It was confirmed last week that TV3 was to formally be rebranded under the Virgin Media brand and that as part of the change they would create a new Virgin Media Sport channel.
The group’s three free-to-air channels TV3, 3e and be3 will be rebranded as Virgin Media One, Virgin Media Two and Virgin Media Three. The rebrand will come into effect on August 30th 2018, when viewers will see the new channel identities on-air.
In addition, a brand new sports channel, Virgin Media Sport will be home to the station’s growing amount of sports content.
This is likely to be delivered free for Virgin Media customers but will likely be a paid channel for those beyond that group. In this it will be a similar model to eir Sport which is free to customers on the eir Broadband network but paid for as a separate subscription to others.
The carving out of a specific sports channel will blur the lines further in terms of what is considered free to air though the biggest games including the once more title Heineken Cup will be shown on Virgin Media One and free to air for all, as will the 6 Nations which TV3 showed for the first time this season.
In all, Virgin Media Television will air over 450 top-level football matches in the coming season including UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League as well as Qualifiers for UEFA EURO 2020, other than those in which the Republic of Ireland are involved.
It will also broadcast nine live Heineken Champions Cup rugby games with one live group stage match per week, followed by one Quarter-Final and one Semi-Final, culminating in the Champions Cup Final in May.
The other matches in the Heineken Cup will be shown on eir Sport, as part of the BT Sport channels which the eir Sports pack includes.
eir Sport will also carry coverage of every match in the Guinness PRO14 next season, for the first time and will be building up to its keynote coverage of the 2019 Rugby World Cup though Ireland matches and the Final in that tournament will be shared with RTÉ.
“As part of Virgin Media, TV3 group channels have grown in scale and quality,” said TV3 Managing Director Pat Kiely.
“It’s now time to build on this momentum and move to Virgin Media Television. This is a natural evolution as we bring our channels and platform closer together. Virgin Media One, the new name for TV3, will be the home of some of Ireland’s biggest and most popular shows with Virgin Media Two, Three and Sport giving our viewers and customers a diverse choice of great content.”
“These are exciting times for media and we’re delighted to be at the forefront of the changing face of broadcasting in Ireland.”
The choices facing Irish sports fans in terms of coverage of sport are many and varied. Add in the growth of GAA Now as a clip rights broadcaster of the best moments from the GAA, and Facebook and Amazon’s increasing presence on the global stage including with UK and Ireland rights to major events in tennis and other sports and it is clear that it is only going to get ever more complex.
And yet the important thing is that it remains all about choice, just as it did when the only option to experience sport was to go to see it live, and of course, pay for it then as is increasingly the case now in terms of television coverage.
