Virgin Media Sport will launch on 18th September with Champions’ League matches hosted from a brand new Sports studio in Ballymount.
The draw for the group stages takes place next week and with Manchester United in Pot Two and Liverpool in Pot Three, either side could be drawn in a group with Real Madrid, Barcelona or Juventus. A clash with any of them would be a special way to kick off the new era.
The station announced that Niall Quinn will be joining Kevin Kilbane and Graeme Souness alongside Tommy Martin in the studio and that Brian Kerr, Keith Andrews and Niamh Kinsella would be part of the team as well.
Virgin Media Sport will broadcast all UEFA Champions League matches on Tuesdays and Wednesdays along with UEFA Europa League on Thursdays.
Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League matches will also be Free to Air on Virgin Media One which will also broadcast the Champions League and Europa League finals.
Head of Programming Bill Malone revealed the high level of investment that was going into creating the technology behind the broadcast, that this would enable viewers to watch seamlessly on App or big screen and also to cast from a phone or tablet onto a TV at home.
Virgin Media customers are also assured they won’t miss a single match. They can record, replay, pause and watch archived matches and footage on-demand. They can use the TV Anywhere App and they can also simply press start-over during any live match (which brings them right back to kick-off time) – a really handy feature if you miss the start of any match!
“Virgin Media Sport is the new home of European Football in Ireland,” added Paul Farrell, Vice President of Commercial at Virgin Media.
“It’s going to be an exciting season on and off the pitch with our top panel of pundits providing in-depth local analysis and opinion exclusively for our customers.”
“Our investment in Virgin Media Sport reinforces our position as Ireland’s leading connected entertainment provider, and what better way to celebrate this than providing our new channel at no extra cost to our Virgin Media TV customers.”
Virgin Broadband customers will pay €10 a month for the Virgin Sport channel while others will have to pay €20.
eir Sport will also be showing Champions’ League via their partnership with BT Sport but Virgin are relying on the appeal of Irish voices and Irish production to win the battle for eyeballs.
There is plenty of evidence to support this with RTÉ taking over 90 percent of the audience for big tournament coverage even if going head to head with the BBC.
Virgin Media Ireland Head of Sport Kieran Holden also confirmed today that Rugby would remain on the free to air Virgin Media One. Read more about that right here.
Sponsorship of the Champions’ league coverage is centrally controlled with the tournament sponsors taking on bumper stings in all territories. Â These include Nissan and Heineken both of who are particularly active in the Irish market.
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Image Credit: Brendan Moran, Sportsfile
