It appears that Sky has ousted eir Sport from the basic pack offered by Virgin Media to a little over 330,000 homes from next month.
Virgin Media, and through it’s predecessor UPC has offered what was previously the Setanta Sport package for the past 12 years but the changing nature of TV packages and rights, as well as distribution, means that the agreement to carry those channels will no longer continue.
eir Sport’s major play is to be included as a ‘free’ add on to all eir Broadband subscribers, following the model established by BT Sport in the UK whose four channels make up a substantial part of the appeal of the eir offering, including as they do 42 Premier League games, UFC as well as all UEFA Champions’ League and a substantial number of major club rugby matches and tournaments.
The bulk of live coverage of the Allianz Leagues in GAA is also carried live on eir Sport as will be Conor McGregor’s comeback fight in Las Vegas on August 20th.
Different Scale
eir’s plan is to serve broadband to 1.9 million premises by 2020, one year after their recently signed exclusive rights to carry the bulk of the 2019 Rugby World Cup. That shows the differing scale of potential change between traditional TV distribution and that through the internet.
Virgin Customers will instead be offered a mix of Sky Sports programmes, including the newly won rights to the 3pm Saturday matches from the premier League which had previously been held by Setanta.
An announcement on how Sky Sport’s Irish coverage, including exclusive All Ireland Quarter Finals on August 6th, will be appearing on Virgin is expected in the coming days.
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