The Virgin Media Television thread

Elmo

irishfeen wrote: »

I wonder are they continuing with their green screen news studio?

Hopefully they take UTV Ireland's set. Just stop using the green screen.

Sam Russell

Boulevardier wrote: »

We should not have to install dishes just because Virgin and Sky are being dogs in the manger.

There is probably a good legal case under competition law, but while I like real ITV, I am not sure I would go to those lengths for it.

Unfortunately the competition authority agreed to the buy-out of UTVi. ConReg and BAI might have some jurisdiction, but first they need to get all the channels to be HD onto Saorview.

Sounds like the tricks of TV3 have transferred to Virgin.

big dar

I see Good morning Britain is gone on b3 which the mother loves I will be getting a "what's wrong with this telly" phone call tomorrow Thanks Virgin

icdg

Elmo wrote: »

Hopefully they take UTV Ireland's set. Just stop using the green screen.

I had heard the UTV set was to be dismantled over the weekend, though that may have been hearsay. I don't think they will go back to it though, why would they have given Be 3 News such a radical makeover if they were intent on doing that?

I think TV3 have missed a trick by not adopting Be 3 News' look on the main channel. Instead it's just the same messy look with the new logo where the old one was.

There's two main critiques I'd throw at Be 3 News. First of all that virtual set is very white. Very white, and there's no disguising it is the TV3 News set with a different CSO backdrop. Secondly the lack of any actual branding on it. Theres no visual mention of 3 News, and only the reporter sign offs (now "3 News") give any actual indication that this is the same organisation as TV3 News.

Of course, I'm still suspicious that they'll dump news from Be 3 entirely as soon as the regulator allows them to.

The Parish priest

I believe theyll merge 3e & be3 into one channel and blame brixit

Jpmarn

Royalty Limited Bellows wrote: »

I just read on another thread that be3 HD and 3e HD have launched on Virgin Media Ireland platform.

People that Have a Sky HD subscription are being discriminated against as they're only getting 3E and Be3 in SD only. Virgin media TV service is not accessible to the majority of the Irish population.

zeebre12

Youd think they would get some cheap sitcom reruns for 3e to make it more of a younger skewing channel like Friends, Malcom in the Middle, Gilmore Girls that they had a few years ago or some first run shows like e4 They would be better than reruns of Tipping Point and Uploaded anyway.
Also I suggest moving Family Guy and American Dad to primetime. They are fairly high profile younger skewing shows. Why are they on always after midnight? The only explanation is that they got 'after 12' or something rights for these shows? Why else are they on so late?

political analyst

The Parish priest wrote: »

I believe theyll merge 3e & be3 into one channel and blame brixit

We don't know that.

Won't they have enough ITV drama content to keep b3 going?

lertsnim

Jpmarn wrote: »

People that Have a Sky HD subscription are being discriminated against as they're only getting 3E and Be3 in SD only. Virgin media TV service is not accessible to the majority of the Irish population.

At least you have TV3 HD. Saorview viewers have none of them in HD.

Elmo

political analyst wrote: »

We don't know that.

Won't they have enough ITV drama content to keep b3 going?

They could but don't seem to want use them I think ITV have 4 new dramas this week.

Jpmarn

lertsnim wrote: »

At least you have TV3 HD. Saorview viewers have none of them in HD.

Sky costs money, Saorview is technically free except for the license fee.

lertsnim

Jpmarn wrote: »

Sky costs money, Saorview is technically free except for the license fee.

That's very interesting.

reubenreuben

Jpmarn wrote: »

Sky costs money, Saorview is technically free except for the license fee.

Thats wrong. It costs tv3 more to show in hd on saorview.

icdg

Very good article by Laura Slattery today on the ITV/Virgin situation:

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/tv3-promises-new-world-of-tv-but-what-about-the-old-world-1.2930545

Sadly I fear the only advice to anyone who misses ITV at this stage is to buy a satellite dish, if they can (and there are genuine reasons which shouldn't be lightly dismissed as to why many cannot).

Sam Russell

reubenreuben wrote: »

Thats wrong. It costs tv3 more to show in hd on saorview.

TV3 are not in HD on Saorview. They refused to pay RTE and 2RN for transmission fees until they faced the High Court.

It is as a result of complaints by TV3 that the current regime of charges on Saorview were put in place.

galtee boy

icdg wrote: »

Very good article by Laura Slattery today on the ITV/Virgin situation:

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/tv3-promises-new-world-of-tv-but-what-about-the-old-world-1.2930545

Sadly I fear the only advice to anyone who misses ITV at this stage is to buy a satellite dish, if they can (and there are genuine reasons which shouldn't be lightly dismissed as to why many cannot).

It's a good article in so far as she explains why real UTV as she calls it, won't return to Virgin Media subscribers, but as is typical of a Dublin based journalist, presumably living in a Virgin Cable area, she didn't once mention free to air satellite, Freesat or Freeview overspill, three ways that tens of thousands of people are still watching the " real UTV" and indeed thousands more could use, particularly satellite, if it was highlighted more by journalists. While I appreciate the problems people have in apartments with dish restrictions etc, there must be thousands of houses in estates in Dublin and the other urban areas where Virgin have a traditional foothold, that could put up dishes, but may be unaware of what's available on fta satellite and maybe still only associate satellite with Sky.

Sam Russell

galtee boy wrote: »

It's a good article in so far as she explains why real UTV as she calls it, won't return to Virgin Media subscribers, but as is typical of a Dublin based journalist, presumably living in a Virgin Cable area, she didn't once mention free to air satellite, Freesat or Freeview overspill, three ways that tens of thousands of people are still watching the " real UTV" and indeed thousands more could use, particularly satellite, if it was highlighted more by journalists. While I appreciate the problems people have in apartments with dish restrictions etc, there must be thousands of houses in estates in Dublin and the other urban areas where Virgin have a traditional foothold, that could put up dishes, but may be unaware of what's available on fta satellite and maybe still only associate satellite with Sky.

A lot of people think they have to pay for UK television and think it must be illegal boxes that allows people to get it for free. More publicity from the media would allay these unfounded fears.

Freesat - the only way to go.

Elmo

Sam Russell wrote: »

A lot of people think they have to pay for UK television and think it must be illegal boxes that allows people to get it for free. More publicity from the media would allay these unfounded fears.

Freesat - the only way to go.

Yes so many people who have said continue to talk about dogdyboxes!

reubenreuben

Sam Russell wrote: »

TV3 are not in HD on Saorview. They refused to pay RTE and 2RN for transmission fees until they faced the High Court.

It is as a result of complaints by TV3 that the current regime of charges on Saorview were put in place.

Yes i know. And that is why it isnt in hd because they dont want to pay the extra costs compared with sd. 3 times is what i have read somewhere

Sam Russell

reubenreuben wrote: »

Yes i know. And that is why it isnt in hd because they dont want to pay the extra costs compared with sd. 3 times is what i have read somewhere

That number assumes that only one channel goes HD. If all channels went HD at the same time there would be a small increase. If RTE put all their channels onto Mux1 and gave mux2 to TV3 and TG4, it would cost €6m each. Currently RTE pay €8m of the €12m cost. The cost of one HD channel is currently bout €2.5 m but that is because so much capacity is burnt off. Four HD channels should fit on Mux2 so that would be €1.5m each, not €2.5 million each.

For TV3, the current cost of €2.8m would rise to €4.5m. (or so).

Elmo

reubenreuben wrote: »

Yes i know. And that is why it isnt in hd because they dont want to pay the extra costs compared with sd. 3 times is what i have read somewhere

Again TV3 and TG4 have saved money from their Analogue days and have better coverage, also if TG4 and TV3 when HD the knock on effect is that SD channels become less expensive. TV3 now have 3 channels in SD as far as I know if it cost 3million for them, TV3 HD would reduce costs as the cost is spread across 2 mux that aren't fully utilized. only for RTE ONE HD is the cost less.

as a bad example but other can correct me, based on Mux 2

RTÉ One HD 2RN Mux 2 HD (1440x1080i) 7.2
be3 2RN Mux 2 SD (544x576i) 2.4
RTÉjr/ +1 2RN Mux 2 SD (544x576i) 2.4


on the other hand based on Mux 1

RTÉ2 HD 2RN Mux 1 HD (1440x1080i) 4
TV3 2RN Mux 1 SD (544x576i) 1.333333333
TG4 2RN Mux 1 SD (544x576i) 1.333333333
3e 2RN Mux 1 SD (544x576i) 1.333333333
RTÉ News Now 2RN Mux 1 SD (576i) 1.333333333
Oireachtas TV 2RN Mux 1 SD (576i) 1.333333333
Saorview Information 2RN Mux 1 SD (576i) 1.333333333


this means that TV3 could be paying 5m for SD where as adding TV3 HD to Mux 2 would increase to 7.5m and if tg4 went HD this would drop to 6.3m

RTÉ2 HD 2RN Mux 1 HD (1440x1080i) 4
TG4 HD 2RN Mux 1 HD (1440x1080i) 4
3e 2RN Mux 1 SD (544x576i) 1.333333333
RTÉ News Now 2RN Mux 1 SD (576i) 1.333333333
Saorview Information 2RN Mux 1 SD (576i) 1.333333333
TV3 2RN Mux 1 HD (1440x1080i) 4
RTÉ One HD 2RN Mux 2 HD (1440x1080i) 4
be3 2RN Mux 2 SD (544x576i) 1.333333333
RTÉjr/ +1 2RN Mux 2 SD (544x576i) 1.333333333
Oireachtas TV 2RN Mux 1 SD (576i) 1.333333333

iseegirls

zeebre12 wrote: »

Youd think they would get some cheap sitcom reruns for 3e to make it more of a younger skewing channel like Friends, Malcom in the Middle, Gilmore Girls that they had a few years ago or some first run shows like e4 They would be better than reruns of Tipping Point and Uploaded anyway.
Also I suggest moving Family Guy and American Dad to primetime. They are fairly high profile younger skewing shows. Why are they on always after midnight? The only explanation is that they got 'after 12' or something rights for these shows? Why else are they on so late?

Agree with this. Maybe FG and AD have been pushed out to midnight due to CBB and CBB BOTS this month. However, they could still show the new episodes of the animated comedies between these at 10pm.

Their weekend schedule is literally just repeats of what they showed during the week - 5 episodes of Judge Rinder, 6 episodes of Tipping Point, 4 episodes of Steve Wilkos. Really is awful and lazy scheduling.

Looking at Be3's weekend scheduling, and one show that stood out amongst the rest - the first series of Ballykissangel at 5pm on Sunday!

Elmo

iseegirls wrote: »

Looking at Be3's weekend scheduling, and one show that stood out amongst the rest - the first series of Ballykissangel at 5pm on Sunday!

So much for Laura Slattery to be giving out about 1992 repeats of Poirot in the right aspect ratio. Also I don't think they did show earlier Poirots.

Boulevardier

The fact remains that the Irish viewing public were sold a pup. We liked UTV and we have been denied it.

And please don't harp on about how we can still see it by replacing our cable with a different connector. I should not have to go to that sort of trouble to get a channel which was available to all until a couple of years ago.

JDxtra

That's just the way it is now. Remember UTV did this themselves. They told Virgin to remove UTV from their platforms and replace with UTV Ireland. Then the whole thing went pear shaped. At least satellite is an option for anybody who really wants ITV.

lertsnim

Boulevardier wrote: »

And please don't harp on about how we can still see it by replacing our cable with a different connector.

Its a fact that you will need a dish if you want ITV. All the whinging in the world won't change that.

Elmo

Boulevardier wrote: »

The fact remains that the Irish viewing public were sold a pup. We liked UTV and we have been denied it.

And please don't harp on about how we can still see it by replacing our cable with a different connector. I should not have to go to that sort of trouble to get a channel which was available to all until a couple of years ago.

The fact remains that UTV had a 3% share of the audience in 2014 and by 2016 was at 6%.

The fact remains that TV3, Virgin Media and UTV Ireland had and still have no clue as to which programmes to simucast and which not to. ITV Drama is a big pull and to drop it almost entirely from cable services was a huge mistake.

Their should be no reason that ITV Studio drama is not simulcast on any of the 3 TV3 channels, regardless of if it clashes with supposed big shows on TV3, why have people seek the real UTV.

I suppect that UTV will continue to bounce back with 0.91% for 2016 and 1% for November, I can see it continuing to grow back to 3% over the next couple of months, a major step back for the pup that is TV3.

The problem with the press is they still haven't come around to the fact that TV3 was under just as much pressure during the last 2 years and did little to relieve that pressure. Not only that but the 17% of the audience which the 3 channels had will now but at around 12%. And don't forget TV3 held as much ITV content over the last 2 years as UTV Ireland, and now have even more. And still are up **** creek.

ziggyman17

[QUOTE=lertsnim;102224011]Its a fact that you will need a dish if you want ITV. All the whinging in the world won't change that.[/QUOTE]

not true....... You can download the app FILM ON on your iphone, ipad or android phone and then stream all the stations on your tv

_Kaiser_

ziggyman17 wrote: »

not true....... You can download the app FILM ON on your iphone, ipad or android phone and then stream all the stations on your tv

True, but your average viewer isn't gonna know how/about that. For most people if it's not on the EPG, it doesn't exist.

Plus the FilmOn quality is awful anytime I've tried it with massive logos on the screen. Hardly a proper substitute

ziggyman17

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

True, but your average viewer isn't gonna know how/about that. For most people if it's not on the EPG, it doesn't exist.

Plus the FilmOn quality is awful anytime I've tried it with massive logos on the screen. Hardly a proper substitute

If your living in an aprtment it could be a good option.....