Arsenal TV Offline. It’s A Bloody Shambles!
Jan 14th, 2008 by 'holic
One of the things that writing a blog teaches you very quickly is that on the internet you attract a world-wide audience. A look at the stats for Goonerholic reveals a readership from across the globe. I suspect I am not the only blogger grateful that football is a universal language, and that by fair means or foul we are all able to watch the same games every week, and share our views about common themes.
Today I offer an apology to everybody outside the UK. I even offer an apology to people in the UK who have Sky Television. I am going to sound off again, like a cracked record, about the incredible unavailability of the new Arsenal TV channel to UK cable subscribers.
I have just been treated to an hour of the launch scheduling on Setanta 1, and very enjoyable it was too. At the end of the viewing I am treated to Setanta telling me all about it again on their website, here.
What a shame that between them, Setanta, Arsenal, and Virgin Media, have not seen fit to come to an agreement. I can watch at least five regional variations of BBC television and over two dozen +1 or 2 channels, and yet Virgin cannot find space for Arsenal TV? I could watch Celtic TV, Rangers TV, or Liverpool TV, and I can watch umpteen ‘seen one seen them all’ music channels. Thanks, but no thanks.
I have written to Virgin asking for an explanation and an estimated date when ATV will be available to me. Twenty-four hours on I have not had a reply other than the automated first response. To be honest I don’t expect much from them, or Setanta and Arsenal when I direct my follow up questions to them.
I do have somebody filling me in however with a list of advertisers on the new channel. I will be writing to them all questioning whether or not they are happy with the value they are getting for their marketing budget on the new channel when so many potential customers are being denied access.
Will it make a difference? Probably not. Arsenal and Setanta are making money out of the venture. Virgin will assume, probably correctly, that the army of Arsenal supporters currently subscribing to their service will not desert them ‘en masse’ in the short term. In all honesty that is not what I want either. I just want that one channel available for me to once again be, probably, the only satisfied Virgin Media customer in the country.
At this precise moment though I have to say I think Virgin are the biggest shambles of a company going, and Arsenal and Setanta are little better for being complicit in their blatant disregard for their customers.
If you are a Virgin customer, particularly one who either signed up or, like me, upgraded their service to receive Setanta Sports in order to receive Arsenal TV, please complain to Virgin here. I would be intrigued to hear the response if any readers have already complained and had a response, be it from Arsenal, Setanta, or Virgin.
Rant over (probably temporarily!) and once again I apologise to my readers across the globe. If you are happily watching the first night of Arsenal TV in the middle of nowhere, please don’t hesitate to tell us about it!
Update
48 hours on and still no news from Virgin. Thanks those who have written in, including links to misleading advertising like this. Spot the deliberate mistake!
Arsenal too, contrary to popular belief, DID promise Virgin Media availability here.
Setanta also briefed the Guardian here. What’s that I see about Virgin Media.
More to follow no doubt!
61 Responses to “Arsenal TV Offline. It’s A Bloody Shambles!”
Arsenal News 24/7
Moany old git! 😉
(Hope they sort it out soon for you and others).
There was supposed to be a big gap between the new lines, but clever software put paid to that.
Should have gone with
.
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etc.
-new
+two
Time to go to bed…
Heh Ollie!
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Moany….yes.
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Old…Undoubtedly
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Git?… Bit unkind there mate!
😉
I totally agree. I am livid that I switched to VM and not be able to get Arse TV. They certainly didnt advertise that piece of information when they were plastering it all over the website eh. Sneaky.
My situation’s a weird one. I moved into this house, with a Sky box left behind by the previous tenant, and could keep watching some channels on Sky. But since this Arsenal TV channel is new and they gave away the first day of content for free, so I, without paying Sky or anyone (just the normal licence fee, nothing else), was able to watch the entire night of Arsenal programme. Which, after reading about you guys’ problems, I think is very unfair.
Like you I am also naffed off over the shambles and during the day have complained to both Arsenal & Virgin Media – the latter fobbing me off with its automated ‘be with you soon’ e.mail. Yeah, probably the last I’ll hear from VM, though that’s still 100% more than Arsenal have bothered.
What a joke, just hope my kids don’t grow up as Liverpool / Rangers or Celtic fans (club channels all available on VM) – at the end of the day, Arsenal have let millions of loyal and potential fans down.
BLOODY SHAMBLES
Hey look you have my sympathy completely!!! I moved out here to Australia 10 years ago (reluctantly for my now ex wife!!) and I follow Arsenal by watching every moment I can on the very bias Sky orientated – Fox Sports on our Satellite providers Austar (or the Man Utd channel as they should be known!!) We recently had Setanta sports added and I signed up hoping to see Arsenal TV plus more coverage (hopefully) of the lesser UK football which we are starved of here (FA Cup Carling Cup and lower leagues)…. Well to cut a long story short I was bl**dy annoyed when it turned out that Man U and Chelsea TV are the only EPL programmes to be shown. I wrote to Setanta and they replied that it was because of the agreement/rules from the FA that only 2 EPL clubs own TV shows could be shown ….and as those 2 were the first to sign with Setanta it was tough luck on the rest!!! Now doesn’t that smell of something fishy / restrictive of trade by the FA???? Setanta did say they they hope to renegotiate this situation in the future sometime….but dont hold my breath!!! So I now have to avoid watching all the MU & CFC crap that is broadcast….as if we didn’t get enough of it anyway!!
Will someone please explain to me how
Arsenal: The Official Magazine
can carry an advert by Sentanta sports advertising ‘Arsenal TV coming in January to Sentanta’ and then in the small print add ‘Sentanta Sports is included as part of the Virgin Media XL pack’
Were both Sentanta and Arsenal deliberately culpable in misleading magazine readers, or is it just one big cock-up by the pair?
Spot on Mystic.
Arsenal and Setanta cannot wash their hands of this. They are responsible for distribution and the advertising was downright misleading. Virgin were not blameless either in that respect.
I cannot wait to see if, as I suspect, they all end up blaming each other. Trust me, that will just be a tactic to cover up their collective incompetence.
What a bloody disgrace not having Arsenal TV on the Virgin Media version of Setanta Sports. There are thousands of fans who subscribed to Virgin for the free Setanta channel and now we find we can’t get Arsenal TV. This is a case of selling something with misleading information as Mystic alluded to above. We should all sue them for our infringed human right to watch Arsenal TV. We need a new right winger in this transfer window too, so I’m doubly disappointed as Wenger has admitted he’s not interested in buying anyone. That’s his loss. Theo Walcott will not be scaring the pants off the Mancs and Chelski that’s for sure. Come to think of it, who wants to watch Arsenal TV anyway? It’ll be just like the official website. Bloody Pravda. They’ll only tell us what they want us to hear and will keep telling us how rich they are and how much money they make from the Emirates Stadium and what a big club they are, but the fact is they act like Hartlepool United most of the time. Always have done, ever since the sixties when signing a goalie from Hull City was a big deal for them. Nothing changes. The only time Arsenal acted like a big club was when David Dein was there. Now he’s gone the belts have been well and truly reigned in and if truth be told they’re probably asking Virgin for too much money for the Arsenal TV channel. Greeedy f**kers.
Please do not sue VM as they are source of my bread and butter. Arsenal no way can ask for money from VM as they have collaboration with Setanta not with Sky or VM.
Arsenal will anyways benefit with increased audience if the channel is available on VM. So there is no point in club wanting more money. Let’s be fair here “Highbury Spy” mate “the club we support is not run by greedy f**kers” as the one that was had already left and joined communist revolution in lieu of Roubles. Or else we would have been left paying A class fixture prices for CC matches against barcodes and “we have a history†mugs from shiite fart lane.
I think all the mails that you guys (ask everyone you know to send one) have sent complaining on VM site will definitely have an impact. And I will also ask everyone of my gooner colleagues [we have loads of them 🙂 ] to raise this issue.
Till then “Up The Arsenal”.
Further more see http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?thisNav=News&article=484505
This article is dated “Friday, November 23, 2007”
This blog entry is spot on – quite frustrating to find it’s still not available.
By the way, I’ve trackbacked to this posting from my blog.
Virgin Media, Setanta or whoever, sort this out will you?
K.
i can’t say i can emphatize(its not a word) with you fully on this situation, ‘holic. Hopefully the cock up that is setanta-virgin would sort it out, so you can watch Arsenal 24/7.
I can’t imagine tho, how this would snowball over to me little island. it was back in december as well, probably just before christmas that the major cable tv announced the addition of ArsenalTV to one of our dedicated football channels. The other bullshitTV’s i’m forced to put up with(which i don’t, btw) are ChavsTV, ManureTV and BarcaTV.
after seeing the picture of Le Boss with a big grin on his face in an interview for the Launch of ArsenalTV, i thought it would be soon before i can work to Arsenal, sleep to Arsenal and wake up to Arsenal. After reading your post, ‘holic, i think it’ll be a while yet.
i had quite a bit to say about this and duely commented but somehow it all disappeared when i clicked “submit”.
on the one morning that i don’t copy my crap, this happens. Bleah.
Cheer up ‘holic, better days yet.
cheer up ‘holic, better days yet.
Can you not get Setanta Sports via a free view box ?, I know I can !
Spy, if you are the genuine article, welcome to ‘holic. I remember in the seventies and eighties when I was going regularly you were nearly always there. People may not agree with everything you have to say in the Gooner, but you have earned the right to an opinion. Hope you are well fella.
Craig, two problems, we do not yet have freeview reception where I live, and why would I want to pay a second subscription to Setanta?
Nobody seems to have picked up something interesting from #13 Barnet Gooner. This was their post.
Further more see http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?thisNav=News&article=484505
This article is dated “Friday, November 23, 2007″
So I clicked the link and if you read the second paragraph from arsenal.com it is quite clear. Here it is:-
Is Arsenal TV available on Virgin Media?
Arsenal TV will NOT be available on Virgin Media at launch. We are in discussion with Virgin Media and Setanta Sports to launch on cable soon. The date will be publicised widely as soon as it is confirmed.
So in fairness to Arsenal it looks like they were being straight up about it, I dont have Virgin or setanta so I cant speak about their advertising.
[…] it. Not exactly mindblowing stuff, is it? However, not everyone is terribly happy with Arsenal TV – Goonerholic explains. I have it but I haven’t looked at it yet – I suppose it’ll be all right for the […]
It’s so typical of Virgin Media. They took Sky Sports News off the air for cable customers and now, even though they advertised it, we can’t see Arsenal TV.
Richard Branson, if you’re reading this, you’re a cunt.
Funnily enough I rang up Virgin Media, with trepidation at who might be given the onerous task of understanding my complaint this time.
I was ringing in regard to the expected channel Arsenal TV, one of the bonuses of my package upgrade at TEN of my English pounds every month since September.
At my request I spoke to the unfortunate chap and then asked to speak to someone who knew what I was on about ( his manager ? ) which I duly did.
He was unable to offer me any timescale other than merely a speculative ‘ soon ‘ . I was under the impression that Arsenal TV was coming in December last year after being pushed back from October ?
That doesn’t matter so much, now at least, as just picking a date now and sticking to it . . . . . . . and another thing . . . . .
. . . . . . . will either VM or Setanta put something about it on their website even if it is just to say no agreement has been reached as yet ? If it IS there I am obviously unable to find it.
I am glad to find it was just me who got fed up yesterday ! It must have been something in the air ( not in a Phil Collins way, which will please Arseblogger I am sure,but maybe more of a Thunderclap Newman 1969 classic number 1 kind of way ) !
erm . . . . yeah.
Damn Typos . . . . I ought to correct that I am glad it was NOT just me who felt the need to ring yesterday . . . . . only to find today is the day a blog appears on the matter.
*** mental note to self :- . . . . . concentrate less on making obscure Pop Music references ! Re-read for errors in text first and foremost ! ***
hehe !
So … your advice, to one who hasn’t got Arsenal tv yet but is keen to, would be?
It’s Virgin Media you should be pissed off at, not Arsenal. It was VM’s decision not to kick off some crap shopping channel or God-bothering network to make room for stuff people want to watch (something Sky started doing in November). It’s another example of VM’s doomed business model. Sky produces an enormous amount of original content, VM produces virtually none. Just because they have a (questionable) platform, VM think they can name their price, but life has changed, with broadband tv and internet streaming increasingly important, content is king. Sure, Sky are trying to screw them, but if VM actually produced something Sky wanted to carry on satellite, their negotiations might prove a little more effective.
Don’t get me wrong, Sky are turds too.
The Arsenal channel isn’t available via Setanta on Freeview or BT Vision either
Which sucks as it’s still the same 9.99 as you’d pay for the Sky version
Hi I gave up with Virgin Media at the start of the season. Fed up with second/third rate service. Before we did though I had a big moan with Cusomer Services-spoke to one of the managers and negotiated big discounts. We saved about £15.00 per month by harping on about how they cannot compete with the Sky Services and htreatening to leave. They are very aware that their sevice is poor by comparison and this latest shambles should help your causes. Suggest they provide Setanta for free for a few months as compensation! Make them pay in their pocket-be persistent.
Hi
So I wasn’t the only one going mad yesterday ,ringing Setanta and both Virgin up.setanta washed their hands off it.they said they were not aware that it wasn’t going to be on VM and i had to speak to them.Spoke to 3 various people during the day , The first person was unaware that Vm were not carrying the channel,the second 1 who was of indian descent said that the channel would definately be going live on VM on 18 Jan.The 3rd person who i rang ard 6pm last night was very unhelpful , saying taht Vm would get the channel but how long is a piece of string.He also said taht the capacity problem was indeed not the problem at all and there was lots of capacity for new channels.he just said taht that VM and setanta were still in negociation and trying to sort out a solution asap.When I threatened to cancel my service(i do have XL package) which although hasn’t changed for last 2 years becuase of the new pricing plan i was put on to a 12 month contract whivch wasn’t so bad as I was told Arsenal Tv would definately be part of the package, so really i was sold this new 1 yaer contarct under false pretences . what this 1 year contarct actually means taht if i was to cancel my service i would have to pay £10 for each service for each month left on my contract I.E. 3 x £10 monthly which is the same cost as keeping the service.i was also blatantly lied to when I was told that Sky are cvharging £18 a month for the Setanta package if I was to change and not the £9.99 quoted on the advert .After about half an hour i gave up and wondered how I was suckered into signing up for a package which is incomplete
instead of trying to save money and changing to virgin media, you should of got sky!!! it wont be beat!!! you get what you pay for!!!!
Stu, I think you are very harsh on Fox Sports in Australia. Now that viewers choice is in place, basically every EPL game is televised live, and replayed at least once. Carling Cup is also shown, and the FA Cup is available on SBS. However, I wholeheartedly agree about the whole Setanta thing
“Fox Sports on our Satellite providers Austar (or the Man Utd channel as they should be known!!)”
Stu, I COMPLETELY agree with you! I’m from Australia also and Fox Sports are quite possibly the most biased, Arsenal-hating service providers I have ever seen!
Up the Arsenal!
But Joe is also correct in saying that the Viewer’s choice option is a very good idea. However it took a couple of months for it to be available to people in our area so I missed quite a few of Arsenal’s games at the start of the season. But we have it now and all is well.
11.50 AM ,JUST PHONED VIRGIN MEDIA TO ASK ABOUT ARSENAL TV……….THEY VE JUST SAID IT SHOULD BE ON BY THE END OF THE DAY !!!!DUE TO THE AMOUNT OF CALLS……..HOPE ITS RIGHT OR IM GOING TO LOOK LIKE PRIZE TWAT .
Well, I am from Australia and recently got Foxtel pay-tv and since I am only 13 I don’t pay for it – But here, you have to buy Setanta on top of the fox and my parents have said “you get the premier league, champions league, aussie league.. why would you pay just to watch Arsenal when you can see it on fox sports already?”
Now, i’ve decided I’m gunna pay for it to get Arsenal TV and i’ll get the Celtic, Liverpool, Barca, Rangers, Man Utd etc. channels too – So I officially can watch it now and was able to watch the ATV launch thing.. I was thinking ‘This is f**king awesome – worth my AU$20 a week!” but after the transmition a note came up saying “Setanta Sports Australia will not be broadcasting the Arsenal TV channel until further notice”.. I thought they’d have it up in a month or so but when I sent an FAQ to Setanta Aus they sais this..
“Unfortunately we are unable to get Arsenal TV for the Australian Setanta Sports channel because of FOX Sports’ rights to show EPL, Carling and FA Cup matches including the Arsenal Football Club – We are extremely apologetic for this inconvience and you will be able to cancel your Setanta Sports package very soon.
Sincerely,
Setanta Sports Australia”
But – the c*nts at foxtel here say that they can’t terminate the Setanta package this month and i’ll have to wait until my 4 month deal runs out.. Meanwhile i’m out of money and can’t buy the new Arsenal away kit…
Does anyone in australia have this problem?
London Gooner, you would be surprised how many people, myself included, are unable to have Sky because of planning restrictions on dishes. Let me guess what your next suggestion will be? Move?
THET LIED…………I HATE THEM COFFEE SHAKERS!!!!!!!!
THEY LIED…………I HATE THEM
I spoke to them on monday and they told me I’d get it by the end of the month
Dan Highams Park Gooner, I am with you 100% but I cut down the agony to 10 minutes instead of the 30 mins I have previously spent banging my head against a brick wall in many walks of customer service calling life.
Kyle AusGunner . . . . that sucks. You should get a refund or something but on the brightside it is no bad thing not being able to get the new away kit, although in truth that is a completely different bunch of bananas for another day !!!!!!!
LOL !
Apologies Goonerholic, but I am counting the minutes until my satellite dish is hooked up later this week. I am paying 15USD (about 2GBP these days) a month to get Setanta and Arsenal TV here in the States.
A few weeks ago I moved back to Texas after living in London for 4 years. I was a Red Member for the first 3 years. This season I was using a mate’s father’s Season Ticket while he is away in Spain. My last Arsenal match was Chelsea at home. Who knows when I will be able to attend another. I had tear in my eye when I saw we drew AC Milan in the CL.
So… my season ticket is being replaced by Arsenal TV. Not much consolation, but as Tesco says… every little bit helps.
[…] you may have read on Goonerholic’s site people who use the Virgin cable service do not have Arsenal TV as part of their Setanta Sports […]
“the fact is they act like Hartlepool United most of the time. Always have done, ever since the sixties when signing a goalie from Hull City was a big deal for them. Nothing changes. The only time Arsenal acted like a big club was when David Dein was there. Now he’s gone the belts have been well and truly reigned in”
Couldn’t agree less with that perspective.
i think you need to chill out man, arsenal tv will be up and running soon, it’s not like you’re missing much as you never had it to start with.
“chill winston!”
I am like Stu from Australia, we here in America have to watch MUTV and CFC on Setanta as that is all they offer. We had Arsenal TV last year briefly and then it went away. And we got Setanta just so we could watch all the matches.
I rang sky 2 days ago to disconnect as i am saving about £40 by switching to virgin with my broadband (already with them) factored in. Looks like im gonna have to keep paying my £10 a month to recieve setanta on sky as well as recieving it on cable (one of the big draws was the free setanta on the xl package). Cheated doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel. Surely the blame lies at setantas door tho, they are the ones that have been doing all of the advertising over the past couple of months including on their channels, but no mention of the virgin problem. Looks to me like they are seeing how sucessfull it is on sky before rolling it out. LFC tv is on for more than 6 hours a day 5 hours a week so why are we being cheated (it runs at weekends). Anyone seen this?
http://www.watchlivefootball.eu/arsenal-tv/
Worst of it is the club have signed up with this lot for 6 YEARS! Great start to the partnership eh?
Anyone else notice that everything up to 9:15 was shown YESTERDAY already! Seems a bit lazy to be repeating everything already for something they are trying to get new subscribers to sign up for!
Gutted when i found out would not be getting ArsenalTV via VM. I phoned up today & no one was to clear they knew at all!
Spoke to a guy at VM late afernoon, and he assured me(yeah right), that it would be available via VM by the next month. Well heres hoping!
I think as many possible to complain to VM may also help.
Apparently Arsenal are waiting to see how successful the TV channel is before they decide to comit to increasing the 6hrs, 5 days a week airtime.
What a farce, a large chunk of gooners can’t get the channel, so how the hell can they figure out if its being successful!?!
If I were an advertiser I’d be looking for all the parties to sort thing out bloody quick, or stop expecting me to waste my money.
It is all a joke. I am a VM customer and like many switched to get Setanta free. I even asked when I signed up about Arsenal TV and was assured that we would get it as part of the sports package. I have sent them an e mail but as yet no reply. Th ebest thing everyone can do is to bomb them with phone calls telling them that they will cancel their subscriptions. They will soon get their acts together if they start to lose money. But it does mean that as many people as possible need to complain to make it worthwhile.
VM phoned me the other day asking if I would like to increase my broadband connection (which is quite good) to include TV. I defered and have now told them that there is no point unless they have ArsenalTV. I have Sky anyway.
This is the response I got today by e-mail:
‘Thanks for your email to Virgin Media enquiring about the Arsenal
channel.
At Virgin Media, we are really keen for our customer to provide the
channels and programmes which they like, so that they can get the best
benefit of it. That means fair prices and flexible packages.
We wish to inform you that our discussions with Arsenal Football Club
and Setanta Sports, who distribute the channel are on going and we hope
to launch the channel soon. We apologise for the inconvenience this may
caused.
As soon as this channel get launched we will definitely inform you
through relevant Media’.
I suggest everyone continus to contact them daily until they get it!
Well done Keith,
Seventy two hours on and I still have no response from them at all. I’m beginning to wonder what proportion of my sixty quid a month goes on customer service (yeah right!)
I also mailed Setanta yesterday and to date, surprise surprise, no response.
They really do treat their customers like shit, don’t they?
yeah, it’s a joke. I have been with Virgin/Blueyonder since 2000 and they used to be really good, now there fucking shit… Blueyonder had fantastic customer service, Virgin Media is bollocks, if your broadband fucks up you have to pay like £1 a min to speak to there Broadband Customer Service team, I was so close this year to moving to Sky, I even rang up Virgin and complained and said I was leaving and they ended up giving me Sky Sports and Sentanta for like £5 a month, so I ended up staying. But I still want the Arsenal Channel!
I have still not heard anything. If I have not heard from them by tomorrow then they will be getting a phone call telling them to cancel everything I have with them. End of. I am fed up pandering to these big companies. Time has come for the customer to fight back.
Phone call at work this afternoon from Virgin Media, who claim that they are in discussions with BOTH Arsenal and Sentanta and that it is a matter of when, not if, the Arsenal TV channel is launched on VM.
According to the person who phoned, Virgin have a good relationship with Sentanta and expect this to enable progress – he then proceeded to tell me that they were able to Liverpool, Celtic and Ranger’s TV, though in his defence he wasn’t surprised that I wasn’t in the slightest bit impressed.
Baring miracles, looks like it will still be weeks away.
BLOODY SHAMBLES
I have just complained to the advertising standars agency. I feel we all agree that we were mislead both by Setanta and Virgin media about the availability of Arsenal TV.
Heres the link.
http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/how_to_complain/complaints_form/
It only takes 2mins to fill out maybe if enough of us complain they will get their finger out and sort it.
HI COMPLAINED TO ASA BUT ALREADY RECEIVED REPLY THAT IT IS OUT OF THEIR JURISTRICTION AND THEY SAY COMPLAIN TO LOCAL TRADING OFFICERS BUT CAN’T SEE THE POINT
Regards ArsenalTV or rather lack of it. I actually phoned & spoke to a guy called Adrian Ford who is in charge at Arsenal of Commercial/Marketing issues.
The fault why we cannot get ArsenalTV on Virgin Media is fully down to Virgin Media only, as at present they do not have the capacity to add the station. The guy at Arsenal has said he is fed up of trying to get answers from VM & said Arsenal were going to put an comment on Arsenal.com as they were getting so much flak over it.
All i can say we need as many people as poss. to keep ringing/mailing Virgin Media about this issue. At least i hope this issue is not dead & at some time we may get to see the station on VM
Here is link to Arsenal.com about virgin media
http://tinyurl.com/28xjdy
I am in process of contacting BBc watchdog about Virgins blantant lies
about receiving arsenal Tv at launch and signing me to a 1 years contract because of this promise which ia m unable to get out off unless i pay £30 a month for every month i cancel early.Funnily enough cost to keep it is £30 a month so i am totally screwed.
let’s see what happens!!!!!
Will keep in touch
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