General : Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2012) Vol. 2.

[Media Boy UK]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

Thanks for the info!

What make you think we will get ESPN America HD by 2013?

I think ESPN deal with Virgin Media is up sometime next summer.

[Alan Fry]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

I think ESPN deal with Virgin Media is up sometime next summer.

Would you mind telling me of any other content deals that are due to end in the next few years?

[Media Boy UK]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

Would you mind telling me of any other content deals that are due to end in the next few years?

I can tell you that - I do not work for Virgin Media I am just an viewer like you.

I only think ESPN sign an 4-year deal with Virgin Media back in 2009.

[Alan Fry]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

I can tell you that - I do not work for Virgin Media I am just an viewer like you.

I only think ESPN sign an 4-year deal with Virgin Media back in 2009.

Thanks very much, also Happy 6th Anniversary on CF!

[joff81]

I can't see ESPN wanting to become a subcription only based channel especially if BT supply a channel to VM with the EPL.
Without the EPL football rights people will cancel subscriptions in droves loosing lots of viewers and ESPN will not want to risk loosing even more than needed by cutting XL pack status in favour of a subscription based deal without nothing to entice customers to subscribe to, afterall without the EPL football there is very little else to warrant paying £10 per month to subscribe to ESPN for.

My guess is ESPN will keep its XL pack status but add ESPNA HD as a xl pack channel as well but the new channels that were rumoured to be coming (such as ESPN 2 and ESPN News) won't ever see the light of day.

[borrissey]

Will BT sign up more sport for there sports channel cause prem league football won't take up much time.

[ozsat]

ESPN is still subscription only on Sky - costs £12pm unless you also have Sky Sports when it is then £9pm.

---------- Post added at 16:50 ---------- Previous post was at 16:49 ----------

The reports said that would launch a football channel - rather then mentioning a sports channel.

Originally Posted by borrissey

Will BT sign up more sport for there sports channel cause prem league football won't take up much time.

[andy_m]

It actually said football "focused", which I think leaves the way open for it to show a wide range of stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with football whatsoever.

[borrissey]

There won't be much football on there unless they sign up other leagues, but I don't think there's much out there to sign up. Espn and sky have them.

[Emel]

Virgin Media may become part of a much larger media company, better able to compete with Sky and BT for content.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/375301/e...rgin-media-too

[Superblade7]

If BT don't get much additional content then they could always offer a Prem Plus style offering similar to what Sky used to do for the additional games. All this used to do was have a place holder on the channel advertising the service and price and then just go live for a few hours for each match. They used to just charge a one off fee for access for the full season.

[alwaysabear]

Originally Posted by Emel

Virgin Media may become part of a much larger media company, better able to compete with Sky and BT for content.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/375301/e...rgin-media-too

Well spotted, VM need a large investor.

[jtaylor06]

Originally Posted by alwaysabear

Well spotted, VM need a large investor.

I'm presuming that if EE do buy Virgin Media, they will keep the branding intact since it's already established, especially with TiVo?

[Helix]

Originally Posted by jtaylor06

I'm presuming that if EE do buy Virgin Media, they will keep the branding intact since it's already established, especially with TiVo?

Its not Everything Everywhere that is looking to buy them, a consortium is looking to buy EE and the same consortium is interested in Virgin Media.

Its hard to say what they would do with the brand, they want to be able to cross sell TV, Phone, Broadband and Mobile like Virgin do now but it depends if they see Virgin Mobile as big enough for a brand for the mobile side of things.

[Horizon]

Originally Posted by jtaylor06

I'm presuming that if EE do buy Virgin Media, they will keep the branding intact since it's already established, especially with TiVo?

Not necessarily. New owners may not wish to be associated with Richard Branson and pay him money for the Virgin moniker. So, Orange Cable may be on the horizon, or Everything Everywhere but not not quite everywhere!

Emel. thanks for highlighting that article. I have always thought and said so on this forum that cable mergers aren't yet over in this country. I would also expect any new company to try and nab ITV too if it all goes ahead, but very early days yet.

---------- Post added at 23:35 ---------- Previous post was at 23:29 ----------

Originally Posted by Helix

Its hard to say what they would do with the brand, they want to be able to cross sell TV, Phone, Broadband and Mobile like Virgin do now but it depends if they see Virgin Mobile as big enough for a brand for the mobile side of things.

Branding aside (I personally don't think the Virgin brand is that important), Virgin mobile is tiny and totally irrelevant especially if this new company keeps hold of the orange and T-mobile networks. And of course Virgin mobile doesn't have a network of its own but piggyback's off T-mobile's.