theres also mgm. bit like tcm but for old mgm films only. some great classics on there.

MGM would be a reasonable addition to VM.

perhaps stick it in the L pack or M+ back to boost movie output

Yes but it is a HD channel jointly operated with Sky and Sky don't have a good track record of sharing these.

MGM HD is on UPC Ireland , i have actually seen the UPC channel number at the end of MGM HD adverts.

I doubt MGM HD would be included in M+ or L , included in XL and £5 per month for M+ and L customers is more likely in my opinion.

I doubt it, it's part of the movie pack on Sky or £5 extra for non movie subscribers, so it will be like Disney Cinemagic

but it isn't part of the Sky Movies pack on UPC Ireland.

UPC Ireland customers who take Digital Select Extra+ or Digital Max and the €5 euro HD pack get 21 HD channels which includes MGM HD.
http://www.upc.ie/television/digitalselectextraplus/

there are now rumours that sky atlantic and bt sports will launch on 1st august but this is a rumour

The rumours were started in CableForum by a BomberAF who is apparently privvy to a deal on BT Sports, however is able to have the information on Sky Atlantic too.

Apparently VM agreed to a deal where Sky and BT would advertise to take customers away from VM and then allow VM to launch both on August 1st.

No news on how much they would cost if they got them

Another post
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/35592890-post279.html

Although i am sure BT would get money being part of the XL pack , i didn't think that was their strategy.

They could charge a little but they could hardly charge what sky sports does but I really don't think people would subscribe to it unless they got rid of the xl package and virgin wouldn't want that

Sounds good if its true but we shall see not long now.

Its a shame we don't get Sky Atlantic yet, but its a little OTT to describe hundreds of channels to describe it as a second rate TV offering.

Given how many channels we do have, and the tiny number of potentially worthwhile additions, you can't be missing out on that much.

I know but so are several other channels. The relative size of the UK and Ireland makes it a very different market.

Not to mention that the migration of domestic satellite customers from Astra / Sky to Saorsat, leaves Sky looking for other methods to increase their audience reach in Ireland.

I can't find this on Virgin. Its on freeview this morning. You would think that free channels would be on straight away.

It's on Freeview only, I think.

Yup it has launched on Freeview only, although their are discussions ongoing with Sky and Virgin.

From the drama channel website - drama is on sky 291. can't check as don't have sky myself.

http://drama.uktv.co.uk/

That's correct.

So Really , Good Food and Home have a better position on the Sky EPG than Drama , that's bizarre.

I think BomberAF's made up "info" has gotten out of hand, and he will probably have to resign his user name when the "info" is revealed to be a guess.

I don't think they'd mind on Cable Forum. I accept he has found out some things but even as far back as when I had cable that MediaBoy character has come out with absolutely loads of utter rubbish and yet they all still think he is the fountain of knowledge!

Heaven knows how many times he said the ITV HD channels were launching before they actually did. And he used to say ESPN2 and ESPN Red Button were launching, that went well

ESPN Red button did launch though.

there was a prompt on the SD ESPN that linked you to something I can't remember now.

I don't recall that at all but the suggestion was it would have a red button service like Sky Sports with alternative content, which of course it never did.

I don't think it's unfair to say that much of the 'inside information' he is told about has merely been inside someone's head. I have a TV with a DVB-C tuner that I occasionally used to search to see if there was anything testing. The odd, obscure thing appeared with an indistinct label so i'd let him know. The next thing he would be posting that Channel XYZ could be testing but all I mentioned was a label, I couldn't actually see anything!

Very strange.