The Virgin Media Television thread

Sam Russell

EdgeCase wrote: »

Is Saorview still charging some kind of premium for broadcasting HD?
You'd think they would want to promote the platform!

As a result of TV3 claim of unfair charges, Comreg decided that charges must be based on bandwidth used. So if RTE broadcast in HD, it costs more than if they broadcast in SD. So to minimize their charges, TV3 broadcast in fuzzy vision, so costing less.

There is no reason why this regime cannot be changed.

political analyst

Sam Russell wrote: »

As a result of TV3 claim of unfair charges, Comreg decided that charges must be based on bandwidth used. So if RTE broadcast in HD, it costs more than if they broadcast in SD. So to minimize their charges, TV3 broadcast in fuzzy vision, so costing less.

There is no reason why this regime cannot be changed.

You can start trying to have it changed by taking up the issue with your local TDs.

Maz2016

political analyst wrote: »

You can start trying to have it changed by taking up the issue with your local TDs.

As true as that maybe , I don’t see many people raising the issue with a TD

medoc

I wonder would it make sense to put Virgin Media Sport on Saorview? The potential extra audience might make advertisers happy. But would the cost of going on Saorview be less than the potential increase in ad money? If it’s just part of the basic pack on Virgin Cable and exclusive to it, it’ll hardly drive enough new subs to counteract the lower ratings as lots of the country can’t even get Cable even if they wanted to.

irishfeen

medoc wrote: »

I wonder would it make sense to put Virgin Media Sport on Saorview? The potential extra audience might make advertisers happy. But would the cost of going on Saorview be less than the potential increase in ad money? If it’s just part of the basic pack on Virgin Cable and exclusive to it, it’ll hardly drive enough new subs to counteract the lower ratings as lots of the country can’t even get Cable even if they wanted to.

That’s exactly what I am thinking too, they would surely be better off to launch it on all platforms in order to gain full FTA viewership for advertising - it doesn’t make sense to make it exclusive to Virgin when most people can’t even get it if they want.

Delta2113

Based on your argument BT Sport should be free to air in the U.K. it's not going to happen and you won't get virgin media sports on saorview. If they wanted to do this they would have dropped be3 and put on the sport. The whole idea is you are drawn to Virgin media - the complete package. Sky and eir is the competition - saorview is your free basic European bank account so to speak that has to be provided.

EdgeCase

Sam Russell wrote: »

As a result of TV3 claim of unfair charges, Comreg decided that charges must be based on bandwidth used. So if RTE broadcast in HD, it costs more than if they broadcast in SD. So to minimize their charges, TV3 broadcast in fuzzy vision, so costing less.

There is no reason why this regime cannot be changed.

Complete waste of time broadcasting in SD in this day and age on DTT and there's only a hand full of channels on the platform, particularly when it's an MPEG4 based system anyway.

irishfeen

Delta2113 wrote: »

Based on your argument BT Sport should be free to air in the U.K. it's not going to happen and you won't get virgin media sports on saorview. If they wanted to do this they would have dropped be3 and put on the sport. The whole idea is you are drawn to Virgin media - the complete package. Sky and eir is the competition - saorview is your free basic European bank account so to speak that has to be provided.

BT do have a FTA channel in the U.K. AFAIK ... there is no point in being draw to Virgin when your living in Kerry or rural Cork like myself or Galway or Donegal - difference with BT is the channels are available on all platforms.

Maz2016

irishfeen wrote: »

BT do have a FTA channel in the U.K. AFAIK ... there is no point in being draw to Virgin when your living in Kerry or rural Cork like myself or Galway or Donegal - difference with BT is the channels are available on all platforms.

BT Showcase ceased broadcasting last week.
https://www.a516digital.com/2018/06/bt-showcase-falls-silent.html?m=1

I imagine Virgin Sports will become available on other platforms on the near future. Can’t see it going on Saorview at all though. They may go down the route like Eir. Anyone that has virgin mobile for instance, may get access to the channel via an app. I have Eir broadband and access the Eir/BT via the app

icdg

They closed it (BT Sport Showcase) a few months back. It was created primarily to fulfill a contractual obligation to UEFA for FTA coverage of the Champions League and they have been released from that obligation in the new contract.

icdg

Maz2016 wrote: »

BT Showcase ceased broadcasting last week. I imagine Virgin Sports will become available on other platforms on the near future. Can’t see it going on Saorview at all though. They may go down the route like Eir. Anyone that has virgin mobile for instance, may get access to the channel via an app. I have Eir broadband and access the Eir/BT via the app

I think it will go on other platforms to - if they withhold it from Sky initially it will probably become an issue next time Virgin’s wholesale deal with Sky comes up for negotiation (and Virgin losing Sky Sports would be a knockout blow for them).

Elmo

You may find that The Virgin Media Player will carry live coverage of these games on the Sky platform rather than the full channel.

It's unlikely that Virgin Media Sport won't be available in some form on Sky.

The channel is most likely to be on the basic Virgin Media Package and have some exclusivity to Virgin Media Customers but it may have some premium on other platforms.

irishfeen

So basically BT did launch a FTA channel because they had to (be it contractually), Virgin are not like BT and even BT launched all their channels in HD on sky in the U.K. also Virgin don’t have anywhere near the footprint of BT in the U.K. then Virgin in Ireland.

Elmo

Virgin Media Sport will cost 20 a month for non-virgin customers
It will be free for first 2 months for Virgin Media Broadband and/or Mobile only Customers and 10 after that via an app
TV customers will get free access to the channel.

TV3/Virgin Media one will air Tuesday night's 6pm game, with Wednesday night's games on VM Sports (though I assume RTÉ may take the 6pm game if they want it).

I think 20 euro is steep. As eir customers will continue to get BT Sport as part of there pack and others can opt for eir/BT Sport.

Via Irish Times.

dulpit

Here's the link: https://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/virgin-media-to-charge-up-to-20-a-month-for-new-sports-channel-1.3563111?mode=amp

€20 for an app is very steep. If you're a sky customer why would you go with this, when you could get eir sports and have the same matches (through bt), more channels and can watch then on TV?

icdg

With Eleven Sports entering the market too, how attractive does the combination of eir Broadband and Virgin TV look now? Certainly I think a lot of sports fans will be looking at that, particularly as since Sky’s move to ten sports channels there’s very little getting hidden behind the dreaded red button now.

That said, Virgin will be running with the Champions League as their main proposition. Putting the FTA game on Tuesday instead of the expected Wednesday is a shrewd move - it means FTA only viewers will only ever be able to see half of a two-legged tie. However eir viewers should still have Champions League access through BT Sport.

Tigerandahalf

I can see a lot of anger towards tv3/virgin for this from the general public.
Rural dwellers will have to go for the Sky and Eir packages which will be a step too far for many. No doubt there will be a lot of anger about being unable to get decent broadband.

In fairness a lot of matches in the Champions League are very dull until the knockout stages. So I think a lot of people will just do without it.

Going from the Irish Times link the semi final games onwards will be on free to air plus you can sign upto the app with just a 30 day contract. Not really going to drive subscriptions.

The big thing is whether the 6Nations will go behind a HD paywall on the virgin sports channel while it could be broadcast in SD on tv3/vm 1.

dulpit

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

The big thing is whether the 6Nations will go behind a HD paywall on the virgin sports channel while it could be broadcast in SD on tv3/vm 1.

Or all of the 6 nations in a future bid? They're not protected..

Vital Transformation

End of an era of there being an FTA Champions League game on both game nights in Ireland, either an RTÉ/TV3 mix or RTÉ having both nights.

icdg

dulpit wrote: »

Or all of the 6 nations in a future bid? They're not protected..

They’re not. But I’d say if it went behind a paywall it would go on the protected list fairly sharpish. It won’t though, because people will just watch on BBC (and ITV where available) instead

Tigerandahalf

icdg wrote: »

They’re not. But I’d say if it went behind a paywall it would go on the protected list fairly sharpish. It won’t though, because people will just watch on BBC (and ITV where available) instead

Depends on whether bbc/itv retain the uk rights. Sky or BT may go after those rights which would change the picture for Irish viewers.

It is probably only a matter of time before Vodafone enter the market.

Realalemadrid

Does this mean BT will be blocked in the ROI during Wed champions league matches as VM now have exclusive rights?

Tigerandahalf

Realalemadrid wrote: »

Does this mean BT will be blocked in the ROI during Wed champions league matches as VM now have exclusive rights?

I doubt it as BT wasn't blocked when rte/tv3 had the rights.

dulpit

Realalemadrid wrote: »

Does this mean BT will be blocked in the ROI during Wed champions league matches as VM now have exclusive rights?

No, their rights are exclusive Irish rights - which would cover terrestrial. Right?

icdg

It doesn’t quite work like that - however Team Marketing, which runs the tender for UEFA, had already stated that BT’s rights do cover Ireland on a non-exclusive basis. So I don’t expect it to be blocked - that said, I’m not sure why anyone would take both Eir and Virgin Sport in the circumstances. Could be something I’m missing out on - if they have ROI Nations League games that could be a pull.

dulpit

My guess is they are using it as a draw to their overall package, this additional €20 per month package is just there for a little bit of extra revenue - I can't see many subscribing to it, but now at least they can't be accused of ignoring the non-VM people...

Tigerandahalf

I am very surprised that they are not offering it free for people with VM broadband. Compare it to the offering from eir.

Many people with VM broadband will have no intention of taking up Virgin tv for the sake of this.

At least they could have held onto their broadband subscribers if this was offered for free to those people.

Mickey Mike

What is BT? is it British Telecom! Just wondering.

irishfeen

Absolutely madness the path Virgin is going down with this .. if CL on BT is not blocked out on sky in Ireland then that’s game over for this venture... I cannot see how they think people are going to pay for virgin, sky and Eir sports.

Madness!

bennyl10

irishfeen wrote: »

Absolutely madness the path Virgin is going down with this .. if CL on BT is not blocked out on sky in Ireland then that’s game over for this venture... I cannot see how they think people are going to pay for virgin, sky and Eir sports.

Madness!

Eir have confirmed on twitter it's not blocked either and they have every game live..
really silly move by virgin/liberty on this