TV3 Ireland to rebrand as Virgin Media Television.

There won't be much uproar, There will be comments about a daft name for the station. TV3 is not exactly a loved institution. As long as viewers continue to have access to their ITV favourites they really couldn't care what the station is called. Viewing figures collapsed when ITV shows left, they only recovered when the shows returned. It also helps that if you live in a cable only house you can't get ITV/UTV.

So UTV or the ITV are not available on cable in Ireland then?

And the Virgin name isn't free, either - they're licensing it for a fee.

TG4 won't change *its* name as a result this time, will it? It did so in 1999, of course - but it hasn't even changed its logo since then, whereas TV3 has changed its logo twice in the last ten years (although both changes were mainly as a result of the company taking over another channel).

Not any more. From the start of cable in the 1960s until the launch of UTV Ireland, an ITV franchise (usually UTV but up until the early 2000s sometimes HTV instead) was a core part of all cable TV lineups in Ireland. However as part of the launch of UTV Ireland, UTV asked UPC to remove its ITV service from its channel lineup. It has never been reinstated.

Ironically though, TV3 now clears more of the ITV network schedule than UTV Ireland ever did. Apart from news and current affairs, GMB and Lorraine (both of which UTV Ireland did show!) are practically the only shows not shown. Only they are doing it across three channels instead of one. (Obviously there are some sports rights differences - the World Cup being the obvious one. Even so their acquisition of England’s European Qualifiers and ITV Racing has helped on that front).

Virgin Media still carries ITV3&4 to this day though they also removed ITV2 after TV3 bought UTV Ireland.

There’s no need for the media part and even without that it’s terrible. What a stupid stupid decision.

Not since the UTV Ireland launch. ITV/UTV is available to about 60% of Households in Ireland via freesat and Freeview. Most people in the past would tune UTV in on SKY via Other Channels.

Just saw rdd's much better answer above...

Perhaps they only have to sub licence the Virgin Media brand whereas they would need a separate licensing deal from Virgin for Virgin 1, 2 and 3?

If they're licencing the brand it makes even less sense - would surely be more logical to use the rebrand to establish the Liberty brand further.

That's exactly it.

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That would make sense but for two things: Virgin Media UK’s use of “Virgin 1” as a channel name in the past, and the (occasional) use of “Virgin Mobile” and “Virgin TV” as brands.

In general though, Liberty Global appears to be moving away from the use of UPC as their main brand - it’s no longer used in its home market of the Netherlands, for instance. Nearly all the companies still using it have sales to either Vodafone or T Mobile agreed and waiting to complete. The main reason the Irish operation adopted the Virgin Media brand though was an operational decision by Liberty Global to make it a subsidiary of the U.K. operation, which meant it then adopted its branding.

Upon the launch of Virgin Media UK, Virgin itself was involved with the venture, though. (Absorbing Virgin Groups' Virgin Mobile and Virgin.net. Although Virgin Mobile still exists as a seperate subsidiary of Virgin Media.). So launching a service called Virgin 1 wasn't much of an issue in that sense at the time.

I believe Virgin 1 was licenced separately. Virgin Mobile is licenced by Virgin Media, and Virgin TV is used by agreement with Virgin Group, as an identifier for the television packages of Virgin Media.

Licensing the Virgin Media brand from Virgin Group doesn't mean they can use the Virgin name however they like.