The Virgin Media Television thread

byte

I'd say we would have better chance of seeing TG4 HD on Saorview than TV3 HD.

deezell

byte wrote: »

I'd say we would have better chance of seeing TG4 HD on Saorview than TV3 HD.

The issue is TV3 being allowed to obtain exclusive rights to FTA terrestrial content under false pretences. If the standard available for that content is HD then that should be the prevailing standard for the FTA terrestrial broadcast rights, else another provider should get those HD FTA terrestrial rights. The HD version of this FTA material is currently being peddled to SkyHD. The equipment used to route this was in part funded by the taxpayer. The only hope is that it is not financially successful for TV3 to do this. Rugby world cup was their first disaster. They might be surprised if they went HD on Saorview, might actually pick up more viewers.

iseegirls

deezell wrote: »

Rugby world cup was their first disaster. They might be surprised if they went HD on Saorview, might actually pick up more viewers.

Can't see how it was a disaster. They picked up their highest ever ratings in their 18 years for the Ireland matches. Depending on the size of telly you have, it mightn't make that much of a difference to someone who is not used to HD quality. The chances that they would pick up a whole load of viewers for Tipping Point being HD on Saorview is very small.

Elmo

iseegirls wrote: »

Can't see how it was a disaster. They picked up their highest ever ratings in their 18 years for the Ireland matches. Depending on the size of telly you have, it mightn't make that much of a difference to someone who is not used to HD quality. The chances that they would pick up a whole load of viewers for Tipping Point being HD on Saorview is very small.

I agree ...however they may need to be careful. UTV proper gained audiences during the RWC and last month during I'm a celebrity. It will be interesting to see if they continue to grow and if tam Ireland report that growth!

deezell

Elmo wrote: »

I agree ...however they may need to be careful. UTV proper gained audiences during the RWC and last month during I'm a celebrity. It will be interesting to see if they continue to grow and if tam Ireland report that growth!

Did I not read here that they lost money on the RWC? Did they they retain those captive viewers who had no alternative? I watched it in HD on the UK channels , with a suitably delayed RTE radio commentary overlaid. I would have had no problem with TV3 if you could actually make out the players on the awful picture. green an blue blobs for the most part.

deezell

Its not always about picture quality I agree, but it helps. Some of their schedule decisions are strange. The seven o clock show was a winner, a good alternative to Nationwide, or Eastenders, or both. The move back to six in conflict with the RTE news is baffling. A hasty reaction to the return of Coronation st. The 7 show should have been retained, live from 7 to 7.30, returning at 8 in between the the Corny st. slots, recorded if necessary. A lot of people only ever watched the first or second half anyway.

Elmo

deezell wrote: »

Did I not read here that they lost money on the RWC? Did they they retain those captive viewers who had no alternative? I watched it in HD on the UK channels , with a suitably delayed RTE radio commentary overlaid. I would have had no problem with TV3 if you could actually make out the players on the awful picture. green an blue blobs for the most part.

They didn't loose money on the RWC. You have to remember neither ITV or BBC sell advertising in this market. Overall RWC didn't help prevent 17million or so in losses.

iseegirls

deezell wrote: »

Its not always about picture quality I agree, but it helps. Some of their schedule decisions are strange. The seven o clock show was a winner, a good alternative to Nationwide, or Eastenders, or both. The move back to six in conflict with the RTE news is baffling. A hasty reaction to the return of Coronation st. The 7 show should have been retained, live from 7 to 7.30, returning at 8 in between the the Corny st. slots, recorded if necessary. A lot of people only ever watched the first or second half anyway.

Sorry, but I'm unsure if those are your own presumptions or you know more details behind the scenes.
The Seven O'Clock Show was in no way a success. Emmerdale bet it nearly 4:1 at times. The show rarely got in the Top 20. Also no stats around to say whether people watched the last half or the first half more. I'd say the move to 6 is a trial run, and we'll soon see it axed and XPOSE moved back to 6.

PabloAndRoy

deezell wrote: »

The issue is TV3 being allowed to obtain exclusive rights to FTA terrestrial content under false pretences. If the standard available for that content is HD then that should be the prevailing standard for the FTA terrestrial broadcast rights, else another provider should get those HD FTA terrestrial rights. The HD version of this FTA material is currently being peddled to SkyHD. The equipment used to route this was in part funded by the taxpayer. The only hope is that it is not financially successful for TV3 to do this. Rugby world cup was their first disaster. They might be surprised if they went HD on Saorview, might actually pick up more viewers.

I agree with this although my experience is anecdotal. We run Saorview/Freesat system and given the choice of a show on ITV HD or TV3, we always select ITV in our house for obvious reasons. TV3 isn't even on the first page of our channel list which is 100% populated with HD channels ...

We would happily support the Irish channel if it were up to the standard of even the RTE HD broadcast. As it stands, i would say TV3 gets less than one hour a week viewing in our house. More4+1 gets more hours viewed per week that Tv3/3e/UTVi combined.

Johnboy1951

PabloAndRoy wrote: »

I agree with this although my experience is anecdotal. We run Saorview/Freesat system and given the choice of a show on ITV HD or TV3, we always select ITV in our house for obvious reasons. TV3 isn't even on the first page of our channel list which is 100% populated with HD channels ...

We would happily support the Irish channel if it were up to the standard of even the RTE HD broadcast. As it stands, i would say TV3 gets less than one hour a week viewing in our house. More4+1 gets more hours viewed per week that Tv3/3e/UTVi combined.

Somewhat similar situation here.
If a game is shown on TV3 that I want to watch, I will first try my damnedest to find it elsewhere because of the low quality picture from TV3 on Saorview.
As a last resort I will watch the TV3 broadcast in a window on my PC where the bad pic is not as annoying.

galtee boy

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Somewhat similar situation here.
If a game is shown on TV3 that I want to watch, I will first try my damnedest to find it elsewhere because of the low quality picture from TV3 on Saorview.
As a last resort I will watch the TV3 broadcast in a window on my PC where the bad pic is not as annoying.

Ditto here, ITV HD all the way, at TV3's loss. I've been saying this for ages, TV3 loosing viewers to ITV because of the lack of HD on Saorview, but they don't care, they are in HD on all the pay platforms except Vodafone and they are happy with that.

Elmo

galtee boy wrote: »

Ditto here, ITV HD all the way, at TV3's loss. I've been saying this for ages, TV3 loosing viewers to ITV because of the lack of HD on Saorview, but they don't care, they are in HD on all the pay platforms except Vodafone and they are happy with that.

You have to remember that ITV don't sell advertising in the irish market and that majority of people have pay tv.

However I think more and more people will seek out UTV/ITV.

Have Virgin removed ITV2, 3 and 4 from their platform?

dublinman1990

ITV's press centre have confirmed on Twitter that their new show Dance Dance Dance will begin on the 8th of January at 6:30pm. I have to ask though, If TV3 have the rights to the show, will they show it on TV3 all the way through because UTVI is closing down on that day.

Dance Dance Dance is also going to compete with RTE's Dancing with the Stars because they are both on the same day & in the same time slot.

Elmo

bizzare scheduling of Xpose. I assume from reports Monday, Wednesday and Friday on TV3 with Tuesday and Thursday night on 3e meaning dropping 8pm news? with coro st expected for 8:30 on Wednesdays

political analyst

Elmo wrote: »

bizzare scheduling of Xpose. I assume from reports Monday, Wednesday and Friday on TV3 with Tuesday and Thursday night on 3e meaning dropping 8pm news? with coro st expected for 8:30 on Wednesdays

The News at 8 wasn't dropped - it has been moved to 3e.

iseegirls

political analyst wrote: »

The News at 8 wasn't dropped - it has been moved to 3e.

This was a piece in the Indo today, looks like they can see into the January schedules. Ireland AM is increasing by half an hour. Elaine Crowley getting her own chat show, but unknown whether Midday is finishing.

Elmo

political analyst wrote: »

The News at 8 wasn't dropped - it has been moved to 3e.

It looks like in the new year it will stop airing on 3e

political analyst

Elmo wrote: »

It looks like in the new year it will stop airing on 3e

Apologies.

I didn't read your post correctly. I didn't realise until iseegirls mentioned the article in today's Indo that you were referring to the New Year schedule.

Elmo

political analyst wrote: »

Apologies.

I didn't read your post correctly. I didn't realise until iseegirls mentioned the article in today's Indo that you were referring to the New Year schedule.

No prob. It may move to be3 or will Ireland Live move to 8!!

iseegirls

A piece on evoke.ie has the following schedule for TV3:
7:00-10:30 Ireland AM
10:30-12:30 This Morning (ITV show)
3:00-4:00 Elaine

So Midday being axed for Elaine talk show, but sounds like its something completely the same show as Midday anyway.

Dont know whether Loose Women will air at 12:30 or they'll keep the news there.

Johnboy1951

Elmo wrote: »

You have to remember that ITV don't sell advertising in the irish market and that majority of people have pay tv.

However I think more and more people will seek out UTV/ITV.

Have Virgin removed ITV2, 3 and 4 from their platform?

Is there some resource that shows the number of households that use pay TV versus those who do not?
Wondering what the relative figures are.

The Parish priest

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Is there some resource that shows the number of households that use pay TV versus those who do not?
Wondering what the relative figures are.

The figure in 2012 was 82 % Irish households had pay tv. I haven't seen any more recent figures but I expect it would be still over 75 %

Elmo

iseegirls wrote: »

A piece on evoke.ie has the following schedule for TV3:
7:00-10:30 Ireland AM
10:30-12:30 This Morning (ITV show)
3:00-4:00 Elaine

So Midday being axed for Elaine talk show, but sounds like its something completely the same show as Midday anyway.

Dont know whether Loose Women will air at 12:30 or they'll keep the news there.

Strange you would even think about rescheduled any daytime TV when it was what kept TV3 going.

ComReg will give details of TV subs.

iseegirls

Also in another strange move, Red Rock is back on the 9th of January. However it's going to be a 2 HOUR episode!

Elmo

Saorview only 137,000
Cable/Sat/Freeview 1.3m
3% = freeview
15% = other sat (fta sat i assume)

234,000 freeview/other sat est
total fta tv 371,000

however comreg do not breakdown the following totals

FTA Sat Only
Freeview Only
Saorview/FTA Only
Saorview/Freeview Only
FTA Only

Some of the 371,000 could mix and match with Pay TV.

So no figure for PayTV Only either.

Elmo

iseegirls wrote: »

Also in another strange move, Red Rock is back on the 9th of January. However it's going to be a 2 HOUR episode!

Just highlighting it is back on to boost ratings kind of a Pilot episode.

Glencarraig

MOD: Post deleted. Can we avoid making personal comments about people who aren't here to defend themselves

JCX BXC

iseegirls wrote: »

Also in another strange move, Red Rock is back on the 9th of January. However it's going to be a 2 HOUR episode!

Oh for god sake, that's excessive, it's a soap not a film!

iseegirls

JCX BXC wrote: »

Oh for god sake, that's excessive, it's a soap not a film!

I agree. 2hours is too long of a watch. They should be concentrating on stretching it out further in the new year, instead of so many breaks.

Elmo

iseegirls wrote: »

I agree. 2hours is too long of a watch. They should be concentrating on stretching it out further in the new year, instead of so many breaks.

I assume that they will finish off "season 2" are are currently just waiting on BAI funding for season 3, this will give them about 50 weeks of Red Rock for 2017. BAI was supposed to provide details of Commissions in Dec.