UPC Ireland to re-brand as Virgin Media

JDxtra

Confirmed now - UPC Ireland are re-brand as Virgin Media...

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/upc-ireland-announces-plan-to-rebrand-as-virgin-media-1.2332113

Agent Coulson

UPC is changing its name to Virgin Media in Ireland.

The move comes after the telecommunications company became part of the Virgin Group last December.
Virgin Group founder Richard Branson said the organisation is “delighted” to bring the brand to Ireland.

Branson said the company has “revolutionised the UK market”, adding: “Building on the strong platform in Ireland, I know we will do great things together with Liberty Global and shake up the Irish market even further‎.”
Magnus Ternsjö, CEO of UPC Ireland, said introducing the Virgin Media brand to Ireland is “a big investment in our business and our future”.
“In almost every corner of the world, the Virgin brand is famous for its entrepreneurial spirit in delivering more for customers, which is exactly what we’re going to do by building even further on all our innovation and achievements to date,” Ternsjö said.
Virgin Media UK was bought by Liberty Global plc, the world’s largest international cable company, in 2013. Liberty recently acquired TV3 for €80 million.
Further details on when the name change will take place, and what this could mean for customers, will be announced in due course.

http://www.thejournal.ie/upc-ireland-virgin-media-2298222-Aug2015/


So the big question will the Horizon box be replaced by a Tivo box.

MarkY91

Is this a good or bad thing for us consumers?

GarIT

MarkY91 wrote: »

Is this a good or bad thing for us consumers?

Virgin has a much higher quality and more professional service than UPC. The equipment is much better too. Whether they will just rebrand as Virgin or actually become Virgin I don't know.

MarkY91

GarIT wrote: »

Virgin has a much higher quality and more professional service than UPC. The equipment is much better too. Whether they will just rebrand as Virgin or actually become Virgin I don't know.

Yeah I figure they'll just rebrand it and leave t at that for the time being at least.

Horizon is the worst thing I've ever owned..They better release s better main box lol

PacMan

In my part of the world, it started as Suir-Nore relays, then irish Multichannel, then Chorus, then Chorus-NTL then UPC and now Virgin.

a lot of name changes and a lot of unhappy customers in the early years, especially Chorus as I was one of them.

Wabbit Ears

From the wording it's only a rebrand. I wonder how it will pan out for technology and jobs.

ThisRegard

Agent Coulson wrote: »

So the big question will the Horizon box be replaced by a Tivo box.

Logically it would make sense, might make a lot of people who are half and half with UPC, avoiding their TV package, go all in with them.

bk

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

From the wording it's only a rebrand. I wonder how it will pan out for technology and jobs.

Some speculation by me here on the Broadband forum:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057484598

This isn't really a surprise. UPC Ireland has been operating as a direct subsidiary of Virgin Media for the past 6 months and not just for tax purposes, but actually in terms of reporting structure and I believe engineering efforts.

Also it seems Liberty Global has been dropping the UPC name thorough out Europe, changing from UPC to Ziggo, Cablecom, etc. with the UPC brand remaining largely for just the eastern European countries (Poland, Romania, etc.).

Then there are the ongoing talks between Vodafone and Liberty Global about a possible merger or asset swap. There have been lots of different rumours about how this might work. One strong one is the idea that Virgin Media might buy up Vodafone UK's mobile network in exchange for Liberty Global selling Vodafone Germany its German cable network.

Virgin Media UK & Ireland merging with Vodafone UK & Ireland makes a lot more sense then leaving the Irish operations dangling out on their own.

In terms of customer hardware, this could be very good news. Virgin Media uses TiVo for it's TV set top box and from what I've read in the UK, it is considered to be extremely good. In fact most reviews say it is significantly better then Sky HD box!

Also Virgins modem/router is considered to be one of the best supplied by any ISP in the UK. It is a dual radio, dual band, 802.11ac model with very good wifi performance. It also allows for bridging with ease in the admin interface.

Basically customer hardware wise, everything we would like to see improved with UPC.

On the other hand, Virgin's network doesn't seem to be as advanced as UPC's. Speeds on Virgins network seems to top out at 150Mb/s and there are reports of throttling. Also Virgins Medias pricing seems quiet a bit higher then UPC Ireland and not as good value for money.

Hopefully UPC Ireland won't take on these practices.

I expect we will see UPC Mobile now launch as Virgin Mobile. No point in launching as UPC Mobile and then re-branding shortly after.

bk

GarIT wrote: »

Virgin has a much higher quality and more professional service than UPC. The equipment is much better too. Whether they will just rebrand as Virgin or actually become Virgin I don't know.

I wouldn't say that at all!

Yes, Virgins TiVo Set Top Box is much better then Horizon, many even say much better then Sky and Virgins modem/router is also considered one of the best, much better then UPCs.

On the other hand UPC Irelands network seems much better designed and managed, with a much bigger investment in it. Virgin Broadband tops out at just 150Mb/s and there are lots of reports of throttling, while UPC's broadband goes up to 240Mb/s with no throttling reported.

Also Virgins prices seem a lot more expensive and a lot less value for money then UPC's

So we will have to wait and see.

Benolam

What will happen to @upcmail.ie addresses? @ntlworld.ie was dropped when UPC came in. Changing email is a real pain.

JDxtra

Benolam wrote: »

What will happen to @upcmail.ie addresses? @ntlworld.ie was dropped when UPC came in. Changing email is a real pain.

True, but why not just use Gmail/Hotmail/Yahoo Mail etc.? Using your broadband providers email is free advertising for them - and is often a sub-standard service.

ebsa

Benolam wrote: »

What will happen to @upcmail.ie addresses? @ntlworld.ie was dropped when UPC came in. Changing email is a real pain.

Probably because upc had to pay a licensing fee to use the ntl and ntlworld brand, there's no such issues with upc or upcmail. In the UK, Virgin Media has been operating for over eight years yet many customers still use their old ntlworld and blueyonder (telewest) email addresses.

icdg

Merged the threads in Broadcasting and Cable. Not really a surprise this one, it's been well flagged. Allows the two companies to make use of synergies - though worth noting that when they were the one company (NTL) between 1999 and 2005 they still had different offers in the two markets.

gadget_hq

And perhaps with Liberty owning TV3 & 3e, they'll rename the latter to Virgin One, and properly compete with Sky One, and keep it free to air on Saorview.

jadegreen

Mr.S wrote: »

Given how new Horizon and the equipment is, I can't see them replacing it with TiVo anytime soon.

the Horizon concept was a half baked idea launched too quickly with several bugs in place, I'm not claiming i could have fixed them, far from it but that is their business that they charge us for you'd imagine it could at least work, I can only hope that Virgin do not have the same fixation with Scandinavian box sets

jadegreen

PacMan wrote: »

In my part of the world, it started as Suir-Nore relays, then irish Multichannel, then Chorus, then Chorus-NTL then UPC and now Virgin.

a lot of name changes and a lot of unhappy customers in the early years, especially Chorus as I was one of them.

I Cant decide between any of them all nearly drove me insane at some point:(

7upfree

jadegreen wrote: »

the Horizon concept was a half baked idea launched too quickly with several bugs in place, I'm not claiming i could have fixed them, far from it but that is their business that they charge us for you'd imagine it could at least work, I can only hope that Virgin do not have the same fixation with Scandinavian box sets

My folks have Horizon (I'm on Sky). Works perfectly for them.

GreatDefector

JDxtra wrote: »

True, but why not just use Gmail/Hotmail/Yahoo Mail etc.? Using your broadband providers email is free advertising for them - and is often a sub-standard service.

AND from the VF threads here, their service was cancelled with F.A. notice

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057293602/2

StonyIron

7upfree wrote: »

My folks have Horizon (I'm on Sky). Works perfectly for them.

The lineup's likely to change and content probably expanded to match Virgin UK, but I have my doubts that they'll change platforms.

Virgin only extended the TiVo deal until 2018 which could well be a rundown period for it pending a rollout of Horizon 2.0 or something.

Horizon has been extensively rebuilt around an open cable system standard called RDK. I honestly can't see Liberty paying long-term royalties for a platform if they can use their own and are lashing a lot of R&D cash into developing it too.

I think the Sky system is actually grossly over-rated by a lot of people. The content is great but the platform's awful. I can't find anything on it, it's glitchy and it's really confused.
Trying to find on demand content is a total nightmare in comparison to UPC's setup, even if the line up is a lot better. Also the channel sequence is totally crazy, I can't find anything and the line-up is full of pointless free filler channels I doubt anyone ever watches.

At least on Virgin it's a condensed version of Sky's meandering EPG.

Sky Q is due to launch soon though which should really put it up to Virgin Media if it's a good user experience.

Also, I'm not sure if any of you have used Virgin's TiVo implementation, but it's nothing to write home about. It's a pretty old looking, clunky interface and I didn't find it all that great tbh. We'd a box in London and it crashed plenty of times.

If they improve the content and iron some of the bugs out of horizon around series linking (which could be to do with metadata content, rather than the platform) it is actually a fairly good next-generation cable system.

I strongly suspect we'll be getting TiVo's line up on Horizon here. There was a lot of infrastructure put in place to support Horizon, it's more than just boxes.

Wherever they're sourcing their SDTV feeds from at UPC Ireland they're bloody awful too! It's nothing to do with the Horizon box, the source is just horribly low quality. The non-Horizon boxes produce the same pixilated output too and the HD looks perfect. So, something's up.

Liberty ditched Ziggo's paltform in NL in favour of Horizon recently, so I'd say they won't spook the horses, but I doubt Virgin's keeping TiVo long term.

Also, the UPC Ireland network's actually better setup for broadband and supports much higher speeds than Virgin UK at present.

ThisRegard

StonyIron wrote: »

I think the Sky system is actually grossly over-rated by a lot of people. The content is great but the platform's awful. I can't find anything on it, it's glitchy and it's really confused.
Trying to find on demand content is a total nightmare in comparison to UPC's setup, even if the line up is a lot better. Also the channel sequence is totally crazy, I can't find anything and the line-up is full of pointless free filler channels I doubt anyone ever watches.

I'd have to question that. They latest software is pretty slick, everything, imo, is easy to find even young kids can managed it. Mine runs smoothly with no glitches or dodgy things happening and On Demand is easy enough to navigate and search.

aphex™

ThisRegard wrote: »

I'd have to question that. They latest software is pretty slick, everything, imo, is easy to find even young kids can managed it. Mine runs smoothly with no glitches or dodgy things happening and On Demand is easy enough to navigate and search.

Do they still list every episode in a series and make you flip thru them all ?

What was the point of that, even if you weren't interested in that show you had to skip past them all to find a different show.

Any UPC box I've had they insist on transparent menus overlaid against live tv, which NO box can handle.

It's the little things that mean its not even a patch on Sky HD+ box

ThisRegard

aphex™ wrote: »

Do they still list every episode in a series and make you flip thru them all ?

In Sky boxes? I don't remember it ever being like that in Sky, you must mean UPC.

Delta2113

With Horizon you can watch a BT Sport Extra channel and record another few games . You can't do anything like that with a Sky box.

Northern Monkey

I have a TiVo box on Virgin and find it crap. Takes ages (5 minutes) to boot up from being switched off at the wall and is really slow to launch apps.

bk

Northern Monkey wrote: »

I have a TiVo box on Virgin and find it crap. Takes ages (5 minutes) to boot up from being switched off at the wall and is really slow to launch apps.

In fairness these sort of boxes (Sky, Horizon, TiVo) aren't ever supposed to be switched off at the wall!

You are meant to just leave them in power saving standby mode. They often do various downloads and updates over night. You are really only supposed to unplug them if moving them, etc.

So a slow boot up time should be largely irrelevant.

As for apps, at least it has them. No apps on Sky boxes.

FreudianSlippers

bk wrote: »

In fairness these sort of boxes (Sky, Horizon, TiVo) aren't ever supposed to be switched off at the wall!

You are meant to just leave them in power saving standby mode. They often do various downloads and updates over night. You are really only supposed to unplug them if moving them, etc.

So a slow boot up time should be largely irrelevant.

As for apps, at least it has them. No apps on Sky boxes.

Unfortunately whilst this is true, in reality Horizon must be switched off from the wall every 7 days.

This is according to UPC's customer support team every time I ring them to tell them my Horizon box if FUBAR and 'forgets' its series recordings randomly once or twice a month.

lawred2

Well Virgin are not overly slow on investment so this can only be a good thing

lawred2

Northern Monkey wrote: »

I have a TiVo box on Virgin and find it crap. Takes ages (5 minutes) to boot up from being switched off at the wall and is really slow to launch apps.

The sky plus hd box takes the same amount of time

you're not supposed to kill the power to them

Wabbit Ears

FreudianSlippers wrote: »

Unfortunately whilst this is true, in reality Horizon must be switched off from the wall every 7 days.

That's not true at all.

FreudianSlippers

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

That's not true at all.

I know that. I'm saying that's the UPC line for why my Horizon box is so ****.

icdg

Sunday Times in an aside in a piece on the artist formerly known as Eircom says rebrand will take effect on 1st October.

StonyIron

icdg wrote: »

Sunday Times in an aside in a piece on the artist formerly known as Eircom says rebrand will take effect on 1st October.

Hmm... Did they write that from London?!

icdg

I don't see that matters in the context of this thread but since you ask, it was written by Brian Carey, Irish Business Editor.

StonyIron

icdg wrote: »

I don't see that matters in the context of this thread but since you ask, it was written by Brian Carey, Irish Business Editor.

It's just that its old news. The rebrand of Eircom took place days ago, not at a future date in October. Just a little surprising for a major business paper - from the post above I read it as the Sunday Times said the Eircom rebrand is in Oct.

I may have misinterpreted the post.

owen09

MarkY91 wrote:

Horizon is the worst thing I've ever owned..They better release s better main box lol

MarkY91 wrote:

Yeah I figure they'll just rebrand it and leave t at that for the time being at least.

They are bringing in a new modem a really good one and new equipment, I think they know by know not to use Samsung for networking!

StonyIron

owen09 wrote: »

They are bringing in a new modem a really good one and new equipment, I think they know by know not to use Samsung for networking!

Unknown what new equipment they'll bring in. Horizon has been rebuilt on another plaform and Liberty are rolling it out in some markets.

TiVo is also due an overhaul so, I can't really see Virgin replacing Horizon with an old platform.

Some of the TiVo boxes are also built by Samsung.

Virgin use Netgear routers rather than Cisco but, Liberty is very, very fond of Cisco and virgin has only relatively recently been acquired so that may change too.

My sense is that Virgin will be moulded more into a Liberty subsidiary. The ex UPC Ireland CEO was brought in as their change manager etc etc.

It makes no sense for Liberty not to use their scale and R&D capabilities as one of the world's largest cable companies.

icdg

StonyIron wrote: »

It's just that its old news. The rebrand of Eircom took place days ago, not at a future date in October. Just a little surprising for a major business paper - from the post above I read it as the Sunday Times said the Eircom rebrand is in Oct.

I may have misinterpreted the post.

To say it again - as an aside in an analysis piece (a full pager) on the rebranding of Eircom to Eir (which took place during the week), the Sunday Times reported that the rebranding of UPC to Virgin Media will take place on 1st October. It makes sense within the context of the piece concerned.

lertsnim

lawred2 wrote: »

Well Virgin are not overly slow on investment so this can only be a good thing

It will be the same company but under a different name. It was UPC who bought Virgin Media in the UK, not the other way around.

StonyIron

lertsnim wrote: »

It will be the same company but under a different name. It was UPC who bought Virgin Media in the UK, not the other way around.

Well, Liberty Global. UPC is a subsidiary.

It would seem odd though to have Horizon, a Liberty Global developed platform removed in favour of something bought in from a 3rd party.

It would be a major indictment of the whole Horizon project.


Liberty's drive is not to be just a dumb pipe provider. They saw Horizon as key to being a content provider.

Version 1 is from 2012 and starting to seriously show its age though.

Delta2113

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/quad-play-virgin-media-prepares-for-ribbon-cutting-1.2363413

Richard Branson -jetting in to Dublin.

StonyIron

Delta2113 wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/quad-play-virgin-media-prepares-for-ribbon-cutting-1.2363413

Richard Branson -jetting in to Dublin.

Since the article mentioned it, Virgin Media actually removed the Union Jack from their branding last year both because of this and because it was actually stupid branding for any company operating in Northern Ireland.

Branson is effectively a mascot rather than anything of significance in this. The brand is simply licenced from Virgin.

The company is 100% Liberty Global as UPC has been since day one. The big change has been for Virgin Media in terms of structure, not UPC.

aphex™

Delta2113 wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/quad-play-virgin-media-prepares-for-ribbon-cutting-1.2363413

Richard Branson -jetting in to Dublin.

I wonder will he pick up a woman for this one?

StonyIron

aphex™ wrote: »

I wonder will he pick up a woman for this one?

He'll have to carry Craig Doyle and discuss why he's "putting up with ordinary broadband."

Delta2113

You can see more of the woman in Home & Away weeknights on RTE2.

7upfree

Delta2113 wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/quad-play-virgin-media-prepares-for-ribbon-cutting-1.2363413

Richard Branson -jetting in to Dublin.

Sloppy reporting again. UPC stands for United PanEuropean Communications. Not United Philips as in this "report".

Delta2113

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/united-pan-europe-communications-nv-history/

- Maybe re-read the article and above link to be really clear.

StonyIron

7upfree wrote: »

Sloppy reporting again. UPC stands for United PanEuropean Communications. Not United Philips as in this "report".

It originally stood for United Philips Communications as Philips had a stake in the original UPC in the Netherlands. It sold it to Liberty a long time ago though.

The article mentions this... Nothing sloppy about it.

UPC as a brand is also gone in its original market, it's now Ziggo in NL.

It seems they're less concerned about a single European brand all of a sudden.

7upfree

StonyIron wrote: »

It originally stood for United Philips Communications as Philips had a stake in the original UPC in the Netherlands. It sold it to Liberty a long time ago though.

The article mentions this... Nothing sloppy about it.

UPC as a brand is also gone in its original market, it's now Ziggo in NL.

It seems they're less concerned about a single European brand all of a sudden.

It does. But that isn't what UPC stands for now - or for years.

Wabbit Ears

7upfree wrote:

Sloppy reporting again. UPC stands for United PanEuropean Communications. Not United Philips as in this "report".

Nope, sloppy posting of incorrect information that is freely available on the Internet. The P does stand for Philips.

StonyIron

7upfree wrote: »

It does. But that isn't what UPC stands for now - or for years.

They were just giving the history. The article mentions both.