Telco Virgin Media has said it will launch a new sports channel in Ireland as rebranding plans for commercial broadcaster TV3 were confirmed.
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. The rebrand will come into effect on August 30, when viewers will see the new channel identities on-air.
In addition, a brand new sports channel, Virgin Media Sport, has been announced for Virgin Media customers. The channel will be the home of European football and the latest sports news.
In all, Virgin Media Television will air over 450 top-level football matches in 2018-19 season including Uefa Champions League and the Europa League, as well as qualifiers for Euro 2020 together with fixtures from the inaugural Nations League.
In addition to exclusive coverage of the Six Nations national team rugby union tournament, club competition the Champions Cup will be live and free-to-air for the first time since 2006. Broadcasting nine live Champions Cup games, Virgin Media Television will show one live group stage match per week, followed by one quarter-final and one semi-final, culminating with the final in May.
Virgin Media is a wholly-owned subsidiary of media group Liberty Global and the rebranding follows its acquisition of TV3 in 2015.
Pat Kiely, TV3 group managing director, said: “As part of Virgin Media, TV3 group channels have grown in scale and quality. It’s now time to build on this momentum and move to Virgin Media Television. This is a natural evolution as we bring our channels and platform closer together.”