Robin Or Arsenal TV On Virgin. Who Will Appear First?
Jan 17th, 2008 by 'holic
A strange day. A couple of really good things have happened, but the doomometer is still pinging away in the corner.
Robin van Persie and Johan Djourou are both ‘gone in the fetlock’ and will miss weeks rather than days. A mate asked the other day, ‘why do you write that fetlock nonsense?’. I assured him if that particular ailment afflicts thoroughbred racehorses, then it is most certainly an accurate description of the disabling effects on Arsenal footballers!
Djourou’s absence is a nuisance given that he was brought back to provide cover for the absence of Kolo Toure and Alex Song. Losing Robin once again is altogether more annoying, and worrying. It is good that Eduardo and Nicklas Bendtner are getting the opportunity to gain more experience, but when points are dropped as they were last weekend there is a natural tendency to be more critical of them than they deserve.
In all honesty I would like to see van Persie take as long as is necessary to return fully fit and ready to demonstrate the full range of his undoubted talents. We don’t need to have him rushed back, possibly to his detriment.
Virgin Responds To ‘Holic
Stop that sniggering. To cut a long story short I actually had two phone calls today from Virgin. Of course they did not respond in writing, but to be fair I have softened my attitude towards them a little, given that Setanta have still not bothered to come back to me.
Essentially I was told that yes, there is a capacity issue, but one that should not cause a problem provided that the demand for the new channel can be proven. I think the last couple of days have given them an answer on that score. At the same time however they made the point that Arsenal and Setanta have not come to an agreement with them yet.
It looks very much as though all three parties have been playing a game of brinkmanship in order to secure the most advantageous deal for themselves. All three are, I hope, beginning to realise the effect that their posturing has had on their customers and supporters. The muck has been spread and they are all beginning to smell a little.
For their part Virgin are now saying that negotiations have resumed and they expect to have good news to announce ‘very soon’. So can you give me a date? ‘No’. In the absence of a response from Setanta I will now contact Arsenal and let you know what they have to say.
Something For The Weekend Sir?
I’ll be back before kick-off on Saturday with a preview of the Fulham game. I will also have a gift idea for the Gooner in your life who has everything. Intrigued? You should be!
Cheers all.
13 Responses to “Robin Or Arsenal TV On Virgin. Who Will Appear First?”
I miss RVP. I agree that I’d rather see him out for an extended period of time than come on for a game or two just to tease us and then go back out with injury. It is worrying though, especially with all these articles and blogs popping up as to whether he has a future at Arsenal given his horrendous injury track record. I have hope though. I want him to come back and tear sh*t up. He’s probably incredibly frustrated that he can’t play, and this hunger can only be good for us once he finally returns. The timing could be spot on too, since we’re nearing the latter stages of the League and with the UCL and FA Cup ties coming up. And as impressive as Eduardo and Bendtner have been, there are few strikers in the world who can score goals the way van Persie can.
I got really pissed off with Setanta so I cancelled it today. The bloke I spoke to on the phone at Virgin had never heard of Arsenal TV. I put money on RVP being top scorer in the prem this year I hope he’s going to grow out of this because when he plays regularly he’s brilliant!
I also got a call from Virgin today. They ‘realised I had a choice of providers’ and ‘were determined to introduce Arsenal TV a soon as possible’. They ‘doubt that there is any problem with channel capacity’ and thought ‘it was a problem with Setanta’. They ‘expected to be able to make an announcement soon’ but ‘had no idea’ whether this was days, weeks or months away. It was more likely to be ‘months than days’.
Others had had similarly varied comments from Virgin Customer Services which means that there has been no formal advice to Customer Services from those that matter within Virgin and nothing will happen anytime too soon.
As for RvP. It’s a great shame and we do miss him badly but not quite as badly as I would have expected at the beginning of the season. If he’s back in a month and free from injury for the next 5 years the no harm done.
Over a week ago I heard rumours that Arsenal TV was not going to be on Virgin Media’s platform but I couldn’t find any info on Arsenal’s website or indeed Virgin Media or Setanta to confirm or deny this story. I decided to email Setanta, Arsenal and Virgin for answers. I received a standard reply from each stating they would reply back ranging between 5-7 days. To date I’ve had no satisfactory response from any of the three parties. Only response I’ve had was from Arsenal to state they had forwarded my message to the Marketeting Department for reply. Customer care is terrible, I must say.
A day or so after my emails Arsenal suddenly updated the website with only available on Sky at launch and the Virgin Media capacity issue.
Hopefully, the “very soon” announcment won’t be for it to launch in March as has been rumoured.
Comes to something when I have to watch Liverpool’s TV channel to see Arsenal’s youth cup team in action.
OOOOOO very intrigue ‘holic!
Good job heckling them! Fingers crossed and hope they pull their act together then eh?
I really really miss RvP. His grace on the field, the incredible balance, that left foot, those broad shoulders and all his team-talk. Blow him a kiss for me if you ever get close enough.
x
Oh and…
Happy Birthday Johan
Thanks for the info guys. It does look as though different people are being told different things. I would recommend that you talk to the customer retention people (dial 150 option 4) and explain calmly and with good humour that you are considering getting Sky instead so you can access Arsenal TV. You should receive a very good offer to stay put.
And siren, thanks for your messages. If you don’t mind I think I will pass on blowing Robin a kiss when we next meet!
😉
Did you ask Dubs for the copyright on the Doomometer(c)DG word?
I’ll buy him another Guinness, Ollie. Standard copyright fixed penalty!
What with long articles and letters? Can’t you realise we live in a knowledge society and we have less and less time on our hands?
So many other important things in our congested lives have a clain on our time. Its therefore annoying that a seemingly intelligent person puts out an usually wordy article that say very little but a few juicy bits in between the tosh.
I blame education system that has stopped teaching through writting comprehensions. Please summerise, its much more reader friendly ffs
“I blame education system that has stopped teaching through writting comprehensions.”
Looks like you need to go back to school, what with all your misspellings. It’s your problem if you can’t handle reading something longer than a few sentences.
I lurk on this blog regularly and don’t post. But I wanted to comment on the Arsenal TV situation. I’m a New York gooner. I subscribe to the DIRECTV satellite TV platform. For my football-viewing, I subscirbe to a sports package that includes the Fox Soccer Channel and GolTV. In addition, I subscribe separately to Setanta Sports. Last fall I first heard of Arsenal TV coming this month. I naturally assumed that Setanta subscribers here in the US & Canada would get it too. We get a lot of news and commentary shows from the UK on Setanta — Friday Football, The Big Match and many others.
But so far, no Arsenal TV — nor has there been any announcement about it. Meanwhile on Setanta, we do get Chelsea TV and Man United TV. And the GolTV channel has Milan TV. So I called the North America Setanta office and asked about Arsenal TV. The woman I spoke with said that Setanta in North America does not have the rights to broadcast the channel and that the situation would not change any time soon. Needless to say, I’m quite furious. She would not explain why.
Strangely, until last summer, Setanta in the US and Canada aired a weekly 3-hour show called Arsenal TV, which usually included a repeat of that week’s match, plus highlights of a classic match. Sometime last summer, however, they suddenly stopped airing it.
Thanks for your note Marcus. It came too late for me to check with the Premier League, but a usually knowledgeable friend says you may have the same problem as subscribers in Australia. Namely an FA Premier League restriction on the number of club channels (2!) that can be transmitted outside of the UK by one broadcaster. If none of the readers can enlighten us over the weekend I will try and get more info for you.
Goonerbeall, thanks for the advice. Sorry if I waffle on a bit for you. Perhaps you could find a textspeak site where the writers can make themselves understood far more quickly than old duffers like myself.
Goonerholic, if that’s true about the FA rule, then I find it an entirely ludicrous rule and have to wonder about the rationale behind it.
Great blog, as always.