A new name but there’s plenty for sports fans.
TV3 Group, the Virgin Media-owned broadcaster, has confirmed plans to rebrand as Virgin Media Television.
TV3’s three free-to-air channels, TV3, 3e and be3, will be rebranded as Virgin Media One, Virgin Media Two and Virgin Media Three.
In terms of their online player, Virgin Media Player will be the new name for the group’s on-demand broadcast player.
Aside from this, a brand-new sports channel, Virgin Media Sport, has been launched and it will be exclusively available for Virgin Media customers.
With regards to the new season of programming, highlights include Blood, an Irish psychological drama series starring BAFTA nominee Adrian Dunbar and a brand new 8pm News Bulletin that’s hosted by Claire Brock.
Ireland’s Got Talent, Gogglebox Ireland, I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out Of Here!, X-Factor, Living with Lucy, The Restaurant and Red Rock all return.
Football fans will be pleased to know that the station will air over 450 matches in the coming season including UEFA Champions League, Europa League, qualifiers for UEFA EURO 2020 and fixtures for the UEFA Nations League.
After a famous year for Irish rugby, the station will continue to broadcast the NatWest 6 Nations when it returns in February.
Fans will also be very pleased to see that the Heineken Champions Cup Rugby will be live and free-to-air television for the first time since 2006.
The station will have nine live Heineken Champions Cup rugby games and they’re going to show one live group stage match per week.
Virgin Media Television will also be showing one quarter-final, a semi-final and the Champions Cup Final in May.
In terms of factual and documentary programming, there’s a brand new series called Inside James’s, looking at life at Ireland’s biggest University Teaching Hospital.
The Town will follow families that are going through the highs and lows of modern Irish life in Portlaoise. Revolting Ireland, hosted by Simon Delaney, will take a look at the history of protests in Irish history from the 1913 lockout right up to the recent abortion referendum.
Elsewhere, Inside Ireland’s Biggest Prison will take audiences inside the Midland’s Prison to meet the prisoners and those responsible for keeping them behind bars and the True Lives documentary strand will return for six brand new episodes.
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