The Virgin Media Television thread

Elmo · 08-04-2021 9:12pm

Dindane wrote: »

Seeing how when I was flicking around seeing how many Europa League games were on FTA that Virgin Three were showing an episode of Inspector Morse from 1992, I hope the channel's being paid for this.

Danny Boyle was directing before the start of his movie career.

Unfathomable.

This is how you start a career.

Probable not costing them that much to show it.

Delta2113 · 09-04-2021 2:04pm

ITV have switched Racing at Aintree today to ITV4 - Virgin Media Television won't be happy.

Delta2113 · 09-04-2021 2:24pm

ITV have pulled Emmerdale and Coronation Street. I can't see Virgin showing the soaps so we might be lucky and get The Chase.

lertsnim · 09-04-2021 3:09pm

Delta2113 wrote: »

ITV have switched Racing at Aintree today to ITV4 - Virgin Media Television won't be happy.

Why?

Delta2113 · 09-04-2021 3:10pm

Prince Philip died in England so news on ITV1.

lertsnim · 09-04-2021 3:27pm

Yes he has but how does the horse racing being moved to ITV4 make Virgin Media Television unhappy? They are still showing it on Virgin Media One as scheduled.

Delta2113 · 09-04-2021 4:00pm

lertsnim wrote: »

Yes he has but how does the horse racing being moved to ITV4 make Virgin Media Television unhappy? They are still showing it on Virgin Media One as scheduled.

Yes but Virgin Media Ireland Tv subscribers can now watch it on ITV4 instead off Virgin Media One.

dulpit · 09-04-2021 4:12pm

Delta2113 wrote: »

Yes but Virgin Media Ireland Tv subscribers can now watch it on ITV4 instead off Virgin Media One.

Why would they?

lertsnim · 09-04-2021 4:39pm

Delta2113 wrote: »

Yes but Virgin Media Ireland Tv subscribers can now watch it on ITV4 instead off Virgin Media One.

Nobody is going to choose SD over HD when the coverage is identical except for ads.

Of course this is in reference to Sky and Virgin Media viewers. FTA the option is SD or SD.

Delta2113 · 09-04-2021 5:02pm

lertsnim wrote: »

Nobody is going to choose SD over HD when the coverage is identical except for ads.

You would be surprised - compare the ITV4 D.O.G. with Virgin - ITV4 easily the winner. Yes pity it's only SD but I watched on my phone so ITV4 all the way.

iseegirls · 09-04-2021 6:26pm

Delta2113 wrote: »

ITV have pulled Emmerdale and Coronation Street. I can't see Virgin showing the soaps so we might be lucky and get The Chase.

I'd expect Corrie Memorable Moments and Emmerdale Family Tree instead. There's a special called When Phillip met Philip, where P Scholfield met him. So I'm sure VM1 will show that numerous times over the next week.

JDxtra · 09-04-2021 6:43pm

lertsnim wrote: »

Noticed today that the VM Player is on Android TV. It took them long enough. App is decent enough and has live streams.

Oh... Hasn't appeared for me yet on Nvidia Shield.

Elmo · 09-04-2021 6:51pm

iseegirls wrote: »

I'd expect Corrie Memorable Moments and Emmerdale Family Tree instead. There's a special called When Phillip met Philip, where P Scholfield met him. So I'm sure VM1 will show that numerous times over the next week.

You've reminded me that they repeated The Big Soap Quiz at Easter, another Christmas or new year programme.

Delta2113 · 09-04-2021 11:33pm

By pure fluke with timing we got initial ITV Breaking News coverage instead off This Morning before it was yanked off and they showed Ireland's Paramedic I think it was.

lertsnim · 10-04-2021 12:57am

JDxtra wrote: »

Oh... Hasn't appeared for me yet on Nvidia Shield.

It's definitely there in the Play store.

iseegirls · 10-04-2021 3:22pm

Don't Look Back In Anger 1998 and a Celebrity Catchphrase replaced the soaps last night on VM1. VM2s repeat replaced by Graham Norton special and Darcy Oake (BGT winner) special. VM3s repeats replaced by Paul OGrady Dogs and 50 Years a Prince this weekend.

I believe on Tuesday will be an hour each of Emmerdale and Corrie to catch up.

Not sure if VM will take the funeral when it happens, but there won't be any This Morning if it occurs on a weekday.

icdg · 11-04-2021 11:15am

It is on Sat 3pm and not in the schedule. They are meant to be showing Scottish racing but I expect all sports events in the U.K. on Saturday afternoon to be postponed or moved to a lunchtime or prime time slot.

Maz2016 · 11-04-2021 11:30am

I see UTV+1 is being scrapped and replaced by ITV Granada +1 from Tuesday (sky, VM NI and FreeSat viewers) UTV branding has practically disappeared for the past year. I wonder if UTV will eventually be ITV Northern Ireland and would that have any effect on Virgin Media?

https://rxtvinfo.com/2021/explainer-whats-changing-at-itv-from-13th-april

Elmo · 11-04-2021 12:00pm

Maz2016 wrote: »

I see UTV+1 is being scrapped and replaced by ITV Granada +1 from Tuesday (sky, VM NI and FreeSat viewers) UTV branding has practically disappeared for the past year. I wonder if UTV will eventually be ITV Northern Ireland and would that have any effect on Virgin Media?

https://rxtvinfo.com/2021/explainer-whats-changing-at-itv-from-13th-april

People watching ITV in Ireland are watching ITV and not UTV per se.

I never opted for UTV +1 on Sat, choosing a random english ITV +1 variant.

Maz2016 · 11-04-2021 12:15pm

Elmo wrote: »

People watching ITV in Ireland are watching ITV and not UTV per se.

I never opted for UTV +1 on Sat, choosing a random english ITV +1 variant.

I guess most would agree with you. I did watch UTV live news on UTV +1 in the evenings but I know I’d be in a minority there. I did use utv+1 a lot. Not a big deal to switch to itv+1.

My point moreso was if utv was renamed/fully replaced by itv , would ITV still sell their programming to VM?

dulpit · 11-04-2021 1:23pm

Maz2016 wrote: »

My point moreso was if utv was renamed/fully replaced by itv , would ITV still sell their programming to VM?

Why wouldn't they? UTV isn't (unless I'm mistaken) carried on any Irish TV provider package (obviously you can get it fta as satellite channel or terrestrial if near the border...)

Delta2113 · 11-04-2021 1:30pm

When the ITV deal with Virgin Media Television runs out they have a number off options.

1. Do a new deal with VMT.
2. Try and have a go at a Utv Ireland again or ITV ROI for example.
3. Launch a Britbox streaming service for Republic of Ireland and include Coronation Street, Emmerdale etc.

Elmo · 11-04-2021 1:45pm

Delta2113 wrote: »

When the ITV deal with Virgin Media Television runs out they have a number off options.

1. Do a new deal with VMT.
2. Try and have a go at a Utv Ireland again or ITV ROI for example.
3. Launch a Britbox streaming service for Republic of Ireland and include Coronation Street, Emmerdale etc.

Pretty much ITV have plenty of options and as FTA TV fades where you get this content won't matter. ITV could launch ITV Hub here much like channel 4 have done with All 4.

ITV plc/ Granada where the real winners since 1978 they had 3 separate buyers for their programming, RTÉ, TV3, UTV and back to TV3/Virgin.

The deal ends in 2027 AFAIK

I wonder if VMTV will have been sold by that time.

lgs 4 · 11-04-2021 9:04pm

I have stated this before. If Virgin put money into the network. We could have a very high standard of television viewing. The first thing that needs to do is to break the dependency on ITV for its programming . Look for programs in Europe and the US. That would be the main Virgin channels 1and 2 and make channel 3 a Multicultural Channel with programming from around Europe. To cater to Polish and Lithuanian and other nationalities communities living in Ireland. Cablelink did it back in the 1980s with news from Germany, Italy and Spain and it was very popular. HD on Saorview.

icdg · 12-04-2021 12:54pm

The foreign language programmes will only go so far. They are a turn off to large portions of the viewing public. Cablelink was putting those news bulletins on its Link channel (which filled Nickelodeon’s airtime after it closed down at 7pn) and not trying to make any money on them and there are no viewing figures to realistically say how well they did. That was also in the pre internet days. These days if I want I can get news from Spain, Italy, and Germany in their national languages - or in English if I prefer - on the internet easily.

When we speak about VMTV, the broadcaster, as opposed to Virgin Media, the cable company, the former are (one part time pay channel aside) a completely FTA commercial TV play. They live and die on ratings and on advertisers willing to buy airtime. Showing foreign language news from abroad isn’t going to do it for them. They pay for ITV’s content and having already paid for why would they not show it. The alternative is when this deal is up ITV re-enters the Irish market in some form. Possibly not with a linear channel this time, but perhaps Britbox. The mass demand is there for its content and someone is going to show it if VMTV wasn’t going to.

Elmo · 12-04-2021 1:07pm

Have to agree.

Irish broadcast content has been below par for the last number of years. RTÉ has no really competition from Virgin Media TV, while VMTV has no really competition from RTÉ, both are happy to continue as they are. I am not sure how happy RTÉ are with 27% share but VMTV are happy with audience from 14% to 17% by doing very little.

twinklerunner · 12-04-2021 5:30pm

lgs 4 wrote: »

I have stated this before. If Virgin put money into the network. We could have a very high standard of television viewing. The first thing that needs to do is to break the dependency on ITV for its programming . Look for programs in Europe and the US. That would be the main Virgin channels 1and 2 and make channel 3 a Multicultural Channel with programming from around Europe. To cater to Polish and Lithuanian and other nationalities communities living in Ireland. Cablelink did it back in the 1980s with news from Germany, Italy and Spain and it was very popular. HD on Saorview.

You’re deluded if you think there’s a market showing Polish/Lithuanian programmes etc. Those nationalities already watch their home tv services. They’re not relying on Irish TV providers.

iseegirls · 12-04-2021 9:17pm

Piece in the Irish Times today:
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/virgin-media-television-eyes-redemption-success-after-bumper-first-quarter-for-sport-1.4535317?mode=amp&__twitter_impression=true

Would have preferred some more questioning about renewal of Six Nations? All well and good taking the exact same ITV feed of the Racing and somehow taking credit for its ratings as if they've produced it themselves.

Elmo · 12-04-2021 11:55pm

iseegirls wrote: »

Piece in the Irish Times today:
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/virgin-media-television-eyes-redemption-success-after-bumper-first-quarter-for-sport-1.4535317?mode=amp&__twitter_impression=true

Would have preferred some more questioning about renewal of Six Nations? All well and good taking the exact same ITV feed of the Racing and somehow taking credit for its ratings as if they've produced it themselves.

You could say the same about drama TBH. The Irish Film Board mentioned once in that article with no mention of the BAI, which helped to fund Blood and Deceived.

Ten Pin · 12-04-2021 11:56pm

I have stated this before. If Virgin put money into the network. We could have a very high standard of television viewing. The first thing that needs to do is to break the dependency on ITV for its programming . Look for programs in Europe and the US. That would be the main Virgin channels 1and 2 and make channel 3 a Multicultural Channel with programming from around Europe. To cater to Polish and Lithuanian and other nationalities communities living in Ireland. Cablelink did it back in the 1980s with news from Germany, Italy and Spain and it was very popular. HD on Saorview.

Unfortunately, none of that will happen, the BAI seem to be hands off in relation to anything that would increase quality of service to viewers (eg BAI should have insisted on HD on Saorview to allow the VM/UTVI/TV3 deal to proceed). Once the news and current affairs output includes enough airtime for politicians then the rest of the schedule can be any sort of filler. A bit of sport and the soaps are just about enough to keep the whole thing going. On a business level it's probably doing OK and doesn't have the financial problems RTE have so it'll be steady as it goes at VM with the possibility of eventually being bought out again or maybe just becoming an ITV Ireland in all but name.....BAI will allow whatever happens to happen as long as no big feathers are ruffled.

Financial considerations are top of the list in most industries nowadays...if VM are holding their own in terms of advertising revenue for the scheduled output then they won't invest anything more than is absolutely necessary to keep it ticking over. The uncertainty of the sports rights market makes for no drastic changes to the non sports part of the schedule for a while yet.

Unfortunately, high standards of viewing are low on the priority list....and it's not only a VM problem....RTE have a few filler programs that are poor fare...who ever thought that "Pulling with their parents" deserved a prime time slot on RTE 2 and a repeat on RTE 1 a day or two after...

icdg · 13-04-2021 7:40am

Ten Pin wrote: »

Unfortunately, none of that will happen, the BAI seem to be hands off in relation to anything that would increase quality of service to viewers (eg BAI should have insisted on HD on Saorview to allow the VM/UTVI/TV3 deal to proceed). Once the news and current affairs output includes enough airtime for politicians then the rest of the schedule can be any sort of filler. A bit of sport and the soaps are just about enough to keep the whole thing going. On a business level it's probably doing OK and doesn't have the financial problems RTE have so it'll be steady as it goes at VM with the possibility of eventually being bought out again or maybe just becoming an ITV Ireland in all but name.....BAI will allow whatever happens to happen as long as no big feathers are ruffled.

Financial considerations are top of the list in most industries nowadays...if VM are holding their own in terms of advertising revenue for the scheduled output then they won't invest anything more than is absolutely necessary to keep it ticking over. The uncertainty of the sports rights market makes for no drastic changes to the non sports part of the schedule for a while yet.

Unfortunately, high standards of viewing are low on the priority list....and it's not only a VM problem....RTE have a few filler programs that are poor fare...who ever thought that "Pulling with their parents" deserved a prime time slot on RTE 2 and a repeat on RTE 1 a day or two after...

The BAI have no jurisdiction over anything technical. That’s Comreg’s balliwick. Yes why we still maintain this split technical/content regulation in this day and age is anyone’s guess (the U.K. unified them nearly twenty years ago) but it’s the system we have.

Dodge · 13-04-2021 7:57am

Ten Pin wrote: »

Unfortunately, high standards of viewing are low on the priority list....and it's not only a VM problem....RTE have a few filler programs that are poor fare...who ever thought that "Pulling with their parents" deserved a prime time slot on RTE 2 and a repeat on RTE 1 a day or two after...

All of that is subjective. Of course a regulatory body won’t tell a TV station what ‘high standards of viewing’ is. Because your idea of what ‘high standards’ are will be completely different to other people’s views on it

odyssey06 · 13-04-2021 8:04am

Dodge wrote: »

All of that is subjective. Of course a regulatory body won’t tell a TV station what ‘high standards of viewing’ is. Because your idea of what ‘high standards’ are will be completely different to other people’s views on it

They could compel TV stations to spend a % of their revenue on programming \ content. The content could still be low brow though!

Elmo · 13-04-2021 9:37am

odyssey06 wrote: »

They could compel TV stations to spend a % of their revenue on programming \ content. The content could still be low brow though!

TV3/VMOne have a certain amount that they have produced from their licence. This come in the form of Ireland AM, Elaine, News and TSOCS. I think its 30% but it may be only 20%

Under EU rules all independent broadcasters must spend a minimum of 1% of their home produced costs on independent productions.

You could insisted on Prime Time programming. 1 hour of news daily, 1 hour of everything else (excluding sports coverage) but 30mins per week must be Drama/scripted comedy (on average, over the course of a year).

This would mean that in prime time your forcing the broadcaster to produce quality programming, while allowing them to fill daytime and nighttime with imported shows.

icdg · 14-04-2021 12:50pm

The U.K. competition authorities have provisionally cleared the merger of VM U.K. and O2 U.K., meaning that the separation out of the Irish operation from VM is likely to proceed in due course.

mollser · 16-04-2021 11:29pm

VM showed the new episode of Graham Norton last night, before BBC.

I thought I was losing the plot there but did a replay tv on vm and yes they did.

It's that normal? Or are these repeats or something? Very baffled!

icdg · 17-04-2021 7:54am

mollser wrote: »

VM showed the new episode of Graham Norton last night, before BBC.

I thought I was losing the plot there but did a replay tv on vm and yes they did.

It's that normal? Or are these repeats or something? Very baffled!

No, it was the episode billed for last night on BBC One. It wasn’t even on the EPG, I only came across it flicking channels on Thursday night.

What makes that really odd is that because last Friday nights episode didn’t air on BBC One until late Monday night (due to coverage of Prince Philip’s death), they did air a repeat instead on VMTV last Saturday.

Ten Pin · 17-04-2021 10:34am

The show with Tom Cruise and John Bishop was supposedly aired on BBC on either Sunday or Monday night. It was on VM1 on Tuesday at 9 and again on VM2 on Thursday at 11.

EPG for Tuesday VM1 had the correct guest list but the Thursday EPG VM2 info was for some other episode.

icdg · 17-04-2021 3:03pm

Ten Pin wrote: »

The show with Tom Cruise and John Bishop was supposedly aired on BBC on either Sunday or Monday night. It was on VM1 on Tuesday at 9 and again on VM2 on Thursday at 11.

EPG for Tuesday VM1 had the correct guest list but the Thursday EPG VM2 info was for some other episode.

OK, what it seems happened is that last nights show on BBC should have been a clip show, but instead they decided to air the episode that would have aired last week, and did get a late night airing on Monday. Clip show next week.

mollser · 17-04-2021 7:30pm

Great detective work thanks!

channelsurfer2 · 17-04-2021 8:01pm

When is the rugby rights up? Six nations

AJB39 · 17-04-2021 9:10pm

icdg wrote: »

OK, what it seems happened is that last nights show on BBC should have been a clip show, but instead they decided to air the episode that would have aired last week, and did get a late night airing on Monday. Clip show next week.

You’re almost right. The episode of the Graham Norton Show that aired on BBC 1 last night was originally scheduled to air on the previous Friday night and then be repeated last Monday night. However it didn’t air on either night because of Prince Philip’s death. Last night was the first time the BBC showed it. However the episode was released for other stations around the world to show it earlier in the week as though it had not been postponed meaning Virgin Media were able to show it before the BBC.

Elmo · 17-04-2021 10:33pm

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

When is the rugby rights up? Six nations

That was vm's last season of rights no news yet as to broadcasters, but rights sold to some sports groups.

Delta2113 · 21-04-2021 2:59pm

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/andrew-o-keefe-has-two-fresh-domestic-violence-charges-laid-20210420-p57ko9.html

The Chase Australia.

dublinman1990 · 21-04-2021 8:04pm

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

When is the rugby rights up? Six nations

I think the Irish rights will get announced on the same day or near to the new UK rights announcement which is coming soon.

iseegirls · 22-04-2021 9:45am

Delta2113 wrote: »

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/andrew-o-keefe-has-two-fresh-domestic-violence-charges-laid-20210420-p57ko9.html

The Chase Australia.

It remains in their schedule anyway. I feel if it was Bradley Walsh, then it would have been different.

roadmaster · 28-04-2021 7:10pm

On Sunday joe molloy got very defensive on the Sunday paper review on OTB when one of his guests said virgin had had Lost the six nations, Joe kept saying no nothing has being agreed yet, I say he was just worried about his side gig

iseegirls · 28-04-2021 11:27pm

There was a first Irish produced NFL show since 1990 on Virgin Media Sport tonight, where some analysts discussed the NFL draft. Interesting to see if this goes any further.

https://www.irishnflshow.com/post/irish-nfl-show-announces-2021-draft-coverage

Delta2113 · 28-04-2021 11:35pm

As I have mentioned elsewhere Virgin Media Sport will continue for the forseable future despite loosing Champions League.

icdg · 29-04-2021 12:03am

Showing what exactly? Eight Heineken Cup games over and over again and maybe Formula E? They’ve been showing all their European football FTA since the news that they’ve lost the rights has become known. Maybe they’ll stick around for the last year of the international football contract

By the looks of it this Irish NFL Show seems to be some sort of independently produced podcast. Best of luck to them getting a slot on VMTV to discuss the draft but they are not going to be the centrepiece of a premium sport channel. Presumably they can’t show any actual footage from the league?

The Virgin Media Television thread

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