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UK's only cycling channel signs to Virgin Media TVBIKE ON VIRGIN MEDIA

UK's only cycling channel signs to Virgin Media TV

Virgin follows Sky in signing BIKE just over a month since the channel entirely dedicated to cycling launched in December
by Laura Laker
Sat, Jan 23, 2016 12:56
9

The UK’s only TV cycling channel has now signed to Virgin Media.

BIKE, which shows a mixture of live coverage, documentaries and original UK programming, was launched last month on Sky. Now Virgin is now hoping to ride the growing wave of interest in cycling in the UK. BIKE will be available to some Virgin Media TV customers on channel 552.

BIKE features programmes under seven main categories: travel, sport, training, endurance, women’s, MTB and legends. The programme’s aim is to appeal to all sorts of riders of a variety of disciplines, from mountain bikers to BMXers to road riders.

Virgin Media’s Chief Digital Entertainment Officer, David Bouchier said: “You can’t question the growth in cycling in recent years, and on our TV service it is all about people’s interests and passions, be it more mainstream media or specialist channels.  We know there is a strong interest in sport from football to cycling so we’re delighted to bring BIKE to Virgin Media homes.”  

BIKE will be available to Virgin Media customers with M+ service and above. The channel’s line-up includes Gent-Wevelgem and stage races including the Giro d’Italia, the UCI Mountain Bike Cross Country and DH World Cup as well as cyclocross and BMX competitions.

Richard Schofield, BIKE’s UK Marketing Director, says, “We’re very proud to now be broadcast to even more UK homes with Virgin Media. We know that 2016 is going to be an exciting year for BIKE and for cycling as a whole with the prospect of more sporting success at the Rio Olympics. BIKE wants to be at the heart of British cycling. If you cycle, we know there will be something on the channel for you.”

Other features will include The Greatest Climbs by Paolo Savoldelli, 2002 and 2005 Giro winner, and a documentary on athletes’ preparation for the Mountain Bike World Championships

Virgin Media
BIKE TV
ICYMI 23-24 Jan16
Laura Laker

Laura Laker is a freelance journalist with more than a decade’s experience covering cycling, walking and wheeling (and other means of transport). Beginning her career with road.cc, Laura has also written for national and specialist titles of all stripes. One part of the popular Streets Ahead podcast, she sometimes appears as a talking head on TV and radio, and in real life at conferences and festivals. She is also the author of Potholes and Pavements: a Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network.

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9 comments

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Vili Er | 8 years ago
1 like

I'm really looking forward to 'Doping' by Paolo Savoldelli. Realtime transfusions in cycling locations around the world. He's a wee cheating, convicted Italian w@nker.

 

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ianrobo | 8 years ago
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I have fears about this channel. 

It is actually a Sky owned channel and I worry that they will try and go for some of the coverage that ES currently does. Whatever we may think of Carlton no other channel can do for cycling what ES does (except when we have clashes with French Open) and to lose it to a Sky channel would be poor.

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Awavey replied to ianrobo | 8 years ago
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ianrobo wrote:

I have fears about this channel. 

It is actually a Sky owned channel and I worry that they will try and go for some of the coverage that ES currently does. Whatever we may think of Carlton no other channel can do for cycling what ES does (except when we have clashes with French Open) and to lose it to a Sky channel would be poor.

which would be Sky cutting their nose off to spite their face, as you only get Eurosport on Sky via the more expensive channel pack bundles,not the basic bundle that Bike comes with,and the difference is between nearly 100-200 pounds per year per subscriber to those channel packs which would send the Sky bean counters into apoplexy if they started losing that much money per subscriber when football tv rights costs are escalating out of control.

Sky arent going to try and downgrade their Eurosport offering  to boost a cheaper channel option just because they (or Sky Italia) own it, it would almost certainly end up with Eurosport ganging up on Sky with the likes of Virgin or BT, remember Eurosport have the sole pan European rights to the Olympics from 2018 (2022 in the UK/France)

Avatar
ianrobo replied to Awavey | 8 years ago
0 likes

Awavey wrote:

ianrobo wrote:

I have fears about this channel. 

It is actually a Sky owned channel and I worry that they will try and go for some of the coverage that ES currently does. Whatever we may think of Carlton no other channel can do for cycling what ES does (except when we have clashes with French Open) and to lose it to a Sky channel would be poor.

which would be Sky cutting their nose off to spite their face, as you only get Eurosport on Sky via the more expensive channel pack bundles,not the basic bundle that Bike comes with,and the difference is between nearly 100-200 pounds per year per subscriber to those channel packs which would send the Sky bean counters into apoplexy if they started losing that much money per subscriber when football tv rights costs are escalating out of control.

Sky arent going to try and downgrade their Eurosport offering  to boost a cheaper channel option just because they (or Sky Italia) own it, it would almost certainly end up with Eurosport ganging up on Sky with the likes of Virgin or BT, remember Eurosport have the sole pan European rights to the Olympics from 2018 (2022 in the UK/France)

No thats all true but they could launch a cycling channel as a stand alone subscription. Unlikely given ES is now owned by Discovery and clearly they have had interests in the past with cycling.

I have wondered if we may see a ES/Discovery team at some point once the LA thing does die down.

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darrylxxx | 8 years ago
0 likes

Stupid name for a channel. I don't have Sky (bloody Murdoch) or Virgin Media and tried searching for it... impossible!

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davel | 8 years ago
0 likes

Give it a chance: it's only just started.

The greatest climbs I've seen have been well worth watching - I've recorded three different episodes overnight on VM and haven't had any inadvertent recording of different programmes.

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MartyMcCann | 8 years ago
0 likes

I really, really want this channel to do well but a lot of it has been of relatively poor quality. I have already mentioned before how on one programme (Bike on Ventoux) the narrator referred to "the Englishman Christopher Froome overtaking Alexander Quintana" (not even @UKCyclingExpert on Twitter could manage to fit so much wrong into such a short space and he/she is at least doing it on purpose). So much of the commentary and translations sound as if they have just been cut and paste into Google Translate. And as for the sound quality on the Incycle programmes.... when the background music is louder than the interviewees (and the interpreters lower than the actual people they are supposed to be interpreting) you really have to wonder how the sound engineer ever got employment again after those episodes.

Now I know many of these issues are with the programme makers but since the channel is deciding to run these shows they do have to bear some responsibility. It seems to be an attitude of  "throw anything on and cyclists will watch it".  Surely it can't be too expensive to buy the rights to broadcast classic races from the past (maybe even show repeats of some of Channel 4's Tour de France highlights) since that is bound to be better and more attractive than watching poor quality VHS transfers on You Tube or another repeated episode of "Cycling with Filippa". 

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Bhachgen | 8 years ago
0 likes

Doesn't seem to be on Sky Go. Anyone know if it is likely to appear on that?

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230548 | 8 years ago
0 likes

when this was first announced i thought great but so far the only thing worth watching has been "The climbs" i tend to record these  later at night as they are always repeating them but i havn't seen any live  racing which i was expecting ie cyclo cross track racing etc

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