Liberty to offload Virgin Media Ireland

[Rob]

The owner of Virgin Media Ireland has put the business up for sale after last week completing the £31 billion (€36 billion) merger of its UK operations with O2.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/liber...-2f3gr3z5f

[Stanley Matravers]

So much for the hasty rebranding of the TV3 channels to Virgin Media-orientated names within about 5 seconds of the takeover... ?

Don't most non-geeks in Ireland still call the channels "TV3" etc anyway?

[Roger Darthwell]

The owner of Virgin Media Ireland has put the business up for sale after last week completing the £31 billion (€36 billion) merger of its UK operations with O2.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/liber...-2f3gr3z5f

This makes me wonder if the names TV3, 3e and Be3 will return. But the real golden question is......who is going to buy them?

[Rdd]

Nothing new here really, continuation of comments Mike Fires has been making in the media and to investors for some time.

The problem, and it’s a big one, is a lack of an obvious buyer, he wants convergence with a physical mobile network, but there’s only three of them, one of which (eir) is the incumbent fixed line teleco, and another (Three) has no broadcasting or content interests in any other market. The third, Vodafone is perhaps the best fit but they will know that too and that could lead to interesting haggling over price if they think Liberty is very eager to sell.

[WillPS]

Do Vodafone have any TV subscription service anywhere? If so, then I would say they are far-and-away the front runner. Probably dispose of the TV3 business (to ITV?) I would have thought.

If you ignore the desire for synergies with a mobile network, could the business be attractive to a business like Orange? (Although typing that you realise how troublesome that brand name could be!)

[Rdd]

Vodafone have pay tv businesses in several countries, including Ireland, in some counties (like Ireland) it is IPTV and in others it is a traditional cable network (in some cases, like VodafoneZiggo in Holland, actually acquired from/a JV with Liberty). Not sure why they never entered that space in the U.K.

It could be attractive to an international teleco alright, or to venture capital. Neither of those options would give synergies with a mobile network. I personally think VMTV is a noose when it comes to the sale as some of the potential buyers, including Vodafone, probably aren’t particularly interested in becoming the largest FTA commercial broadcaster in the country.

[Stuart]

So much for the hasty rebranding of the TV3 channels to Virgin Media-orientated names within about 5 seconds of the takeover... ?

Don't most non-geeks in Ireland still call the channels "TV3" etc anyway?

I can't see any potential buyer either wanting to keep the VM tag or being able to. It requires licencing from Virgin and I'm not sure it has much commercial heritage in Ireland.

[Brekkie]

So which way is the licence paid here as surely Virgin Media get more out of three free to air channels being branded under their name than Liberty Global get out of using the Virgin Media brand.

[mici01]

Vodafone have pay tv businesses in several countries, including Ireland, in some counties (like Ireland) it is IPTV and in others it is a traditional cable network (in some cases, like VodafoneZiggo in Holland, actually acquired from/a JV with Liberty). Not sure why they never entered that space in the U.K.

Incidentily Vodafone also bought Liberty's cable networks in Germany, Czechia, Hungary and Romania. The only problem I see is if they have the cash for Virgin Media Ireland? They very recently had to sell their operations in India, Australia and New Zealand.

[JK1985]

It was always a terrible decision to rebrand TV3 under the Virgin Media name - I know from my Irish family and friends living there that they hated the rebranding.

TV3 may be a very bland name, but it is a name that the Irish are so used to, since the channel launched in September 1998, and 20 years later to simply consign it into the rubbish bin was a disgrace by Virgin Media Ireland.

I hope the TV3 branding returns, as even though TV3 had often been mocked by Irish media, especially in their early years when their home produced programming was virtually just news bulletins, there is an attachment to the name TV3.

[onetrickypony]

As a lot of ITV programmes are shown on VM, wouldn't they be the obvious choice to buy it.

[This is UTV]

As a lot of ITV programmes are shown on VM, wouldn't they be the obvious choice to buy it.

Not necessarily. ITV had UTV Ireland which became be3 when ITV offloaded it.
No need for ITV to own the channel when they can just sell shows to it.

[WillPS]

As a lot of ITV programmes are shown on VM, wouldn't they be the obvious choice to buy it.

Not necessarily. ITV had UTV Ireland which became be3 when ITV offloaded it.
No need for ITV to own the channel when they can just sell shows to it.

ITV were able to buy UTV because UTV had bet the farm on UTV Ireland and lost everything. It was a basket case, whereas TV3 was historically a much leaner business, if not a massive profit centre.

[Rdd]

I wouldn’t say TV3 was ever a well-loved brand - certainly if someone was to write the Big Book of Well Loved Irish Brands, TV3 would struggle to make its pages. But it was well established, and yes it was replaced quickly (if not quite overnight) by a very messy brand, mainly for the purposes of allowing the broadcast operation to cross promote the core cable business. It might have been successful on that front, but “Virgin Media One” rivals the ever infamous UKTVG2 for most syllables packed into a TV channel name.

I ultimately think it will change, but unless the terms of the VM U.K. JV agreement means Liberty have to change the name immediately (in which case I think we’ll be back to UPC) I don’t think the VM brand is going anywhere soon. Rather they’ll keep it in place pending a sale/JV and leave the new owners/partners to come up/input into a new brand.

As for ITV, they had a number of opportunities when they had an actual ownership stake in the channel where they’d effectively had first refusal of a buyout and never moved. The current arrangement gives them guaranteed revenue from the station and no risk attached.

[Chinamug]

As a lot of ITV programmes are shown on VM, wouldn't they be the obvious choice to buy it.

Not necessarily. ITV had UTV Ireland which became be3 when ITV offloaded it.
No need for ITV to own the channel when they can just sell shows to it.

ITV were able to buy UTV because UTV had bet the farm on UTV Ireland and lost everything. It was a basket case, whereas TV3 was historically a much leaner business, if not a massive profit centre.

TV3 was also a basket case at that time, it was just a case of which one would crack first. A lot of people in the business thought it would be TV3 which appeared to be on its last legs as well, but John Malone (Chairman of Liberty Global) was buying anything Irish at the time, from land to TV stations. Once that happened, it was game over for UTV's ambitions.

TV3 Never made a real profit. Doing the sums a few years ago they had lost between 200 and 250 million since it came into existence in 1998, depending on how you did the accounts. It had roughly 100 million in debt written off at one point.

The only company that has ever made any money from TV3 was ITV... Granada bought 45% per cent of it in 2000 and then ITV sold that share of the station for 70m. On top of that, they've been collecting Millions a year from TV3/Virgin Media as most programmes shown on the three channels are ITV studio shows.

No company with common sense would touch it, unless it was given to them for free or close to that figure. Unless it's completely restructured it will continue to lose money.

As for well-loved brands in Ireland, TV3 would not be one, quite the opposite. Liberty knew this when they changed it to Virgin Media Television.