Virgin Media ESPN Coverage

Taken from elsewhere

ESPN free for Virgin TV XL customers
Wednesday, July 29 2009, 09:37 BST

Virgin Media has secured a carriage agreement for ESPN's standard definition and high definition channels.

On August 3, ESPN America will be replaced in the UK by a new subscription-based ESPN service available in standard and high definition. It will carry the Premier League matches acquired after Setanta's collapse along with sports currently shown on ESPN America. ESPN has also recently acquired additional football rights from the SPL, MLS and top divisions in Europe.

ESPN and ESPN HD will be offered free of charge to customers taking Virgin Media's top XL tier of television service. The channels will also be available to customers on the M and L tiers for £8 per month if they subscribe to Sky Sports or £10 standalone. All Virgin Media television customers will receive the channels free in August.

ESPN HD will only be available to those customers who take Virgin's high definition V+ PVR.

Virgin Media chief commercial officer Mark Schweitzer said: "This agreement solidifies Virgin Media's place as the home of TV entertainment and is unquestionably the best value TV deal for sports fanatics. We've got all the sports content you'd expect and adding the new ESPN channels to our line-up will mean our customers can watch all the football action they want.

"We're always looking for ways to go the extra mile for our customers and we think this market beating offer does this in spades as well as providing a sweetener for the start of the football season. We are extremely proud to have partnered with ESPN, which is the world's leading multimedia sports entertainment company."

Virgin's price point undercuts ESPN's price on Sky, where it is offered at £9 per month for Sky Sports subscribers and £12 standalone.

Lynne Frank, ESPN's managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said: "We are delighted to add Virgin Media as a new distribution partner and to offer millions more sports fans ESPN's compelling mix of Barclays Premier League and Clydesdale Bank Premier League football, as well as the best of international football and top quality sports.

"The plan to make the channels available to Virgin Media's XL customers will help ESPN better serve sports fans in the UK. It's an exciting season ahead and we look forward to bringing our new channels, ESPN and ESPN HD as well as ESPN Classic, to as many sports fans as possible."

ESPN's opening EPL game will be Everton v Arsenal on August 15, with coverage starting from 5:30pm.

Possibly a stupid question (might even be the wrong section to post it) but here goes....... Will a re-scan of channels on starview boxes be enough to receive ESPN or will a new firmware etc be required?

Rescan on the 3rd will do the trick,although there is a rumour it will be on the ESNP America channel.

As a special introduction to the new ESPN and ESPN HD channels, Virgin Media will make these channels available to all of its digital TV customers, for no additional cost, during August

thanks for the update jon

and what remove them in september

see they have had "this is espn" on vmtest5 last 2 nights at midnight ,not seen it but will look tonight

hi

espn, espn america , espn classic espn HD now live on virginmedia cable tv channels 529 -533..

soulcat

yup man u-spurs on at 8 but us one showing shopping channel so dont get carried away just yet

Done a scan yesterday, but did not get any ESPN, any idea?

cheers

Did you do a rescan from a direct feed.No splitter
If so Try Menu-Installation-Manual Scan-Down Frequency 000000-
Network Scan Enable (change with R/L arrows on remote)
Wait a moment press OK

Cheers , got them now.

I cannot get the ESPN channels. Done scan from Direct feed and tried Menu-Installation-Manual Scan-Down Frequency 000000-
Network Scan Enable

No joy. Just ESPN America.

Any ideas?

Have you tried a factory reset from a direct feed
Do you have a sub box,does that have the channels.
At this moment ESPN HD and ESPN Classic are not showing in my TW region on a VM box.

hi,guys i was only receiving espn america, done a factory reset and the 4 espn channels were there im in the dundee area with t/w cheers

I have tried to do an automatic search, a manual search but am only getting ESPN America. I have done a search on freq 282.000 but no luck I am on Starview NTL but I daren't do a factory reset.

I have FTA101, on C&W, what do I need to do please to get ESPn for the footy? I have tried Scan, only get espn HD.

Cheers

eagle8 wrote:I have FTA101, on C&W, what do I need to do please to get ESPn for the footy? I have tried Scan, only get espn HD.

Cheers

The channel may not be named but numbered ie TV1234.
Also try a scan on NTL.

factfinder wrote:I have tried to do an automatic search, a manual search but am only getting ESPN America. I have done a search on freq 282.000 but no luck I am on Starview NTL but I daren't do a factory reset.

Why do you not want to do a factory reset your Fav. list will be lost nothing else.
Are you sure 282000 is the frequency for your area,as all area have different frequencies.
Do a search on 000000 with Network Scan Enable (R/L arrow on remote) Fav will not be lost

factory reset is a common thing to do the more you do it the less daunting it is to do lol,remember switch emu or keycode back on after every reset.

Tried doing a search on 0000000 with network scan enable, but still not found. The reason I did not want to do a factory reset is because I don't know how to make my fav list.....

The most likely reason you can't find it is because it there.
Look through the channels if it shows scrambled or bad channel delete if first.
If you take note of the frequency(on the scrambledchannel) then do a manual scan on that frequency.

Found them - disguised as Celtic TV and Rangers TV on channels 383 and 384. Thanks for your help guys.