From Monday UPC will no longer exist in Ireland. It will instead be branded as Virgin Media and that could have an impact for Irish sport.
At the launch of the new service in Dublin yesterday Richard Branson spoke of the prospect of a new mobile phone service as part of a multi media approach encompassing high speed broadband, cable TV, fixed line and mobile services.
That would put Virgin in the same space for content and data as Three, Vodafone and eir, all of whom have a long heritage of supporting sporting events.
Recent TV figures from the Rugby World Cup show that live sport dominates TV viewing like nothing else. In England last Saturday it completely overshadowed Doctor Who reducing the audience for the BBC blockbuster to its lowest level for ten years.
Three have the sponsorship rights to the irish national soccer and rugby teams though the latter is likely to move to Vodafone next year. eir is a headline sponsor of the GAA All Ireland Football Championship and has previous history as sponsors of the Irish soccer team as well.
Mobile means sport and entertainment and the launch of a Virgin mobile service here would open up fresh competition at the higher end of the sports sponsorship space. If the three existing operators have the three main field sports tied off as is the case at the moment then it may lead to greater trickle down benefit for the next tier of sports.
Virgin has history of using athletics to promote its services though Usain Bolt is something of a unique case.
Something and nothing may come of this though looking at the UK it is likely that sport will feature stronger in Virgin positioning than it did with UPC. That on its own could only be a good thing.
As the economy continues to pick up and major brands look to secure a place in the hearts and minds of consumers, sport will be to the fore as a medium.
The key will be in creating sufficiently attractive opportunities for those brands to see benefit in getting involved.
