General : Changes to Virgin TV (2021)

[epsilon]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Rumour: Discovery closing linear channels in UK & Ireland.

TV Channellists.com (Where anyone can update) is reporting that from November 31st "Discovery closing linear channels in UK & Ireland. Moving content solely to Discovery+."

I don't have much faith in a site that has such a detailed list of "confirmed" changes but makes no attempt to list the source of any "confirmation".

[ozsat]

no one has mentioned that there is no such date as 31st November - so an unreliable source of information straight away.

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Rumour: Discovery closing linear channels in UK & Ireland.

TV Channellists.com (Where anyone can update) is reporting that from November 31st "Discovery closing linear channels in UK & Ireland. Moving content solely to Discovery+."

Base on TV Channellist.com info the following may close on that date on Virgin Media UK:

-Discovery Channel HD
-Discovery Channel +1
-TLC HD
-TLC +1
-Food Network
-Really
-Quest HD
-Quest +1
-Quest Red
-Investigation Discovery
-Investigation Discovery +1
-HGTV
-HGTV +1
-Discovery Turbo
-Animal Planet HD
-Animal Planet +1
-Discovery Science
-Discovery Science +1
-DMAX
-DMAX +1
-Discovery History
-Discovery History +1
-Eurosport 2 HD

Also TV Channellists.com says that Eurosport 1 HD will become an pay-per-view Channel called "Eurosport Events HD" and Broadcasting live events only.

Note Media Boy HQ have try to find an other source for this rumour with no luck.

https://www.tvchannellists.com/List_...firmed_changes (Go down to 31/11/20 to see this story - if you cant it has been removed).

[epsilon]

Originally Posted by ozsat

no one has mentioned that there is no such date as 31st November - so an unreliable source of information straight away.

Indeed a site that even accepts an invalid date has to be questionable.

[ScottishSteve]

Originally Posted by epsilon

I don't have much faith in a site that has such a detailed list of "confirmed" changes but makes no attempt to list the source of any "confirmation".

Totally agree and discovery signed a ‘long term’ linear deal with Sky only last year.

I seen an interview a few months back with the Discovery CEO who stated they are still committed to linear.

Disney + has been a roaring success therefore you can see why Disney have made the choices they have.

Although Discovery plus is performing well now, if their channels were to disappear overnight where could they push the Discovery Plus service every five mins.

It is likely some services will be reduced but IMHO the Discovery Channels will be around for a while yet.

As for Eurosport going PPV only, I can’t see them getting much traction from that to cover the costs of broadcasting and the administration of it.

[OLD BOY]

I wouldn’t put much credence to that entry, although I do believe the channels will eventually close and the content will be on the streamer instead.

There has certainly been a statement confirming that Discovery will continue to have a linear presence, but no detail has been given about how many channels would remain. We may be left only with a showcase channel.

As for Eurosport, I think that will continue to be ‘free’ with a Discovery+ subscription, but there could be an ad-free version for an extra premium.

There are many possibilities, I am sure, but no real clues yet about what will happen. Except of course, that it won’t be on 31 November!

[Legendkiller2k]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Rumour: Discovery closing linear channels in UK & Ireland.

TV Channellists.com (Where anyone can update) is reporting that from November 31st "Discovery closing linear channels in UK & Ireland. Moving content solely to Discovery+."

Base on TV Channellist.com info the following may close on that date on Virgin Media UK:

-Discovery Channel HD
-Discovery Channel +1
-TLC HD
-TLC +1
-Food Network
-Really
-Quest HD
-Quest +1
-Quest Red
-Investigation Discovery
-Investigation Discovery +1
-HGTV
-HGTV +1
-Discovery Turbo
-Animal Planet HD
-Animal Planet +1
-Discovery Science
-Discovery Science +1
-DMAX
-DMAX +1
-Discovery History
-Discovery History +1
-Eurosport 2 HD

Also TV Channellists.com says that Eurosport 1 HD will become an pay-per-view Channel called "Eurosport Events HD" and Broadcasting live events only.

Note Media Boy HQ have try to find an other source for this rumour with no luck.

https://www.tvchannellists.com/List_...firmed_changes (Go down to 31/11/20 to see this story - if you cant it has been removed).

Look at the date then think about it.

[Media Boy UK]

Originally Posted by ScottishSteve

I seen an interview a few months back with the Discovery CEO who stated they are still committed to linear.

I seen that interview it was the one when Discovery confirmed a Proposed merger with WarnerMedia on CNBC.

---------- Post added at 20:17 ---------- Previous post was at 19:38 ----------

That Discovery rumour was added on TV Channellists.com on July 1st at 1.37pm by user "TattooedLeprechaun" when the rumour first appeared Eurosport 1 HD was set to called " Discovery Eurosport HD" before being given the name "Eurosport Events HD"

https://www.tvchannellists.com/index...action=history

[cheekyangus]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

I wouldn’t put much credence to that entry, although I do believe the channels will eventually close and the content will be on the streamer instead.

There has certainly been a statement confirming that Discovery will continue to have a linear presence, but no detail has been given about how many channels would remain. We may be left only with a showcase channel.

As for Eurosport, I think that will continue to be ‘free’ with a Discovery+ subscription, but there could be an ad-free version for an extra premium.

There are many possibilities, I am sure, but no real clues yet about what will happen. Except of course, that it won’t be on 31 November!

Eurosport commentators already tell viewers to subscribe to GCN+ (a Discovery owned service) for uninterrupted cycling coverage.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

That Discovery rumour was added on TV Channellists.com on July 1st at 1.37pm by user "TattooedLeprechaun"...

I thought it was added on June 31st.

[Aguero9320]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Rumour: Discovery closing linear channels in UK & Ireland.

TV Channellists.com (Where anyone can update) is reporting that from November 31st "Discovery closing linear channels in UK & Ireland. Moving content solely to Discovery+."

Base on TV Channellist.com info the following may close on that date on Virgin Media UK:

-Discovery Channel HD
-Discovery Channel +1
-TLC HD
-TLC +1
-Food Network
-Really
-Quest HD
-Quest +1
-Quest Red
-Investigation Discovery
-Investigation Discovery +1
-HGTV
-HGTV +1
-Discovery Turbo
-Animal Planet HD
-Animal Planet +1
-Discovery Science
-Discovery Science +1
-DMAX
-DMAX +1
-Discovery History
-Discovery History +1
-Eurosport 2 HD

Also TV Channellists.com says that Eurosport 1 HD will become an pay-per-view Channel called "Eurosport Events HD" and Broadcasting live events only.

Note Media Boy HQ have try to find an other source for this rumour with no luck.

https://www.tvchannellists.com/List_...firmed_changes (Go down to 31/11/20 to see this story - if you cant it has been removed).

The Virgin Media channel list in the same website doesn’t say this.

[Media Boy UK]

Originally Posted by Aguero9320

The Virgin Media channel list in the same website doesn’t say this.

The Discovery rumour is ONLY on the link I did give early on tonight.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by ScottishSteve

Totally agree and discovery signed a ‘long term’ linear deal with Sky only last year.

I seen an interview a few months back with the Discovery CEO who stated they are still committed to linear.

Disney + has been a roaring success therefore you can see why Disney have made the choices they have.

Although Discovery plus is performing well now, if their channels were to disappear overnight where could they push the Discovery Plus service every five mins.

It is likely some services will be reduced but IMHO the Discovery Channels will be around for a while yet.

As for Eurosport going PPV only, I can’t see them getting much traction from that to cover the costs of broadcasting and the administration of it.

Well, Discovery has been taken off Now TV.

There's been speculation that Sky allowed the carriage contract to be varied in return for their customers getting the free Discovery + promotion.

Is there a source for this speculation?

[Media Boy UK]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Rumour: Discovery closing linear channels in UK & Ireland.

TV Channellists.com (Where anyone can update) is reporting that from November 31st "Discovery closing linear channels in UK & Ireland. Moving content solely to Discovery+."

Base on TV Channellist.com info the following may close on that date on Virgin Media UK:

-Discovery Channel HD
-Discovery Channel +1
-TLC HD
-TLC +1
-Food Network
-Really
-Quest HD
-Quest +1
-Quest Red
-Investigation Discovery
-Investigation Discovery +1
-HGTV
-HGTV +1
-Discovery Turbo
-Animal Planet HD
-Animal Planet +1
-Discovery Science
-Discovery Science +1
-DMAX
-DMAX +1
-Discovery History
-Discovery History +1
-Eurosport 2 HD

Also TV Channellists.com says that Eurosport 1 HD will become an pay-per-view Channel called "Eurosport Events HD" and Broadcasting live events only.

Note Media Boy HQ have try to find an other source for this rumour with no luck.

https://www.tvchannellists.com/List_...firmed_changes (Go down to 31/11/20 to see this story - if you cant it has been removed).

UPDATE:

Media Boy Sources say Discovery WILL close channels down and move to only on Discovey + but only at the end of existing contracts - which still have few years to run out. Unless Discovery buy themselves out of the contracts.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

UPDATE:

Media Boy Sources say Discovery WILL close channels down and move to only on Discovey + but only at the end of existing contracts - which still have few years to run out. Unless Discovery buy themselves out of the contracts.

Yup. A few years ago I was privy to a document that showed that eventually the plan was for Discovery to only have one linear channel to showcase their online content.

I can't believe that they'd close their linear FTA channels though, as these rely on eyeballs seeing ads for their revenue.

Eurosport wasn't mentioned in this document, so I've no idea about that.

Maybe giving Sky customers free Discovery + was a way of buying themselves out of the carriage contract through recompense? But surely it would have been better to have given their customers this free year after the removal of the linear Discovery channels to enable them to continue receiving the programming at no extra cost for a further year. Giving it to them now simply duplicates what they already get in the vast majority of cases.