Virgin Media has received regulatory and competition approval to acquire UTV Ireland for €10 million. The news follows Virgin’s purchase of TV3 last year. Pat Kiely (above), managing director, TV3, said the approval was good news for viewers and will support efforts to compete head-on with local and overseas competition, which would include RTE and Sky.
The Virgin-UTV Ireland agreement also includes a ten-year output deal in Ireland for ITV produced programming. The purchase price is expected to be funded through existing liquidity. Virgin Media is owned by Liberty Global and offers four multi award-winning services across Ireland and the UK, including broadband, TV, mobile phone and landline.
TV3 won the rights to Six Nations Rugby for four years from 2018 and 22 Euro 2016 matches.
