UEFA European Qualifiers & Nations League 2022-28

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.

icdg

RTE has moved away from the “character” (some might call it trollery) punditry that used to be its hallmark, at least in football and rugby (it is still there to a limited extent in GAA), and although the technical quality of the analysis has improved significantly, it’s just not as fun to watch anymore. I’m not saying that VMTV have filled the gap mind you, and I’d probably still watch BT over VMTV on Champions League nights, there’s probably a little bit of character there thats lacking now with RTE since the old panel (apart from Brady) was retired.