The Virgin Media Television thread

JDxtra

Linear broadcasters seem to be forgetting that Netflix, YouTube, Amazon and Now TV are only a button press away. Here HD is the norm, and UHD/4K is becoming common.

deezell

irishfeen wrote: »

BBC One HD is averaging at 4.6 Mb/s and TV3 HD is at 5.7 Mb/s on Astra 28.2E Satellite .... so no its not nonsense!

Quoting average bit rates tells you very little. BBC one HD can go to a Maximum of 17 Mbps to TV 3 HD Max of 14.6 Mbps, which makes BBC the winner when a lot of moving small images being displayed, ( grass, rugby players) The devil is in the detail so to speak. Anyway, we don't need a lesson in dvbs2 encoding to compare a free service with a double subscription one . Compare these cropped stills from HD source and Saorview. How many jersey numbers can you read? Top one is guess who.

irishfeen

deezell wrote: »

Quoting average bit rates tells you very little. BBC one HD can go to a Maximum of 17 Mbps to TV 3 HD Max of 14.6 Mbps, which makes BBC the winner when a lot of moving small images being displayed, ( grass, rugby players) The devil is in the detail so to speak. Anyway, we don't need a lesson in dvbs2 encoding to compare a free service with a double subscription one . Compare these cropped stills from BBC HD and TV3 Saorview. How many jersey numbers can you read? Top one is guess who.

I wasn’t comparing HD to SD - I don’t know where your getting that from..

deezell

irishfeen wrote: »

I wasn’t comparing HD to SD - I don’t know where your getting that from..

I know you weren't. But you were comparing an HD service requiring two subscriptions to a free one. We were comparing our only FTA source of the 6 nations to the alternative free source, BBC.

The Cush

Watched the game and analysis on BBC last evening, Paul O'Connell on the panel was an added bonus. Switched back to TV3 once for comparison purposes, needless to say didn't stay long. Only switched back to TV3 for the remainder of their analysis once the BBC coverage ended at 7, picture quality was acceptable for that particular part of the programme.

Sam Russell

The Cush wrote: »

Watched the game and analysis on BBC last evening, Paul O'Connell on the panel was an added bonus. Switched back to TV3 once for comparison purposes, needless to say didn't stay long. Only switched back to TV3 for the remainder of their analysis once the BBC coverage ended at 7, picture quality was acceptable for that particular part of the programme.

There is also a question of the number of ads that are on TV3 compared to RTE, and of course BBC has none.

deezell

Sam Russell wrote: »

There is also a question of the number of ads that are on TV3 compared to RTE, and of course BBC has none.

Which might also explain the higher average bit rate of TV3 as advertisers will insist on a minimum data transfer of their exceedingly high quality and expensively produced source material, so up goes the data rate for the ads, then back down again for the programming.

lgs 4

TV3 don,t give a **** about Saorview.Channel 5 a similar latitude under the RTL ownership, that all changed when Viacom took over Channel 5.
A change in latitude is needed at TV3 and sort out a deal with 2 RN.Either TV3 is sold again to a media company that is willing to invest in the station or sack the financial controller.

ednwireland

lgs 4 wrote: »

TV3 don,t give a **** about Saorview.Channel 5 a similar latitude under the RTL ownership, that all changed when Viacom took over Channel 5.
A change in latitude is needed at TV3 and sort out a deal with 2 RN.Either TV3 is sold again to a media company that is willing to invest in the station or sack the financial controller.

i assume you're right, but why would tv3 invest i presume a lot of money in six nations coverage and then the only platform where they dont have competition produce terrible quality.
its the same as the world cup some of the smaller games were on be3 where you could barely see the players.

i dont know what proportion of tv3 market have virgin where they can choose bbcHD or ITVHD as alternatives so producing inferior experience viewing on there potentially captive market doesnt make sense. apart from they are cheap-skating

icdg

Just to note, people with Virgin don’t get ITV HD. Or any ITV (well apart from ITV3&4, but there’s no Six Nations on those channels)

So while they might have a choice for the BBC games, they’ve none for the ITV ones.

Sam Russell

icdg wrote: »

Just to note, people with Virgin don’t get ITV HD. Or any ITV (well apart from ITV3&4, but there’s no Six Nations on those channels)

So while they might have a choice for the BBC games, they’ve none for the ITV ones.

Yes, but don't those with Virgin get TV3 HD?

icdg

They do, absolutely.

Elmo

Rebranding not happening anytime soon

galtee boy

Elmo wrote: »

Rebranding not happening anytime soon

Source ?

Mickey Mike

Suppose to rebrand in September on the 20th anniversary of the station.

Kurn

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/tv3-halts-move-to-rebrand-channels-1.3420305?mode=amp

galtee boy

galtee boy wrote: »

Source ?

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/tv3-halts-move-to-rebrand-channels-1.3420305

lgs 4

Elmo wrote: »

Rebranding not happening anytime soon

September this year.

dublinman1990

lgs 4 wrote: »

September this year.

No. It won't take place in September. The rebranding of TV3 of Virgin has either been delayed or probably will not happen at all as I only heard of this now from reading the article link from The Irish Times.

I'm probably not surprised about this news because I never envisaged this happening in reality within a really fast timeline. I think TV3 have gone ahead of themselves when they were talking about this rebrand. Going from the IT article; it feels that the respondents in the market research on this plan probably felt it was rushed with no credible back up plans if it did fail because Virgin were initially planning to do this when they bought TV3 off Doughty Hanson a few years ago. But they may have decided that this rebrand was not going to be successful if it was going turn out to be equal or worse than Virgin 1 in the UK in the long term.

When I talk about the viewers in the process; I think the suggestion that it could have happened so fast is irrelevant to them because they were probably fed up of going through another phase of rebranding that could yet again affect their chances to continue watching their programmes with another seemingly permanent plan of action. What happens if Virgin decide to rebrand their channels again to improve their viewer numbers while leaving viewers to change the process of trying to watch or record their favourite programmes all over again from scratch? It sounds like all hell will break loose when this happens to them.

This rebrand leaves a lot of commercial risk rotting in Virgin's hands if this rebrand was a monumental disaster right from the beginning. I think it was right for them to call a halt because it may viewers with a bit of breathing space to try to watch their programmes in a relative period of peace. Virgin Media have not been given a whole lot of praise from their customers while they began operating their business in The Republic of Ireland. Some of their business decisions like the implementation of Virgin Mobile in Ireland & the removal of Eir & BT pack from their cable package have apparently left a lot of deserved backlash from their customers & viewers to date. It feels like they have done the right thing in delaying the rebrand or sweep it under the carpet to prevent more backlash from the masses.

Elmo

I don't think Virgin had any plans to change the schedules or programming on TV3. I don't think a straight forward rebrand of TV3 would cause any major decrease in audience for the channels.

BAI did give approval for the name change according to one article.

Elmo

TV3 are in running for FTA European Cup Rugby with C4 taking British rights, first time for C4 to take rugby?

2 hour shows for IGT next week Monday, Wednesday and Thursday with Coro street pushed to 10pm rather than moving to 3e as done for sports.

BTG semi finals are only an hour right?

iseegirls

Elmo wrote: »

TV3 are in running for FTA European Cup Rugby with C4 taking British rights, first time for C4 to take rugby?

BTG semi finals are only an hour right?

Interesting move for the Rugby on TV3, but good to see them building a small portfolio of sporting rights. Is the Rugby World Cup smaller package of Ireland and knock out games still available from Eir?

BGT semis were always 90 mins, and then 30 mins results after a Corrie episode.
TV3 have merged the two together to create a 2 hour show.

galtee boy

iseegirls wrote: »

Interesting move for the Rugby on TV3, but good to see them building a small portfolio of sporting rights. Is the Rugby World Cup smaller package of Ireland and knock out games still available from Eir?

BGT semis were always 90 mins, and then 30 mins results after a Corrie episode.
TV3 have merged the two together to create a 2 hour show.

Confirmation in the 5.30 TV3 news, they have European Cup rubgy for the next 4 years, 9 matches per season, including the final.

Harry Palmr

If Virgin are making a play for sports rights as a core feature then getting HD on saorview is a must.

lgs 4

galtee boy wrote: »

Confirmation in the 5.30 TV3 news, they have European Cup rugby for the next 4 years, 9 matches per season, including the final.

It,s a poor attempt to get viewers.They would be better off sorting out a deal 2RN for HD transmission on Saorview. If I watch it, it will be on Channel 4 HD.

lertsnim

lgs 4 wrote: »

It,s a poor attempt to get viewers.They would be better off sorting out a deal 2RN for HD transmission on Saorview. If I watch it, it will be on Channel 4 HD.

I imagine they will show different games to Channel 4.

Elmo

lertsnim wrote: »

I imagine they will show different games to Channel 4.

Very bad for eir & bt sport if TV3 get Games with Irish interest and C4 go with English games, pretty much means European Cup is FTA in Ireland.

Good deal for TV3 in any case 9 games each season including semis and final.

6 Nations
champions league
Euro rugby cup
British horse racing

And if RTÉ sell some World Cup games and perhaps rugby World Cup Irish games.

Harry Palmr

Don't forget S4C HD for the Wales games or is that highlights only?

icdg

Highlights only. They did have a deal for FTA coverage of the European Challenge Cup (the sister competion for pro sides that don’t qualify for the European Cup) at one stage. Don’t think they’ve had that for few years though.

But no Elmo I wouldn’t jump to the “pretty much means European Cup is free to air in Ireland”. There’s 3-4 Irish teams in the European Cup and they can’t play each other in the group stage. TV3 will only show one match each game week. Channel 4 (or whoever) will also be showing a match, but the odds that match will be a match against an Irish side, that’s not the one on TV3 - well there are ten matches each game week, and the Irish teams will be in three of them.

Mickey Mike

It moggies the mind that TV3 can get all these games with the picture quality they have. It also moggies the mind that no deal of any kind can be reached with 2rn and all that lot. and I don't hear of anyone pushing for HD either. Surely some agreement can be accommodated with the relevant bodies involved.
Watching morden day sports on fuzzy SD isn't good enough.