Eircom has launched a new TV service for its existing eFibre broadband customers. It makes the company the first in Ireland to offer Quadplay of broadband, TV, mobile and landline.
From a sports perspective this opens up the enticing possibility of a dedicated sports channel in years to come, echoing what has gone before in Britain with BT and the BT Sport Channels.
Obviously there is a vast difference in the capital funds behind both companies but it does not have to be on the same scale as offering exclusive Premier League live matches to make it a potential winner for Irish sport, Irish viewers and the company.
At launch the service offers a basic package of 34 channels including RTE, BBC, TV3, TG4, Setanta Sport and Al Jazeera’s international news challenge. The cost is a competitive €10 with free installation of the set top box and full access to PVR technology that allows for the pause, playback and scheduled recording of live programmes.
Additional packages can be added with a sports pack of Setanta Sport, BT Sport and ESPN costing €16 and Sky Sports coming in at €29.
Eircom’s broadband service is already a notable producer of content through its Sports, Music and Study Hubs and it is certainly imaginable to see elements of this translating over to the eVision service in the future.
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A renewal of the sponsorship of the GAA All Ireland Football Championships is ready to be considered in the coming weeks and months as indeed is the next round of TV rights from Ireland’s largest sporting organisation. The launch of the TV service makes for some interesting new dynamics to enter into the discussion around both.
It is not impossible in the future to imagine a Sport for Business magazine style programme hosted on the service.
The decision to go live puts Eircom into even more intense competition with UPC and Sky who are the main players of the moment. Sky now employs over 900 people in Ireland and is active in terms of learning what it can from the high density of pay TV adoption here which could be applied to larger markets in time. This new initiative will make that process more interesting again.
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