Virgin Media Community

[AllPointsNorth1]

Hi. I wonder if you could help.  My brother is a Virgin media customer with a TiVo box.  He's currently watching Sky Nature (280) and we're noticing advertising on there for Sky's services is appearing quoting prices in Euro, not pounds.

Is this a problem with Virgin Media's streams? Surely we shouldn't be seeing Irish advertising in England? Could this be a stream intended for Virgin Ireland?

[nodrogd · Accepted solution]

Everyone receives the same channels, but the advertising is targeted thanks to Sky Adsmart. It is similar to what happens with streaming on the internet. Explanation via the link below

https://www.virginmedia.com/corporate/media-centre/press-releases/virgin-media-and-sky-unveil-uk-lau...

So the issue may be related to the box itself rather than the channel.

[cje85]

Many of Sky's channels, including Nature, have a UK version and an Irish version. The schedules are identical but the adverts are different. It could be that the wrong version of Sky Nature is being broadcast on VM in a certain area.

AdSmart can replace certain adverts but not whole breaks so different versions are needed for Ireland in order to carry entirely different breaks.

You can see on satellite they have:

Sky Nature UK: https://www.lyngsat.com/tvchannels/uk/Sky-Nature-UK.html:

Sky Nature Ireland: https://www.lyngsat.com/tvchannels/uk/Sky-Nature-Ireland.html

[nodrogd]

VMs UK & Ireland TV networks are not physically connected to each other. If the version is wrong we would all see it as it is carried on the same mux throughout the network.

[AllPointsNorth1]

So what could be wrong with the box, that AdSmart would serve it an Irish advertisement, when it was (presumably) brand new when it was installed at my brother's house? Unless it's an Irish box, that shouldn't happen surely...

[nodrogd · Accepted solution]

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@AllPointsNorth1 wrote:

So what could be wrong with the box, that AdSmart would serve it an Irish advertisement, when it was (presumably) brand new when it was installed at my brother's house? Unless it's an Irish box, that shouldn't happen surely...

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It cannot be a network issue. All HD channels on VM are now fibre fed direct from the broadcaster, so unless Sky are sending VM UK the wrong version of the channel it would be impossible to see it.

[AllPointsNorth1]

So what are you saying? That we didn't see this ad? I did rewind it just to make sure we'd heard it correctly, and it definitely gave the price for something Sky were doing as €12 a month.  I'll record it next time I see it.  Both of us can't be wrong at the same time!  I think I'll see about getting his TiVo replaced.

[Travis_M]

Hi @AllPointsNorth1

Thanks for posting on our community forum!

I'll feed this back regardless to see if Sky can sort this for us, thank you for making us aware.

Regards

[Mr_Pringle]

That's not quite true, as not long ago VM put one of their Irish channels out in place of a channel in the UK...