The Virgin Media Television thread

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119998587#Comment_119998587

Yeah noticed that a few nights ago, looks like it is being advertised across all Sky and UKTV channels.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119992761#Comment_119992761

Well I have no idea what is going on with TV ratings

Irish TV channels had their biggest ever audinece this month (due in part to WC) but no change for RTÉ 1 and a gain for VMTV1!

Total RTÉ 30% | Total VMTV 21%

iseegirls

I'd say I'm A Celebrity pushed VMTVs ratings higher than the norm.

Digifriendly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120000570#Comment_120000570

How anyone watches that rubbish baffles me.

UsBus

I see Virgin media news crew have abandoned ship till the New year again. Luckily there is no news happening at this time of year 😏

How they can't put a skeleton report together is beyond laughable. They are a national news channel, not the local butchers.

Have never heard of any other channels just all pissing off for a week and picking up with the news again in the new year.

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120031888#Comment_120031888

Probably because all their viewers piss off to other channels, X boxes, Nefilix etc till the new year.

Maz2016

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120031888#Comment_120031888

Today (Christmas Eve) there was a news bulletin at 12:33, 14:48: 16:48, 18:58,

I don’t see anything scheduled for a Xmas day or St Stephens

Tuesday 27th - Friday 30th inclusive

12:58, 14:58, 17:55, 18:58 daily

I haven’t checked after that so not totally abandonment Also, other channels do the same like Channel 5 in the U.K. don’t have news bulletins on Christmas Day or Stephen’s day either. Personally I think the two minute (5 minute at 17:55) is enough for the week that’s in it

Brock Turnpike

Looked at the VM listings this morning and afternoon and you wouldn't even know if was Xmas. They have made the minimum possible effort. Multiple episodes of the Chase on though.

zeebre12

I'd say they bought the rights to two Christmas movies and repeat them day in day out until the New Year. Christmas with the Kranks was on Christmas Eve again Christmas Day. The same with The Chase. The same episode will be repeated over and over again over subsequent days.

Leonita

I've said and thought it many times. The VM schedule is scheduled around the staff and feck the viewers. Especially the news crew.

iseegirls

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120036057#Comment_120036057

The schedule is created by squeezing the most out of their current stack of imported programmes, before they expire. You'll have programmes like Posh Pawn, The Hotel Inspector and others which are being showed continuously and then at the turn of a month, they'd disappear.

They like to show every episode at least 8 times normally within a 2 year period per series of a programme. And it's why you'll see Millionaire repeated so much. They're showing S36 repeats a lot, and that's because that series first aired 24 Jan 2021. So you will notice that they won't show any of these episodes from this series after 24 Jan 2023.

There's no way any of their current schedule across the 4 channels have viewers in mind really.

thesandeman

I watched an episode of The Hotel Inspector on VM2 the other night. Ten minutes after it finished I switched to VM4 to watch another one.

Same episode 🙄 Must be a record even for Virgin.

It's a disgrace that Virgin media are allowed clog up Saorview bandwidth with as many junk channels as they want while RTE were refused permission to launch an archive material channel.

iseegirls

VM Four slowly morphing into a VM Sport archive channel in the morning and afternoons. The same matches being shown repeatedly - they have a huge crush on Man Utd and Liverpool games, along with anything Messi and Ronaldo related. An odd one they have shown a lot is a Man Utd game against Bayer Leverkusen from 2013/14, all with TV3 graphics and comms. Tomorrow morning on VM Four, they're showing it in full again - and it's the 21st time they've showed this match across VM More and VM Four. An hour long highlights Man Utd v Benfica 1968 European Final was shown a total of 35 times in 2022

Another stat for you - Don't Look Back In Anger 1998 was shown yesterday on VM One at 8:30pm. It was the 42nd time it's been shown, and will be repeated on VM One on Sunday at 5pm, and Wed night at 1am.

The record of most times an episode of a TV series on TV3/VM shown will still take some beating, with Series 7 Episode 1 of Uploaded being shown approx 176 times (not counting any Uploaded Bytesize versions)

icdg

I really need to ask who is doing all that counting and why they have that kind of time on their hands.

iseegirls

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120074917#Comment_120074917

Yeah, don't ask.. (gulp)

Mickey Mike

Virgin Media TV should be made drop VM3 and VM4 in favour of VM1 HD, it doesn't make sense what's going on now with 4 SD channels with repeats and swapping the same programmes around the 4 channels.

Dodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120076875#Comment_120076875

Why would they drop 2 platforms for andvertising and add the extra expense of HD for saorview viewers? They exist to make money. No other reason

icdg

Made? By whom? Under what legal provision? Grounds and reasons?

Those who espouse that a private company should be “made” do something must always realise that if a State emmenanation tries to “make” a private company do something they do not want to do and there is no statutory provision to ground that “making”, and no valid reason to exercise that power, well the High Court JR list is that way.

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120077414#Comment_120077414

The licence that they have should be amended so that all main stations are broadcast in HD, and minimum quality rules applied for all other channels on saorview.

odyssey06

Who is signing off the cheques paying for adverts on VM4... are they also autobots!

JDxtra

I can’t believe the number of people who watch these channels (outside of the soaps). Pure tripe in poor quality and endless repeats. They must literally watch anything!

Not to mention people who still call it TV3. Arrgh!

VM know their market at least and people quite happy to lap it up.

icdg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120077482#Comment_120077482

Again we’re back to this daft in this age two regulator system we have. The BAI licenses content, but has no jurisdiction over content. Comreg controls broadcasting standards, but is effectively obliged to grant a license to the BAI for every contracted service. This point unfortunately falls between two stools; the BAi have no jurisdiction over picture quality and Comreg basically can’t refuse the BAI a license for the VM channels.

deezell

Their legitimate argument against HD terrestrial streams always was and will remain cost. Before digital TV, TV3 and 3e occupied two entire analogue channels, 8Mhz bandwidth, on the UHF spectrum. With digital technology, it was possible to fit multiple SD standard definition, HD definition and sub SD definition channels onto a single analogue channel bandwidth or Multiplex (Mux) as its now known. TV3 weren't at all pleased with the massive increase in transmission cost for even the SD steam for their two channels, let alone the HD, given that they had occupied two entire mux for less cost with Analogue. They even had the HD studios and kit lined up, but instead subscribed to the lowest data rate they could get away with, a sub SD offering, and the rest is history. RTE networks were left with their unwanted HD channels, TV3 put out sub SD onto the terrestrial Saorview network, and hid their actual HD content behind the Sky Astra paywall, and with VM, behind their cable and broadband delivered service. RTENL greed done them a favour.

Terrestrial HD 1440x1080. Rte1, 2, TG4

Terrestrial SD 704 × 576 (nominally Analogue res) Rte News Now

Terrestrial Sub SD 544 x 576. All VM, +1 channels, RTEJunior.

The combined pixel count from all 4 VM channels, 1.25 Mp, is less than a single HD channel, 1.55 Mp, though this is an oversimplification of quality seen, as bitrate has a defining effect.

Maz2016

We have this conversation on here yearly if not even monthly. Nothing will change

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120078125#Comment_120078125

Except that the contributors get aged, haggard and irrelevant eventually. I've let go of the TV3 res thing for a good while now. If you find yourself watching the 6 nations on a phone stream, you realise that its a different media world to the analogue days, which was only 2012. I still remember the excitement as a kid when I retuned the old black and white TV from 405 line RTE to 625 line transmission, razor sharp images it seemed. No-one in the house even knew the choice existed. So it is with VM. Phone quality images with YouTube quality programs. Its not going to change, you have to.

icdg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120078125#Comment_120078125

Absolutely. I have come close to considering banning discussion on it from time to time because it just goes around in circles.

And look the poster above also has a point, and maybe the point is not having one as regards two regulators at this stage; maybe it’s whether there should be any regulator, at all, of tv content. The idea that in order to gain access to the airwaves you need to approach a state body with a couple of hundred page business plan setting out your programming proposals, costs, advertising revenue, key people etc in an age where anyone with a webcam can set themselves up on YouTube is itself a relic of another era, another time.

TheRiverman

The only thing I try to watch on Virgin Media channels is sport. I am not a subscriber, never will be, so no HD. I try to endure the awful picture, but no way would I ever subscibe to such a crap network.

AndrewJRenko

What ever happened to the 'VM More' on channel 100 launched with much fanfare earlier this year. Has this just slipped away into the darkness now?

Maz2016

It seems to be still there. I don’t have it but listings online