland games, UTV airs NI games, S4C airs welsh games, English games to C4 but in England only, but Sky/BT have those rights for the UK.

icdg

Because even the regional channels are available FTA on satellite throughout the U.K., so it would undermine the pay tv rights holder. There’s been a willingness to deal with S4C mind you, but only because it broadcasts in Welsh, and even there it was a sub license from Sky.

iseegirls

Still no sign of who has the Irish rights or even the other games rights yet for the upcoming games?

iseegirls

Virgin Media trailing Love Island will start on Virgin Media Two this June. The previous 2 series were on VM1.

This might be a sign that they've no Nations League games, as there are 14 days in a row of matches starting on June 1st. Unless they move the matches to VM3 or VM More.

icdg

The rights are up now - the Nations League games in June are the first games of the new rights period. Normally UEFA would have a bit more time to sell these rights because the tournament wouldn’t start till early September, but obviously the World Cup having moved to November/December means the football calendar for the rest of the year is a bit odd.

As mentioned previously, Scotland, Wales, and NI have no local broadcaster either for June at present, because Viaplay doesn’t take over their rights until after Euro 2024.

iseegirls

Judging from the upcoming games on their site, looks like Premier Sports are showing the games - Irish ones included (but not the English ones, as they're covered by Channel 4)

https://www.premiersports.com/sports/lives2

icdg

That’s a very eagle eyed spot! Wonder have they got both U.K. and Irish rights? No announcement from UEFA yet.

raddo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119076411#Comment_119076411

They seem to only have the Armenia away game on June 4th. They don't seem to be showing the home games vs Ukraine and Scotland on the 8th and 11th June.

icdg

They’ve all been removed now. The perils of putting things up before a deal is done!

iseegirls

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119081357#Comment_119081357

😀

I presume Virgin Media still have the Play-off matches leftover from the last qualifications as well - with Ukraine v Scotland penciled in for 1st June, and then the final v Wales on the 5th June.

iseegirls

Very interesting TBA's in the latest schedule on VM2 today., which weren't there yesterday.

TBA on Wednesday from 16:45 to 19:00 (same time as Poland v Wales in the first Nations League game). They're showing Scotland v Ukraine at 19:30, which is in the schedule.

TBA on Thursday from 19:30 to 22:30 (6 games being played, possibly Spain v Portugal)

So, looks like Virgin Media have retained the rights. Will be interesting to see where the Rep Of Ireland fixtures go.

icdg

Premier Sports confirm deal this morning, UEFA Nations League and European Qualifiers rights for non-England matches to 2024, exclusive in U.K., non-exclusive in ROI (as they have to be as Republic of Ireland European Qualifiers games are listed)

https://twitter.com/premiersportstv/status/1527590230957641728?s=21&t=dYv2TimudYEI3ygGmuAW1A

Edit: U.K. only according to the press release.

https://www.premiersports.com/sports/football/uefa-nations-league-live

namloc1980

https://twitter.com/Independent_ie/status/1527774925313949697?t=17URrM9DdHb7lBcMDPzf3w&s=19

No chance we'll ever see these in HD on Saorview I suppose?

The Cush

Nations League - RTÉ secures rights to Republic of Ireland UEFA Nations League games for 2022 – About RTÉ (rte.ie)

Euro 2024 qualifiers -

It is understood that RTÉ have are close to finalising a similar package for Ireland’s Euro 2024 qualifiers, ensuring the license holder won’t be required to pay a subscription to see Ireland’s next 14 competitive matches, or 16 if they’re grouped in a six-nation pool at the Euro draw in Frankfurt on October 9.

RTÉ secure live rights for UEFA Nations League campaign (irishexaminer.com)

icdg

RTE have won rights to Republic of Ireland Nations League and European Qualifiers. Virgin Media have won rights to a package of Nations League and European Qualifiers games involving England and other top teams but not Ireland.

mike2084

The 42 are claiming that Premier Sports have spillover rights into ROI. Of course that remains to be seen if it comes to pass.

RTÉ and Premier Sports to broadcast Ireland's Nations League and European Qualifier games (the42.ie)

icdg

It can’t really be called spillover. Spillover implies that due to technical reasons, in order to serve the entirety of the territory for which they have rights, a certain amount of signal leakage into a neighbouring territory is tolerated. That’s not the case with Premier Sports. They absolutely have the capacity to block their signal into ROI and do it every Sunday of the GAA season - you’ll see a big block marked “This is Premier Sports 2 HD ROI” on Sunday where U.K. viewers are getting The Sunday Game.

Call it “non-exclusive” rights perhaps instead. Incidentally a tweet from Premier yesterday did say exactly that and while the press release only mentions U.K. it is worded in such a way that it doesn’t necessarily exclude having rights in ROI, it just doesn’t mention them.

mike2084

Here's our answer it looks like - yes non exclusive is the best way of putting it.

mike2084

Wondering what will they do with the games on BoxNation here since it's not part of the Sports Extra package here?

icdg

Looks like England games on Channel 4 are going to be blocked on Sky, though at least there’s fair warning with “Programme not available” in the EPG.

lertsnim

Anyone with any sense will have the HD version tuned in on Other Channels.

icdg

Or you know, just watch on VMTV.

lertsnim

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119144240#Comment_119144240

A poor choice for anyone not receiving VM channels in HD.

icdg

The people who this directly effects do receive VMTV channels in HD (well, VMTV 1&2 at least). The match is on VMTV2.

The people who don’t receive VMTV channels in HD either don’t have C4 at all (if they only have Saorview) or will have one of the free to air versions - which won’t have this issue - tuned in (if they have free to air satellite). They won’t be watching the encrypted ROI Sky version in any case.

icdg

Meanwhile can confirm Premier Sports UEFA Nations League coverage is available in ROI.

lertsnim

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119145143#Comment_119145143

Is VM1 and 2 in HD for subscribers without a HD pack on Sky? They weren't the last time I looked. Only RTÉ and TG4 were.

icdg

Of course, I do forget that. But if you’re paying for Sky, and care that much about HD, you probably also pay for the HD pack.

icdg

Since our discussion above, they seem to be using VMTV Three mainly for games. This hasn’t been the case before, and VMTV Three’s hardly been used for sport up till now.

Of course, that’s the one VMTV channel that isn’t in HD on Sky.

AJB39

Love Island which is on VM2 rather then VM1 this year is to blame. I expect the football will be back on VM2 in the Autumn.

twinklerunner

Looks like the England game on C4 this evening is also on the Irish version of Channel 4 that we get on Sky.

twinklerunner

Nope, it’s not!

Delta2113

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119186328#Comment_119186328

Virgin Media More and Virgin Media Extra also showing football.

dublinman1990

For those of you who did not have the Channel 4 broadcasts for the England matches; I can very much tell you that there is little to no difference with the presentation. They are using UEFA Nations League graphics & titles for their rights package of the games. It's presentation is probably the exact same as the coverage from RTÉ & Premier Sports.

However; Channel 4 do have Nationwide Building Society as their title sponsor which was the same as ITV's coverage when they had the England games before.

The analysis from Channel 4's team is very generic. It is not like ITV's style of coverage at all. Channel 4 have obviously spent less money to make it use the UEFA style package as they were probably told that they had to use them once they got the rights of the games.

iseegirls

Thought Virgin Media did ok. Surprised they went alone with no studio based analysis for some matches.

Did notice a few comments in another forum about how some feel that VM have passed RTE in terms of presenters, analysists and comms. Kerr, Delaney with Tommy Martin and McIntyre and Armstrong on comms seem like the A-Team at the moment. Unsure about Armstrong, and it's tough when they're not based in the stadiums, but think the rest are a lot better to RTE, whom have fallen so much since the Bill, Dunphy, Giles and Brady days.