Virgin airs football highlights on new sports website

Virgin Media will be offering clips from every Premier League, Coca-Cola Championship and League 1 and 2 football games through a new sports portal. It aims to make the new service, which launches next week and will compete against BSkyB and the BBC, one of the top three sports sites.

Virgin will receive five minutes clips from all games and these will be available as one minute “highlights” on the site. Viewers can watch them on-demand for a week after the match. The portal, which will have banner and video advertising, will available over the internet to all viewers not just Virgin customers.

Viewers will be encourage to give their views, comments and editorial on matches as well as their own content. The Virgin Media Fan Van, a mobile TV studio will also tour football grounds throughout the season to follow the ups and downs of the Premier League.

Virgin revealed the plans as it confirmed that it is launching a new TV channel with Setanta Sports, Setanta Sports News. It will be available to Virgin subscribers.