[10-15-07 – Satellite Today] Virgin Media will use satellite technology to boost its sports coverage, teaming up with M3U.com to provide interactive content from sports fans across the United Kingdom to its subscribers, Virgin announced Oct. 12.

Virgin is introducing what it calls a Fan Van, a vehicle which will be travel to sports events to conduct interviews and provide content from the sites. People at home can then visit Virgin Media’s sports portal to access near live content.

M3U.com is providing the Virgin Media Fan Van with a satellite broadband Internet connection that will allow content files to  be rapidly uploaded to the Virgin Media network and either streamed live or saved for later online streaming.

"Traditional, fully functional outside TV broadcast units are extremely expensive,”John Riordan, M3U.com’s managing director, said in a statement. "The lack of affordable alternatives has meant that the TV industry only addressed large live events that could draw correspondingly large TV audiences.  Broadband, affordable IP VSAT satellite connectivity and the falling costs of production equipment have changed things radically, and now virtually any live event is a potential candidate for our services.  Smaller niche events can now afford to broadcast live with M3U.com’s dedicated outside broadcasting unit.”