Virgin Media launches brand new channel weeks after sad closure – and some customers can watch it for free

VIRGIN Media customers will have access to a brand new sports channel – and it's a UK first.

The firm is adding a dedicated 24/7 rugby channel to boxes across the country.

It will show events including the Investec Champions Cup, EPCR Challenge Cup, the United Rugby Championship and some of the biggest games from the TOP14.

Two live games from every round of the topflight Japanese Rugby League One competition will be broadcast on the channel too, as well as the best games from the Major League Rugby competition in the United States.

The channel is called Premier Sports Rugby.

And it'll be available at no extra cost to existing Premier Sports subscribers.

For those who don't already subscribe to the channel, it costs £15.99 a month for Premier Sports.

Here's the full list of channels with Premier Sports Rugby now added:

• Premier Sports 1 – channel 551
• Premier Sports 2 – channel 552
• Premier Sports Rugby – channel 553 (new)

“The expansion of our Premier Sports offering to include the brand-new 24/7 rugby channel, demonstrates our commitment to further enhancing our sports offering and providing something for all of our customers to enjoy,” said David Bouchier, Chief TV and Entertainment Officer at Virgin Media O2.

“From football and rugby to hockey and motorsport, we’ve got sports fans covered.”

The move comes weeks after the sad closure of Eurosport, which ended in the UK after 35 years.

Virgin Media continues to fill its channel offering with streamed options.

FAST channels – free ad-supported TV – relies on an internet connection instead of the traditional cable connection.

Virgin Media now has more than 30 of these channels.

Bosses recently revealed that as many as 50 could be included on boxes for free in future.

The offering does change from time-to-time.

Just last week, Flying Eze exclusively revealed that the Tastemade channel will disappear from boxes at the end of the month.

Future of TV channels

Analysis by Jamie Harris, Assistant Technology and Science Editor at Flying Eze

The announcement of a new channel is welcome relief to telly fans following a number of high profile closures.

But more channels could disappear in future.

BBC announced in 2022 that CBBC and BBC Four would disappear as traditional linear channels in a few years and go digital only via iPlayer.

However, the pair may have had a bit of a reprieve for now, after the BBC's head of children’s programmes, Patricia Hildago, recently said “it’s really important... that if children still need us on a linear network, we’re going to be there for them”.

When Channel 4 announced the closure of The Box and other music channels it owned in January, the broadcaster hinted that more could come.

At the time the company said it was proposing to “close small linear channels that no longer deliver revenues or public value at scale, including the Box channels in 2024 and others at the right time”.

So which could the “others” be? It really depends what Channel 4 considers “small” but its other channels include More4, E4, E4 Extra, Film4 and 4Seven.