A large number of Virgin Media customers briefly lost their television connection in Dublin, ahead of the Ireland versus England Six Nations rugby match.
On Saturday afternoon, an error message interrupted Virgin Media customers television screens stating their signal box “had lost connection”.
By 2.30pm a spokeswoman for Virgin Media said the fault had been fixed, and customers should see their television signal return to normal.
Customers had reportedly been unable to view the majority of channels, causing a panic in the build-up to the rugby match.
Engineers from the television company worked on resolving the fault “as a top priority”.
The connection problems were not nationwide, and initially appeared to be affecting customers in the Dublin region.
“We’re working to turn it around and fix this as quickly as we can,” the spokeswoman said.
The group do not yet know how many Virgin Media customers lost their television connection, or the exact locations affected.
A large number of people took to social media, criticising the company for the television signal blackout.
In response to the social media storm, Virgin Media tweeted: “We’re aware some customers are not seeing channels at present and we’re on it! Bear with us, it’s a priority.”
TV3, which is owned by Virgin Media, said on Twitter customers who were unable to watch TV3 live could switch to their +1 channel that would stream live.
In a follow-up tweet at 2.25pm Virgin Media said: “Everyone should now be back up and running :) Enjoy the match!”
