Champions League on pay TV only?

Schwanz

I’d say we’ll see BT on Sky next season and a return to Virgin too

EdEd

Schwanz wrote: »

I’d say we’ll see BT on Sky next season and a return to Virgin too

From next year in the UK Sky customers will be able to pay for BT Sport through Sky. That won't be happening here though.

Schwanz

EdEd wrote: »

From next year in the UK Sky customers will be able to pay for BT Sport through Sky. That won't be happening here though.

That could happen, Isn't Eir's deal due to run out at the end of the season?

paulboland

Schwanz wrote: »

That could happen, Isn't Eir's deal due to run out at the end of the season?

Yes Eir contract for Bt Sport is to 2019

What happens with Eir BT Sport deal after 2019 is unknown at the moment

Schwanz

paulboland wrote: »

Yes Eir contract for Bt Sport is to 2019

What happens with Eir BT Sport deal after 2019 is unknown at the moment

I genuinely think Sky will knab that for here like in the UK.

Elmo

Schwanz wrote: »

I genuinely think Sky will knab that for here like in the UK.

BT Sport is available on pay platforms in UK (Virgin and Sky).

I could be wrong but I though that the reason for eir pulling its channels off Virgin was largely down to Virgin's unwillingness to pay as much as eir wanted.

BT Sport could decide to go it alone in Ireland.

icdg

They could. The eir Sport/Setanta deal has never made much sense to me. And yet, partially because it never made sense in the first place, I could easily see it being renewed.

Schwanz

Ok, Is Virgin to show every game Live like that in the UK/Ire that BT do?

Or is it just the Wednesday two games and one Tuesday?

Elmo

Schwanz wrote: »

Ok, Is Virgin to show every game Live like that in the UK/Ire that BT do?

Or is it just the Wednesday two games and one Tuesday?

just the Wednesday two games and one Tuesday, with RTÉ taking the other Tuesday night game.

Schwanz

Elmo wrote: »

just the Wednesday two games and one Tuesday, with RTÉ taking the other Tuesday night game.

Just what I was thinking but their post on Twitter is slightly confusing.

" Calling all football fans. Virgin Media and @TV3Ireland have secured the live rights to all UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches. That’s over 300 European matches a season. Go on my son! "

irishfeen

Elmo wrote: »

just the Wednesday two games and one Tuesday, with RTÉ taking the other Tuesday night game.

But the Tuesday night games are "shared" with TV3, AFAIK they are not exclusive to RTÉ and TV3 will have at least 2 games on Tuesdays live too.

From what I can see TV3/Virgin have exclusive live rights to every single game over the 3 years with RTÉ having non exclusive rights to 1 Tuesday night game. (In the contract I presume TV3 cant broadcast same match as RTÉ on their primary channels)

"Virgin Media and TV3 secure rights to all UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches for the next three years and live rights to over 300 European matches per season"

mikeym

It looks like Virgin Media will probably launch a channel dedicated to European Football.

And I presume it will be exclusive to Virgin Media customers.

Im only speculating but I reckon Virgin will want to increase the numbers that subscribe to the Tv Pack.

dublinman1990

I am not liking the sound of this news tbf. I currently use Saorview for currently watching the CL games on RTÉ2 in HD. And from next season when I try to watch a game on TV3 from either The Champions League, The Europa League or The Super Cup; I could be watching the games from a video image that is equal from the year 2000 or worse with possibly no HD available in the near future for FTA viewers?

What on earth were RTÉ thinking of in these press releases when they say that they knowingly have less games their previous years in their coverage of the Champions League when not including the new deals on the European or World Cup Qualifiers?

How is this news called as a positive from RTÉ to all the licence fee payers out in our own TV landscape?

I can't believe that I'm going to watch this year's CL final with RTÉ for the last time in a long while. As I can't afford a Pay TV subscription; I like many other casual football fans are left with unacceptable sub par SD quality on both TV3 & TG4 on Saorview. It should HD only for all of these channels on Saorview as it should be a mandatory requirement under our current broadcasting legislation.

icdg

To be fair. the number of Champions League games RTE will have next year is just one less than this year. Granted, that one game is a big one, the final.

It seems that it has become mandatory among every post remotely connected with TV3 to complain about the HD on Saorview situation. I’m considering this but for now, in terms of the Broadcasting forum, this issue should be now considered off-topic in every thread other than the TV3 one

EdEd

Elmo wrote: »

just the Wednesday two games and one Tuesday, with RTÉ taking the other Tuesday night game.

If this is speculation then you should mark your post as so.

icdg

And we shouldn’t have backseat moderation either. We do a lot of speculating on this forum. It’s fun, but maybe if we do go into speculating we use terms like “may” rather than being definite.

Part of the problem is that UEFA don’t seem to do official press releases when rights are awarded any more so its hard to gauge exactly what the terms of this deal are, even more how TV3 are going to fulfill them.

iseegirls

dublinman1990 wrote: »

I am not liking the sound of this news tbf. I currently use Saorview for currently watching the CL games on RTÉ2 in HD. And from next season when I try to watch a game on TV3 from either The Champions League, The Europa League or The Super Cup; I could be watching the games from a video image that is equal from the year 2000 or worse with possibly no HD available in the near future for FTA viewers?

I can't believe that I'm going to watch this year's CL final with RTÉ for the last time in a long while. As I can't afford a Pay TV subscription; I like many other casual football fans are left with unacceptable sub par SD quality on both TV3 & TG4 on Saorview. It should HD only for all of these channels on Saorview as it should be a mandatory requirement under our current broadcasting legislation.

As has been said earlier, RTE2 are losing one fixture (the final). Not too much of a change. The Super Cup is up there with the Community Shield in terms of competitiveness so I hardly consider it a major game.

Also, need to put this in perspective - everyone in the UK has to pay some sort of a subscription to watch Champions League and Europa League Football through BT. There won't even be any highlights on ITV from next season. Meanwhile, in Ireland we retain two nights of Champions League football - free to air, and Europa League football will return free to air as well if matches are shown on 3e. That is very good news for the casual football fan here that can't afford Sky, BT, Eir TV packages

OneEightSeven

dublinman1990 wrote: »

I could be watching the games from a video image that is equal from the year 2000 or worse with possibly no HD available in the near future for FTA viewers?

Try 2011. The HD launch was recent enough. In the year 2000, they still had 4:3 aspect ratio. The reason why you think the video quality looks that dated is because modern TVs have more pixels, which makes old videos look worse.

ligerdub

dublinman1990 wrote: »

I am not liking the sound of this news tbf. I currently use Saorview for currently watching the CL games on RTÉ2 in HD. And from next season when I try to watch a game on TV3 from either The Champions League, The Europa League or The Super Cup; I could be watching the games from a video image that is equal from the year 2000 or worse with possibly no HD available in the near future for FTA viewers?

What on earth were RTÉ thinking of in these press releases when they say that they knowingly have less games their previous years in their coverage of the Champions League when not including the new deals on the European or World Cup Qualifiers?

How is this news called as a positive from RTÉ to all the licence fee payers out in our own TV landscape?

I can't believe that I'm going to watch this year's CL final with RTÉ for the last time in a long while. As I can't afford a Pay TV subscription; I like many other casual football fans are left with unacceptable sub par SD quality on both TV3 & TG4 on Saorview. It should HD only for all of these channels on Saorview as it should be a mandatory requirement under our current broadcasting legislation.

Sorry but I couldn't but help think of the following when I read that

icdg

Im not sure I made myself clear when I said that the HD issue was now off topic for this thread, 48 hour ban for next person that discusses picture quality on this thread

FRIENDO

I wonder with the new rights will the games be shown on RTE2 SAORSAT?

Schwanz

Virgin Sport channel incoming imo

dulpit

Schwanz wrote: »

Virgin Sport channel incoming imo

I've seen a few people mention this. What's the thinking behind it? On Virgin platform only? Surely that will rule out a large chunk of the country that can't get Virgin at all... And another subscription seems wasteful at this point...

Elmo

If Virgin launch a new sports channel I imagine that it will available across all pay platforms, most likely on the basic package, but might just be available on Virgin's basic package, a similar situation to Setanta Sport 1, where its part of a sports package on Sky.

You might also see the games on Virgins On Demand service available only on via PayTV providers On Demand service, as part of TV3's Player, and online for Virgin's Broadband customers only.

I can't imagine it being much more premium than that.

icdg

dulpit wrote: »

I've seen a few people mention this. What's the thinking behind it? On Virgin platform only? Surely that will rule out a large chunk of the country that can't get Virgin at all... And another subscription seems wasteful at this point...

I can’t see it happening without more content. Three nights of content for 16 weeks of the year does not a sports channel make. Unless they bought eir Sport, if it went up for sale (and the last people eir would want to sell to would be a direct rival).

Elmo

icdg wrote: »

I can’t see it happening without more content. Three nights of content for 16 weeks of the year does not a sports channel make. Unless they bought eir Sport, if it went up for sale (and the last people eir would want to sell to would be a direct rival).

Plus repeats of all games and highlights, sports news and extras for TV3's other live sports, UFC highlights. Not impossible.

Elmo

SBP making similar comments on a pay aspect to this deal.

Schwanz

Got an email through from Virgin with the following.

As a Virgin Media Digital TV customer you get access to all 343 games across the UEFA Champions League and Europa League for the 18/19 season. That's the play offs right through to the pièce de résistance all at no extra cost.
Dramatic comebacks? Incredible bicycle kicks? Burnley conquering Europe? No matter what happens don’t miss a minute of the action from the comfort of your own home, even catch it on the go with the TV Anywhere App.
We’re turning your TV into the home of European football.

dublinman1990

I have just found that UFEA have uploaded their new look for The Europa League which includes their new intro after been announced on their website. The changes to the new look Europa League will begin at the start of this upcoming season. If you watch the new match rights from TV3/3e within this upcoming season; this new intro will be used for introducing all of their live Europa League match coverage. It will also be applied to other broadcasters based outside of Ireland from this autumn.

https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/about-uefa/news/newsid=2561028.html

icdg

Much better music than the “clap” intro they’ve been using for the past three years, but still not as good as the original.

Schwanz

I'm wondering will we have a red button on VM for next season's CL?

alan.p22

Or new channels id say is more likely

icdg

When they had BT Sport, all the red button services were allocated LCNs. Seemingly Horizon can’t do red button.

Delta2113

Elmo wrote: »

SBP making similar comments on a pay aspect to this deal.

- The same newspaper was telling us Virgin was going to launch a news channel last year.

Elmo

Delta2113 wrote: »

- The same newspaper was telling us Virgin was going to launch a news channel last year.

They took that from TV3 and virgin quickly stated that wasn't happening. Newspapers are too fond of taking people's word.

swoofer

Is it possible to add a pay per view channel to SAORSAT?

icdg

No, although the only things shown on pay per view here are boxing and WWE anyway.