The Virgin Media Television thread

An Ciarraioch

Gavan Reilly has tweeted that Virgin Media retain one FTA Champions League game on Wednesdays, full rights to the Europa and Conference Leagues.

Mickey Mike

Going forward whoever might buy VM should change back to TV3 and 3e and drop be3, two channels is enough.

iseegirls

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117700525#Comment_117700525

Pretty decent deal for VM. Having the entire Champions League must have been very expensive previously and the matches didn't do great on VM1 at the start (Corrie and Emmerdale got higher figures, so pointless to displace) hence why they moved to VM2. RTE already had 1st option on the Tuesday games before as well. The only loss is the final.

echo321

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117702192#Comment_117702192

I agree two channels would be enough as VM seems to be mostly constant re-showings of British programming which has already been available to most people in Ireland. Huge amounts of repeats and overlap on the three channels to the point where I personally wonder what's the point!. With two channels they would still have a place for Ireland AM, their late night current affairs programme and FTA sport on VM Two. I can only guess that the advertising revenue from the third channel makes it worth their while keeping it going for now?

An Ciarraioch

Surprising that none of their multiple channels are showing the Community Shield on Saturday, even if it is on the same time as the first hurling semi?

icdg

I alluded to that in another thread, there’s currently no Irish rights holder to the ITV half of the split ITV/BBC FA Cup deal, including the Community Shield. It would seem a no-brainer for VMTV to pick up, as VM cable customers are the main ones affected. The hurling’s on RTE and to be honest the audience crossover is limited anyway.

Delta2113

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117712542#Comment_117712542

I wonder did they even bother asking how much it would cost. I made alternative arrangements to watch the game.

Australia also had no broadcaster this year for the Community Shield.

icdg

The Community Shield is a one-off, and clashed with a lot of other sport at that time yesterday, and there was still a Twitter storm yesterday over the lack of coverage. It’ll become way more obvious on FA Cup third round weekend in January and a large portion of pay-TV customers find themselves without some big ties. And no 3pms or extra ROI matches for anyone (although I think that was the case for some of last season too). Maybe the rights will be picked up by then.

Delta2113

Virgin Media Television have so much spare capacity and that's even without another seven channels (VM Sport and 6 pop up channels) that are on it's cable platform.

Elmo

Matt Copper exits The Tonight Show. He says it is due to his work schedule. Anyone know what its audience number have been like over the last few months, not a show I watch as regularly now.

channelsurfer2

Haven't watched it since VB retired from it. I don't think the two presenter option works for it

iseegirls

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117752526#Comment_117752526

Didn't like the permanent move to 10pm either. 11pm suited it better.

iseegirls

Few little things of note

VM2 showing the Shamrock Rovers Conference League 1st leg on Thursday, with RTE showing the second leg the following week.

The Six O'clock Show is taking what seems like a mini break from Monday onwards. First time the show has ever taken a break in the summer. It's only been off air over Xmas before. It's replaced by a Happy Campers Channel 5 show.

The Kids slot which had been there since 2017 has shrunk to an hour now on VM3. And will inevitably be gone as soon as Teletubbies and In The Night Garden is shown as much before their rights finish up. They've given up on that slot since the VM revamp really.

Elmo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117768254#Comment_117768254

is Elaine still going?

Yes Elaine is still going. They have replaced the axed hour of kids TV with an extra half hour of downtime.

iseegirls

Eggheads was on before the Conference League match on VM2. It was in the schedule maybe a year or 2 ago, and was pulled before even airing. Maybe it'll be shown in September on the channel, hopefully giving Tipping Point a rest.

How time flies, next week it will be exactly 3 years since the Virgin Media brand replaced TV3 + 3E + Be3

Delta2113

A days countdown D.O.G. until Love Island Final - are they not embarrassed? - seriously.

iseegirls

They'll be hoping that Shamrock Rovers and Spurs overturn their 1st leg defeats to get through to the UEFA Conference League group stages, or else they'll be left with exclusivity to a tournament that has zero English and Irish clubs.

Celtic and Rangers will seemingly advance to the Europa League group stages and along with Leicester and West Ham should be ok for them there.

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117778684#Comment_117778684

Is it 3 years already? And still people refer to it as TV3...

Mickey Mike

I'd like to see it go back to TV3 once its sold, if that will ever happen. And TV3 HD with that on saorview.

Elmo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117768254#Comment_117768254

Tsocs is getting a new set

iseegirls

Anna Daly leaving Ireland AM on Sep 19th.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117785520#Comment_117785520

To work for the communications clinic.

Elmo

Not surprising but Pat Kenny has no connection to Virgin Media anymore. His Big Debate series (if it was a series) won't be returning.

callaway92

How have the WWE shows been performing?

My MediaLive login doesn’t seem to be working at the moment. Just curious to see really.

iseegirls

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117794983#Comment_117794983

Hasn't appeared in the monthly top 20 for VM2, so definitely under 20,000 at least.

EdmondShiels3

I am not surprised that the WWE programs are not doing that well as Smackdown is a week behind. Take last week with the PPV Summerslam which was on Saturday night. Anything that happened on Smackdow in the build up to the ppv you will not see till this Saturday. Why watch Raw last Sunday for the same reason it was building up to a PPV that was over. Normal week without a PPV Raw is fine. Most people will watch it on the internet anyway as there is a number of sites to watch it on.

iseegirls

Elaine repeats dropped from VM3, leaving them with 0 Irish programming on the channel.

The one hour repeat of Ireland AM remains VM2's only Irish programming.

There are more episodes of The Chase (UK & AUS) than there are Irish programming across the 3 channels. 10 episodes of The Chase today (4 on VM1, 5 on VM2, 1 on VM3) vs Ireland AM, News x3, Elaine, The Restaurant, Hutch Kinehan docu.

It just goes to show how these big RTE stars need RTE more than RTE needs them. pat Kenny flopped on Utv Ireland and Virgin but if the exact same shows that he did for those channels were on RTE 1, that'd have gotten over half a million viewers