Advanced Television

Virgin Media pulls channels from eir Sport

August 14, 2020

Virgin Media abruptly halted eir Sport’s broadcast of its Champions quarter-final between Atletico Madrid vs RB Leipzig on August 13th.

Virgin Media, which owns the rights to show Champions League games on Irish television, tweeted: “We have suspended our supply of Virgin Media Sport and Virgin Media Sport Extra to eir Sport because eir has failed to pay the contracted distribution licence fee.”

It then advised customers to contact eir customer care at a given number and email address.

The suspension leaves thousands of Irish sports fans unable to watch the conclusion of the Champions League tournament.

The row has stemmed from whether the platform should pay the full cost for the channel for the months when live sport was postponed around the globe as a result of the Covid pandemic.

An Eir sports spokesman said: “In common with other live entertainment businesses operating through this pandemic, eir Sports can only pay for the sports events that actually take place. We have consistently offered fair terms to each of our live sports content providers to reflect the reduced timetable, however Virgin Media has not agreed to updated terms and has taken the unreasonable step of unilaterally withholding their feed from Virgin Media Sports viewers on the eir network. eir Sports remains committed to offering the best in available live sports entertainment and we are working towards a swift resolution to this issue.”

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Pay TV, Policy, Rights

Tags: , , , ,