The Virgin Media Television thread

iseegirls

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

This will only drive more people to eir broadband.
With no hd games of latter stages in HD your best bet is to get the eir broadband and stream the games.

You can choose to have Sky, Virgin (in areas) or Eir. Why the emphasis just on Eir? Half of the latter stages (a game a week) will be available on RTE2 aswell, apart from the final.

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

For rural dwellers with poor broadband it is a further blow as they will have to subscribe (presumably to Sky) to get latter stage games in HD.

Same as before, only match that changes is that TV3 are showing the final. This is the usual nonsense regarding "rural dwellers" and HD. Sky took GAA matches - If the "rural dweller" wants to watch them - he needs a subscription. No other alternatives. That person will still have a CL final available to him through free to air. If he wants to watch it in HD, then he'll need to connect to a provider that can provide him with HD channels. That person at least has a choice of watching the CL free in SD or upgrade to a provider with HD. Half of Europe don't have such a choice and need to pay for a subscription.

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

So Virgin are pushing people to both eir and Sky, not themselves.

Makes no sense. If Virgin didn't purchase these rights, and Eir got them for their pay-per-view channels, wouldn't this push people away from Virgin?

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

I can see Virgin competing heavily for the BT rights when next up for renewal as it has become a hugely important package to have access to, with all the top soccer and rugby on it with the exception of soccer games on sky.

Top soccer on BT is very limited. They have one of the lowest Premier League packages with only a game a week. Top rugby? The Six Nations and The Rugby World Cup are the biggest and most lucrative rugby games - none of which are on BT

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

At some stage tv3/virgin will have to go hd on saorview as advertisers can't be happy that so much potential viewership is being lost.

Things must be pretty bad at RTE.

Advertisers along with viewers will be happy to see Champions League football remain free to air on Irish TV. People in the UK have no other option but to pay a subscription for the right to see any sort of Champions League or Europa League action.

Tigerandahalf

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

This will only drive more people to eir broadband.
With no hd games of latter stages in HD your best bet is to get the eir broadband and stream the games.

For rural dwellers with poor broadband it is a further blow as they will have to subscribe (presumably to Sky) to get latter stage games in HD.

So Virgin are pushing people to both eir and Sky, not themselves.

I can see Virgin competing heavily for the BT rights when next up for renewal as it has become a hugely important package to have access to, with all the top soccer and rugby on it with the exception of soccer games on sky.

At some stage tv3/virgin will have to go hd on saorview as advertisers can't be happy that so much potential viewership is being lost.

Things must be pretty bad at RTE.

Don't forget if you have Eir broadband and a Sky HD box plus an Irish subs card you can watch the Eirsport/BT channels for no extra cost including the ones in HD. You don't need to subscribe to Sky either for this to work. It can be activated via an Eir online account.

Tigerandahalf

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Don't forget if you have Eir broadband and a Sky HD box plus an Irish subs card you can watch the Eirsport/BT channels for no extra cost including the ones in HD. You don't need to subscribe to Sky either for this to work. It can be activated via an Eir online account.

That is very true. A huge amount of rural dwellers could avail of this but probably are not aware of it. I wonder why eir don't promote more?
Presumably the lack of a box. Only 2nd hand market an option.

It is something I might have to do myself yet as the streaming of eir/bt sports uses up your monthly data allowance.

@iseegirls
Why the emphasis on eir?
Because the package is free.
You pay a lot for sky and virgin.
I presume the games rte have for the post group stages will be the 2nd pick so possibly not a game involving English teams.

Sam Russell

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

I presume the games rte have for the post group stages will be the 2nd pick so possibly not a game involving English teams.

RTE said they have first pick.

Tigerandahalf

Sam Russell wrote: »

RTE said they have first pick.

For the group games only?

The Cush

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

For the group games only?

First pick of all Tuesday night games.

kooga

I'm going to be positive here
currently and it will remain we have FTA CL on a Tues and Wed night and now Europa league on Thursday - no FTA in the UK since ITV lost the rights years ago and we hear every now and again games being sub licensed etc plus Bt showcase is gone

Similarly may of us in multi sat land used to watch CL games on ZDF or Europa league games on kabel eins or Sport 1 after this season that is gone.

Apart from ROI are there are any FTA games available from next season in Europe either on sat or dtt?

Don't think so - I know we would all love to have our games free on HD but not always possible

Harry Palmr

HD is obviously possible, but Virgin do not care enough about saorview and no one is compelling them to care enough.

Maz2016

I see tv3 have the 3HD logo on for Britain’s got talent. It’s not HD is it? On Saorview

Sam Russell

Maz2016 wrote: »

I see tv3 have the 3HD logo on for Britain’s got talent. It’s not HD is it? On Saorview

The picture quality is so bad, it is not possible to see the HD in the dog.

Maz2016

Bloody thought as much. I’m watching it on a small screen in work so I couldn’t tell

deezell

Maz2016 wrote: »

I see tv3 have the 3HD logo on for Britain’s got talent. It’s not HD is it? On Saorview

It's not even SD. It's lower quality than the old analogue service.

lgs 4

TV3 are acting the mick on Saorview with the HD logo.

deezell

lgs 4 wrote: »

TV3 are acting the mick on Saorview with the HD logo.

The old DOG for the HD road?

dublinman1990

I can see the HD DOG on TV3 SD as well via Saorview. I don't see why they would do this tbh. I'd say it could be a mistake from TV3 because of an error in their broadcast feeds from Ballymount or something. Maybe one can ask TV3 via their email, Twitter or Facebook page to find out more information.

Tigerandahalf

Is it possible for tv3 to bring out a chromecast enabled app and stream their feed live in HD?

Elmo

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

Is it possible for tv3 to bring out a chromecast enabled app and stream their feed live in HD?

Do they stream in HD on their player?

Tigerandahalf

Elmo wrote: »

Do they stream in HD on their player?

Never used it. I gave up after the numerous ads before.
Are the saorview charges just for transmitting over the terrestrial infrastructure?

Sam Russell

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

Never used it. I gave up after the numerous ads before.
Are the saorview charges just for transmitting over the terrestrial infrastructure?

Yes and they are based on the share of used bandwidth. So if all services went up to 720i, (with RTE HD going to 1920 from 1440) then the charges would remain basically the same.

2RN should be allowed to up all SD to 720i as the minimum allowed as they have the space. There would be a minor change in charges. It would be expensive for one channel to change but not much extra if they all changed.

lgs 4

deezell wrote: »

The old DOG for the HD road?

The HD logo is back again today on TV3

Tigerandahalf

So why don't TV3 release a chromecast enabled app? Perhaps it would mean the Virgin channels package would be less attractive.

Realistically all the saorview channels could be streamed in HD. I guess that would then make the terrestrial infrastructure a white elephant.

Sam Russell

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

So why don't TV3 release a chromecast enabled app? Perhaps it would mean the Virgin channels package would be less attractive.

Realistically all the saorview channels could be streamed in HD. I guess that would then make the terrestrial infrastructure a white elephant.

No, it would make watching TV a pay to view activity. Streaming requires broadband at a cost of at least €40 per month, and not available everywhere. This is more than a basic Sky package.

Saorview is Free - if you have a TV with Mpeg 4, and an aerial. The clue is in the name.

mackersdublin

lgs 4 wrote: »

The HD logo is back again today on TV3

It's not just on Saorview that the wrong logo is present
It's the same for me on 103 on Virgin Media - HD logo is on both SD and HD channels
I presume it's the same on Sky, eir, Vodafone etc.

I did notice a few days ago the be3 HD logo was present on both SD and HD on Virgin Media. It is back to normal now with HD not present on be3 HD. Only TV3 HD and 3e HD have a HD logo

Tigerandahalf

Sam Russell wrote: »

No, it would make watching TV a pay to view activity. Streaming requires broadband at a cost of at least €40 per month, and not available everywhere. This is more than a basic Sky package.

Saorview is Free - if you have a TV with Mpeg 4, and an aerial. The clue is in the name.

Well broadband is equivalent to electricity in the 50s/60s. Nobody will be without it going forward. How long into the future it will make sense for the taxpayer to fund terrestrial infrastructure we will have to wait. Couldn't these transmitters be used instead for 4G/5G broadband and push saorview onto satellite?

Give everyone with a tv licence a card so they can decode the channels on satellite. Is that possible?

Sam Russell

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

Well broadband is equivalent to electricity in the 50s/60s. Nobody will be without it going forward. How long into the future it will make sense for the taxpayer to fund terrestrial infrastructure we will have to wait. Couldn't these transmitters be used instead for 4G/5G broadband and push saorview onto satellite?

Give everyone with a tv licence a card so they can decode the channels on satellite. Is that possible?

Saorview is like TV was in the 1960s only better picture quality. Electricity was installed on foot of a very courageous initiative by the Gov of the time. I think broadband is not nearly the same. Electricity made a huge difference to the lives of those that got it, while broadband is not such a positive experience for everyone.

Pushing Saorview onto satellite may be OK when we have an Irish satellite. Until then, when a significant number of homes do not have broadband, Saorview should continue.

Tigerandahalf

The internet will be every bit as big as the electricity supply was to economic activity and people's lives.

People are working from home, using it for all their tv entertainment, online shopping. In future people will see their doctor via a video cam and have their prescriptions sent out. All modern homes are internet ready with heating, lighting, surveillance and appliances all remotely controlled.

The government have been slow to roll out nationwide broadband and the recession slowed things down but everyone will be connected at some stage I would think.

That's why I was suggesting these transmitters could become more valuable for broadband transmission than transmitting saorview to homes.

Sam Russell

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

The internet will be every bit as big as the electricity supply was to economic activity and people's lives.

People are working from home, using it for all their tv entertainment, online shopping. In future people will see their doctor via a video cam and have their prescriptions sent out. All modern homes are internet ready with heating, lighting, surveillance and appliances all remotely controlled.

The government have been slow to roll out nationwide broadband and the recession slowed things down but everyone will be connected at some stage I would think.

That's why I was suggesting these transmitters could become more valuable for broadband transmission than transmitting saorview to homes.

I wonder how many of the remote homes without broadband will be willing to shell out €40 or €50 per month out of their meagre income? Has anyone asked them? As for 'connected' homes, I have yet to see one. The owners probably get driven around in an autonomous self drive car, and have a fridge that orders food from the internet when the stocks run low.

Yea, but I still live in the real world.

The existing transmitters would not be suitable for broadband use, but the bandwidth is already being handed over cheaply to the mobile operators without any compensation to RTE.

icdg

Four posts since last mention of TV3, 3e, or Be3. Can we take the “Broadband is electricity” argument somewhere else please

Delta2113

Nice to see the British Soap Awards go out on the same night as ITV - I suppose being LIVE forced their hand.

iseegirls

They showed National Lampoons Christmas Vacation after midnight on Friday. They must be really running out of films to repeat. They haven't showed a premiere in ages. Their film rights must be so limited.