The Virgin Media Television thread

mikeym

The Saturday Night Takeaway will still go ahead without an audience.

mikeym

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

I would like to see Virgin Media Television take more calculated risks like it's predecessor TV3 Group was forced to do during the economic downturn when the now defunct "UTV Ireland" managed to acquire the rights to a lot of it's high ratings programmes like Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Graham Norton Show and so on. During this period when commercial advertising was dropping significantly, TV3 Group still managed to commission and show Irish based drama (i.e.) "RedRock" which it later sold internationally to broadcasters like the BBC. It seems to import a lot of shows or else run Irish versions of identical show concepts like "Gogglebox Ireland", "Ireland's Got Talent", "Don't Look Back in Anger" etc;

As much as I like Gogglebox on Channel 4, there can be crossover of the various programmes being reviewed on Gogglebox & Gogglebox Ireland albeit by parties based in Ireland Vs UK.

We have long reached saturation point with all of the singing, dancing, talent competitions not to mention reality tv formats from, The X Factor/Xtra Factor, Britain's Got Talent, America's Got Talent, Ireland's Got Talent, The Voice UK, Dancing On Ice, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Outta Here, Love Island etc;

RTÉ has been showing "Reeling In The Years" almost to death for many years so; I do not get why Virgin Media Television needed another vehicle to look back at past years news/events against a musical soundtrack.

Why can't we have Irish themed quiz/game shows, more Irish drama series (not just one-off mini-series) and quality material that is NOT currently available on the other main channels. Virgin Media Television seems too much like a carbon copy of ITV which would be understandable if the audience could not access ITV although; nowadays most of urban & rural Ireland can watch ITV via digital satellite/cable. It's a bit like the high street in a town/city full of international stores instead of Irish stores with the odd international retailer. There should be more creativity/imagination used when putting together programme schedules on the various tv channels. I think viewers will respond to originality if it is dynamic, fresh & compelling.

100% agree with you.

Apart from Ireland Am and the Virgin Media News its like watching Itv.

Elmo

mikeym wrote: »

100% agree with you.

Apart from Ireland Am and the Virgin Media News its like watching Itv.

Having watched all ITV’s suite of channels I’d say your getting not even 40% of a local ITV channel across all VM channels.

News & Current Affairs doing well across all channels.

lertsnim

mikeym wrote: »

100% agree with you.

Apart from Ireland Am and the Virgin Media News its like watching Itv.

ITV doesn't repeat the same few episodes to death though

iseegirls

With the current pandemic ongoing, it would have been nice for at least one of the channels to break away from normal (repeats) schedule, and have more family focused programming or films.

The option of having 3 hours of Judge Rinder on one channel, 2 hours of The Chase, or a repeat of Ireland AM on the other one doesn't catch the type of viewers whom are now housebound (apart from housewives).

They'll be facing a lot of dropped programming over the next few weeks/months. All that Champions League, Horseracing, Love Island, Britains Got Talent Semi & Finals gone along with Corrie and Emmerdale reducing. No doubt the replacements will be Vera, Midsomer Murders etc...

Elmo

iseegirls wrote: »

With the current pandemic ongoing, it would have been nice for at least one of the channels to break away from normal (repeats) schedule, and have more family focused programming or films.

The option of having 3 hours of Judge Rinder on one channel, 2 hours of The Chase, or a repeat of Ireland AM on the other one doesn't catch the type of viewers whom are now housebound (apart from housewives).

They'll be facing a lot of dropped programming over the next few weeks/months. All that Champions League, Horseracing, Love Island, Britains Got Talent Semi & Finals gone along with Corrie and Emmerdale reducing. No doubt the replacements will be Vera, Midsomer Murders etc...

a number of people on twitter have asked sky to let sky cinema be free, don't see why VM can air a few of its on demand films on VM ONE, TWO and THREE during the day.

iseegirls

Elmo wrote: »

a number of people on twitter have asked sky to let sky cinema be free, don't see why VM can air a few of its on demand films on VM ONE, TWO and THREE during the day.

One of the announcers said before a show yesterday something like this - "And don't forget you can catch the whole Harry Potter collection on the Virgin Media On Demand.", before being subjected to another ITV repeat.

political analyst

The episode of The Guards: Inside the K meant to be on Wednesday night was postponed because, according to VMI on Twitter, it was about mental health and suicide - but last night at 8:30 the announcer said that episode was available on the Player. Bleedin' amateurs!

political analyst

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

I would like to see Virgin Media Television take more calculated risks like it's predecessor TV3 Group was forced to do during the economic downturn when the now defunct "UTV Ireland" managed to acquire the rights to a lot of it's high ratings programmes like Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Graham Norton Show and so on. During this period when commercial advertising was dropping significantly, TV3 Group still managed to commission and show Irish based drama (i.e.) "RedRock" which it later sold internationally to broadcasters like the BBC. It seems to import a lot of shows or else run Irish versions of identical show concepts like "Gogglebox Ireland", "Ireland's Got Talent", "Don't Look Back in Anger" etc;

As much as I like Gogglebox on Channel 4, there can be crossover of the various programmes being reviewed on Gogglebox & Gogglebox Ireland albeit by parties based in Ireland Vs UK.

We have long reached saturation point with all of the singing, dancing, talent competitions not to mention reality tv formats from, The X Factor/Xtra Factor, Britain's Got Talent, America's Got Talent, Ireland's Got Talent, The Voice UK, Dancing On Ice, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Outta Here, Love Island etc;

RTÉ has been showing "Reeling In The Years" almost to death for many years so; I do not get why Virgin Media Television needed another vehicle to look back at past years news/events against a musical soundtrack.

Why can't we have Irish themed quiz/game shows, more Irish drama series (not just one-off mini-series) and quality material that is NOT currently available on the other main channels. Virgin Media Television seems too much like a carbon copy of ITV which would be understandable if the audience could not access ITV although; nowadays most of urban & rural Ireland can watch ITV via digital satellite/cable. It's a bit like the high street in a town/city full of international stores instead of Irish stores with the odd international retailer. There should be more creativity/imagination used when putting together programme schedules on the various tv channels. I think viewers will respond to originality if it is dynamic, fresh & compelling.

Yeah, because putting the broadcast of the last episodes of Red Rock on the long finger was a brilliant idea(!) :rolleyes:

iseegirls

Live racing from Thurles on VM2 and ITV4 today. The first time TV3/VM have shown Irish racing live, albeit they're only showing it live because ITV are producing it.

https://twitter.com/VMSportIE/status/1241041200968355840?s=19

iseegirls

The cutbacks on soaps begin next week, with Virgin Media One not following ITV's broadcast times for Coronation Street. ITV have them on at 7:30 on Mon, Wed, Fri. Meanwhile Virgin Media One will broadcast them at 8:30pm. Possibly hoping that viewers stay on the channel for the following show at 9pm. They'll sure lose a lot of viewers though for people who can access ITV - a bit risky.

Replacement shows of the soaps include repeats of Rescue, Heathrow and Eat Shop Save. Also a new series (for VM1) of Rare Breed (S8) and fly on the wall ITV series Yorkshire Airport.

Elmo

Is doctor on call a few weeks out on Virgin media watched some of it VirginMedia made no attempt to provide HSE and Irish details.

Maz2016

iseegirls wrote: »

The cutbacks on soaps begin next week, with Virgin Media One not following ITV's broadcast times for Coronation Street. ITV have them on at 7:30 on Mon, Wed, Fri. Meanwhile Virgin Media One will broadcast them at 8:30pm. Possibly hoping that viewers stay on the channel for the following show at 9pm. They'll sure lose a lot of viewers though for people who can access ITV - a bit risky.

Risky indeed, we can get the old UTV in HD in this house as well as ITV so will be using one of those. I must say I do like virgins news. I think VM2 are loosing out by dropping the 10pm news on 2

Elmo

Maz2016 wrote: »

Risky indeed, we can get the old UTV in HD in this house as well as ITV so will be using one of those. I must say I do like virgins news. I think VM2 are loosing out by dropping the 10pm news on 2

Yeah I think that’s UTV’s Ireland Live influence. TV3 at on point had a reader who just couldn’t read, she seems to have disappeared since.

dublinman1990

Did VM do a live News special about #clapforourcarers in Ireland?

An Ciarraioch

Their news is at 8 anyway, so presumably they did.

Elmo

They are airing some ITV show about the UK in lockdown after the Tonight show, which will air at 10:30 tonight

iseegirls

Elmo wrote: »

They are airing some ITV show about the UK in lockdown after the Tonight show, which will air at 10:30 tonight

Looks like it's on at 11pm (the UK show). Ivan did mention that The Tonight Show will remain at 10pm for the foreseeable future during the Covid-19 crisis.

Minor news, but VM3 are extending their Kids slot till 11am from Monday. Still the same programmes though, and relying on those which were first broadcast 20+ years ago of Teletubbies and Paddington Bear.

Maz2016

dublinman1990 wrote: »

Did VM do a live News special about #clapforourcarers in Ireland?

Yeah the 8pm news started at 7:58 and they showed the full minute of clapping in the dail

Elmo

Just wondering if VM are in the process of dropping 8pm news, last nights speech was a special according to them.

iseegirls

Elmo wrote: »

Just wondering if VM are in the process of dropping 8pm news, last nights speech was a special according to them.

Last nights news ran at 7.30. For the last few Friday's they've moved it to that time to have an hours Corrie at 8. No Corrie last night due to expected England v Italy game, however they kept with the news at 7.30, with special of The Chase Bloopers at 8. That was changed to Don't look back in anger at 8, and news special at 8.30 then.

Elmo

iseegirls wrote: »

Last nights news ran at 7.30. For the last few Friday's they've moved it to that time to have an hours Corrie at 8. No Corrie last night due to expected England v Italy game, however they kept with the news at 7.30, with special of The Chase Bloopers at 8. That was changed to Don't look back in anger at 8, and news special at 8.30 then.

Thanks, crazy to think that The Chase Bloopers is considered a worthwhile replacement in Prime Time. But just digging holes on that.

hotmail.com

Has anyone got the ratings for the news programmes for the last 3 weeks on RTE and Virgin. They must be getting record audiences.

Maz2016

hotmail.com wrote: »

Has anyone got the ratings for the news programmes for the last 3 weeks on RTE and Virgin. They must be getting record audiences.

I don't but the news itself did not feature in the top 20. Leo's speech got an impressive audience on RTE. Is this the first time something was broadcast on RTE and VM at the same time? Just shows people still switch on RTE news as apposed to VM.

hotmail.com

Maz2016 wrote: »

I don't but the news itself did not feature in the top 20. Leo's speech got an impressive audience on RTE. Is this the first time something was broadcast on RTE and VM at the same time? Just shows people still switch on RTE news as apposed to VM.

Perhaps news programmes don't feature on rating lists?

Very high ratings for Prime Time.

Elmo

hotmail.com wrote: »

Perhaps news programmes don't feature on rating lists?

Very high ratings for Prime Time.

Medialive only provide news programme ratings in their monthly top 20. Current Affairs such as Prime Time & Tonight get listed weekly, tonight is up significantly from previous weeks having been out of the top twenty for most of 2019, under 90,000.

hotmail.com

Elmo wrote: »

Medialive only provide news programme ratings in their monthly top 20. Current Affairs such as Prime Time & Tonight get listed weekly, tonight is up significantly from previous weeks having been out of the top twenty for most of 2019, under 90,000.

I think it's moved permanently to 10 PM for the crisis. It should get a boost because of that.

iseegirls

Love Island Series 4 getting a prime time repeat airing on Virgin Media Two at 9pm starting from Easter Monday and every day after that.

Oddly, it stops newer series like The Chopping Block and Grantchester they had at 9pm currently.

More odd scheduling news, (might be an error at the moment) but VM3 have 4 episodes of The Royal from 1pm-5pm starting from Monday 20th. VM2 also show The Royal at 12.30 every weekday.

No idea what they're playing at.

Long_Wave

iseegirls wrote: »

Love Island Series 4 getting a prime time repeat airing on Virgin Media Two at 9pm starting from Easter Monday and every day after that.

Oddly, it stops newer series like The Chopping Block and Grantchester they had at 9pm currently.

More odd scheduling news, (might be an error at the moment) but VM3 have 4 episodes of The Royal from 1pm-5pm starting from Monday 20th. VM2 also show The Royal at 12.30 every weekday.

No idea what they're playing at.

They were doing that with Judge Rinder a few months ago, showing it on two channels at the same time.

Elmo

5:30 News 174,900
8 News mar 27 148,300
8 news 145,100
News Specials 186,600

Tonight doesn’t make top 20 for March