The Virgin Media Television thread

icdg · 19-03-2022 1:02am

I’m not sure I’d compare it to Sky Atlantic at all, which has a very specific mission, to show HBO and Showtime programmes. The idea appears to be to show certain programmes first (but not exclusively) to VM cable customers, before they appear on VMTV One/Two/Three. Hence “before it happens, it happens here”. Also the trailer should answer the questions about Holding - it seems they are, er, holding it for this new channel to air first.

iseegirls · 19-03-2022 9:13am

May it signal the end of the Virgin Media Sport channel?

ITV recently announced they are launching ITVX, which will be a paid for subscription channel, with programmes showing there about 9 months before airing on ITV1. Might see similar shows showing on Virgin Media More so.

icdg · 19-03-2022 10:46am

ITVX isn’t a linear channel - it’ll be a streaming service (with a paid for tier), replacing the ITV Hub. The subscription tier will include Britbox. It will include airings of shows before the linear channels, that is true.

Delta2113 · 19-03-2022 10:51am

Virgin Media Sport won't be going anywhere. I would love to see Virgin Media More ad free but I doubt that will be the case. Also no D.O.G. would be good but again probably will still have a D.O.G.

Will it be all day long - constant repeats - could be good if done well but I wouldn't get too excited.

Maz2016 · 19-03-2022 12:12pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118804620#Comment_118804620

ITV is replacing ITV Hub and will also have a free version. I wonder if going forward, if this new VM channel is any good, will they also introduce a premium VM player? Would they have the content for it really

https://rxtvinfo.com/2022/itv-launches-new-streaming-service-itvx

RoTelly · 21-03-2022 12:21pm

Virgin Media MORE sounds like a baffling idea.

What shows does VMTV have that they can promote first on MORE? It looks like Graham Norton's drama will first air on MORE, months after its ITV debut.

Will MORE simple be all the ITV dramas that they generally hold of on, and will the appear on MORE as they appear on ITV or is it a case of MORE been 2 months behind ITV, and if so what is the point of such a channel.

As for Irish content, most of it is live so unless you plan an 5pm and 6:30 news on the channel, which is unlikely.

Irish content is limited to just 3 programmes most years Gogglebox, Eating With the Enemy and Living With Lucy, perhaps a few BAI supported programmes.

Will MORE air Baywatch and Ru Paul that air on the Player? Ru Paul is a BBC 3 production again Irish audiences can seek this out.

odyssey06 · 21-03-2022 12:46pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118813302#Comment_118813302

Only VM subscribers can access MORE. So it's not free to air. Seems like it will be setup to give them a way to reserve \ prioritise 'premium' content for VM subscribers.

RoTelly · 21-03-2022 1:35pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118813404#Comment_118813404

Yes but how? Most of the content is available first from other sources, other legal sources.

If you take the ITV/Screen Ireland copro Holding, it has already aired on ITV. So adding it to VMTV MORE doesn't benefit VM subscribers or if you are a VM subscriber you shouldn't feel that seeing Holding first on VMTV MORE is much of an exclusive, the same goes for almost all ITV Dramas.

They have very little of their own original content to highlight on VMTV MORE.

icdg · 21-03-2022 2:03pm

Your average VM cable TV subscriber does not have access to ITV Network or ITV2 (they do have ITV3 & 4 which are both full of repeats with little new content bar sports on ITV4 which are mostly blocked on VM).

I suspect the amount of people who are paying for VM cable TV and have access to free to air satellite is very small indeed (not saying there aren’t some out there, but there are cheaper options - ie Now TV - for someone with free to air satellite to add access to what’s missing from that platform). Therefore they won’t have seen anything that’s only aired on ITV Network or ITV2 and not on any other channel.

RoTelly · 21-03-2022 2:41pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118813752#Comment_118813752

But its not an exclusive to VM customers, how many people can only be VM customers because the live in apartments. They are dressing his up as some sort of exclusive services for VM customers, but its not an exclusive service. There maybe some VM customers out there that don't realize that they can seek out ITV from other providers but their perception is of something that is exclusive because they are probably unwilling/loyal/don't know how to move from VM.

Imagine if ITV decided to rerun Holding on ITV3 before VMTV MORE actually gets to air it, not an impossibility, unlikely but not impossible.

Delta2113 · 21-03-2022 4:10pm

The channel Virgin Media More will be exclusive to Virgin Media cable Customers - 100% factually correct.

RoTelly · 21-03-2022 4:15pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118814636#Comment_118814636

With non-exclusive content, for the most part.

Delta2113 · 21-03-2022 4:24pm

Yes RoTelly I would imagine your right but it's only the channel they are claiming as exclusive and not all or any content (so far).

They struggle to schedule 3 channels as it is in a creative way (leaving out the Sports channel (s) ) and now soon they will have 4 - even more challenging.

icdg · 21-03-2022 5:49pm

As far as most VM cable customers are concerned the content is exclusive. You suggest they could move to other providers to see the content - but then they wouldn’t be VM cable customers any more, so they’d no longer have VMTV More and the point would be moot anyway.

There are huge swabs of VM customers who never had Sky and don’t have a satellite dish. It’s far from just apartment blocks. Don’t forget that cable was the incumbent and totally dominant player (85% take up of homes passed rates at the time!) in Dublin basically up until 2001 or so. It’s still the dominant player in many older housing estates.

I know the argument you’re making, and it’s a similar one I’d make in terms of VMTV Sport. The difference is that VM customers have access to most of the content on VMTV Sport on the VM cable platform. They don’t have access to ITV Network or ITV2.

zeebre12 · 22-03-2022 9:46pm

I thought there was a rule that RTE One has to be first on the EPG? Like in the UK BBC One has to be first.

icdg · 22-03-2022 10:30pm

Yeah it’s one of those rules that you think exists, but doesn’t. There are provisions in the Broadcasting Act 2009 relating to EPGs that are basically not enforced (and I’d suggest are unenforceable as they currently stand). Add to that the Sky EPG is basically regulated in the U.K. for all intents and purposes.

But see section 39 of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022 for what the current proposals in this area are. They still don’t include a rule as specific as “RTE One must be on the top position of the EPG”, mind you.

RoTelly · 23-03-2022 7:37pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118821062#Comment_118821062

Actually as far as I know its part of the AVWF directive. And BAI has control of EPGs but only seems to use it for Saorview. I think this needs more investigation rather than its not a requirement, rather its is voluntary, I think it is just a case of Irish authorities not feeling the need to implement it.

iseegirls · 28-03-2022 10:08pm

Some press releases regarding Virgin Media More today.

Not much there at all. Holding, Trigger Point and The Ipress Files (shown on ITV already) feature. Series 2 of The Guards: Inside The K, along with new interviews with Graeme Sounness and Mick McCarthy are the only homeproduced stuff.

So basically it's the same as VM One.

https://entertainment.ie/tv/tv-news/virgin-media-more-holding-graham-norton-517490/

RoTelly · 28-03-2022 10:13pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118849100#Comment_118849100

Would VM's press people not have sent out a Holding trailer so as to avoid the press using the ITV trailer from a month ago?

galtee boy · 29-03-2022 3:44pm

Just saw this news, for most of the country who can access ITV via Freesat, Other channels on Sky or free to air satellite, this Virgin More channel is totally irrelevant. As other posters have said, it will be an addition for Virgin cable customers in Dublin, Cork and Limerick, most of which have cable TV going back decades and never switched to satellite, though there would be apartment blocks where satellite distribution would be a problem anyway. For years cable had the advantage of having UTV, BBC, CH4 etc, but the UK terrestrial channels going free to air on satellite and in glorious HD, changed all that.

iseegirls · 30-03-2022 12:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118849122#Comment_118849122

Would we expect any less from VM? The whole premise of a new channel is built about "premium content". Was anyone who attended that event or anyone even working within VM able to ask or understand how already aired programmes like Holding, The Ipcress Files and Trigger Point are seen as "premium content" when they are already freely available to view online and through ITV.

I'm guessing the rest of the schedule will be made up of The Chase, The Chase Australia, The Chase USA, The Chase: Celebrity Special, Beat The Chasers, The Family Chase, Beat The Chasers Australia, The Chase Bloopers specials, and a repeat of ITV's Bradley Walsh's 60th Birthday special.

icdg · 30-03-2022 2:24pm

The point keeps getting missed. If you have VM cable TV you don’t generally have ITV. ITV (as in the ITV Network specifically) hasn’t been available on VM since 1st January 2015. ITV2 hasn’t been available in a number of years either. ITV3&4 are there but only show reruns apart from sport on ITV4.

The people that are watching these programmes earlier on ITV, don’t have VM cable, they are watching on other platform eg free to air satellite or manual tuning on Sky (if they are bothered going through the 20-something button presses to access it live only with no facility to record).

Therefore it doesn’t matter one iota to VM if these programmes were shown earlier on ITV. Their customer base generally can’t watch it, unless they also have satellite. Most VM customers don’t. Nor should it matter to the people who can watch ITV that these programmes are on VMTV More, because they generally won’t have VMTV More.

RoTelly · 30-03-2022 2:38pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118856405#Comment_118856405

I think your missing the point of first mover advantage.

Virgin Media are not providing anything new on this service. Okay for those who are purely on the Virgin Media TV system it is something.

There are many people consuming both FTA Satellite and VM Broadband with no TV attached to their subscription (though this has become less relevant over the last decade due to pricing).

It would be like saying that an episode of Casualty is exclusive to Irish viewers on RTÉ even though they are nearly a year behind, or for that matter any BBC programme airing on RTÉ. Yes I realise BBC 1 and 2 are both available on Sky and VM, but for those in Saorview land and with no access to BBC Player!

icdg · 30-03-2022 4:03pm

Aye, but that competition is VM cable v FTA satellite, not ITV Network v VMTV More.

The general rule is that people that can watch ITV Network (and that includes people with the VM broadband/satellite combination) can’t watch VMTV More.

Conversely, those who can access VMTV More generally can’t watch ITV Network.

The number of people for whom this general rule is not true is very small, and I suggest that most people who invest in an FTA satellite set up do so precisely because they don’t want to continue paying a pay TV subscription.

RoTelly · 30-03-2022 4:17pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118856972#Comment_118856972

I say there are lots who have lapsed Sky Satellites for FTA viewing via a smart TV. As I say it seems to me that Virgin are taking something that would normally be seen along side ITV/UTV/STV on Virgin Media ONE and placed as a late exclusive to their TV customers on cable (I assume that VM MORE content will also feature on VM On Demand?).

As has been pointed out VMTV have a hard enough time getting content for 3 channels let alone a sports channel and a 4th channel.

All VMTV need is

VMTV one - for Irish and core ITV programming (aka the soaps, daytime and quizs)

VMTV TWO - for other imports and Sports

VMTV THREE - for ITV classic repeats, VMTV one catch up repeats and non-Core ITV (new dramas which such be simulcast with ITV, and the odd exception moving it to VMTV one such as an Irish Drama).

lertsnim · 31-03-2022 1:22pm

VM Sport was a flop for getting new subscribers and so will this.

RoTelly · 31-03-2022 8:47pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118860858#Comment_118860858

You think it would be easier to do a deal with ITV to see their channels return, and enter a deal with them to sell advertising in Ireland for their set of channels, the could even cross promote VM one, TWO and THREE on ITV, 2, 3, 4 and be. They'd be selling a fair amount of advertising across VMTV and ITV.

Delta2113 · 31-03-2022 11:29pm

Presumably ITV for a start are not paying for ROI rights for films etc. The minute UTV went from Virgin and I mean the original UTV and not UTV Ireland things will never be the same again.

You would need ITV to purchase Virgin media Television but even then with a re-brand all you would get is a ITV ROI version. You wouldn't get UTV back.

icdg · 01-04-2022 12:46pm

I am not sure the rights issues are insurmountable, given the previous arrangement and the continuing carriage of ITV3&4. But VM have no desire to see the return of a channel which directly competes with their own. If nothing else it would cannibalise the ratings for VMTV channels and a commercial broadcaster lives and dies on its ratings and the consequent rates it can charge advertisers.

If and when VM and VMTV go into separate ownership (and it will still happen eventually, I don’t think LG managements desire to get out of Ireland has gone anywhere) that might change things in that regard.

Maz2016 · 02-04-2022 5:20pm

Virgin media really only care about advertising revenue. That’s all this new channel is - another revenue stream. And it will work. They will get advertisers. It’s not going to cost a lot to run the channel. To them it’s a win win

The Virgin Media Television thread

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