Virgin TV is a digital pay

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

service in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

, owned by

Liberty Global Liberty Global plc is a British-Dutch-American multinational telecommunications company with headquarters in London, Amsterdam and Denver. Its respective legal names are Liberty Global Plc, Liberty Global B.V. and Liberty Global, Inc., with ...

(50%) and

Telefónica Telefónica, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world. It provides fixed and mobile telephony, broadba ...

(50%) after the merger its UK businesses to form

Virgin Media O2 Virgin Media O2 (legally incorporated as VMED O2 UK Limited) is a British mass media and telecommunications company based in London, England. The company was formed in June 2021 as a 50:50 joint venture between Liberty Global and Telefónica ...

. Its origins date from NTL and Telewest, formerly two of the UK's largest cable operators, which merged on 6 March 2006. All NTL:Telewest services were rebranded as

Virgin Media Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 joint ventu ...

in February 2007. Since the acquisition of Smallworld Cable in 2014, Virgin is the sole national cable TV provider in Great Britain. about 51% of UK households have access to Virgin's network, which is independent from BT's Openreach network. Virgin ranks as the UK's second-largest pay TV service, and the service is provided in conjunction with Virgin Media broadband and phone. As of Q3 2007, it had 3.6 million subscribers, compared to 8.2 million on its traditional rival Sky.The Communications Market: Digital Progress Report -Digital TV Q3 2007
,

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

. Retrieved on 23 February 2008 As of 2009, Virgin's digital cable television currently uses the Nagravision 3

conditional access system Conditional access (CA) is a term commonly used in relation to software and to digital television systems. Conditional access is that ‘just-in-time’ evaluation to ensure the person who is seeking access to content is authorized to access the c ...

. The service was fully digitalised in 2013. Since November 2016, the service's flagship set top box is the TiVo-powered Virgin V6 Box, or the Virgin TV 360 which has an updated HORIZON interface, competing with

Sky Q Sky Q is a subscription-based television and entertainment service operated by British satellite television provider Sky, as a part of its operations in Austria and Germany, Ireland, Italy and in the UK. The name also refers to the Sky Q set- ...

History

As of 2008, Virgin Media functioned as a single company; however, it relied on its three existing infrastructures: the Langley-based NTL,

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, c ...

-based Cable and Wireless and Knowsley-based Telewest platforms. As part of the Next Generation Television network, the infrastructure was consolidated into a single super headend at Langley in 2010, with Knowsley serving as a backup. In May 2008, Virgin Media began their "long term" region-by-region

analogue television Analog television is the original television technology that uses analog signals to transmit video and audio. In an analog television broadcast, the brightness, colors and sound are represented by amplitude, phase and frequency of an analog s ...

service switch off project, beginning with

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

and

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

. In areas where analogue transmission will be turned off but no digital replacement introduced customers will be offered Virgin's off-network services, with the company looking at developing a television-over-DSL service for areas outside its cable network. Analogue subscribers in areas where digital cable services are already available will be offered transfers to new packages. The firm signalled that it wants to use the capacity to provide faster broadband internet. On 11 September 2009,

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...

announced a deal to support Virgin Media's Internet Protocol TV distribution platform and upgrade its legacy digital TV infrastructure. Virgin Media deployed Cisco Digital Video Headend technology in all of its regional and central headends, across its national fibre optic network. The TV platform will be capable of delivering advanced services to more than 12.6 million UK homes. The infrastructure helped Virgin Media to reduce operating expenses, support the rollout of new conditional-access security services, and accelerate the introduction of new standard and high-definition services. A Virgin Media spokesman later clarified that the plan "isn't quite announcing the 'launch of IPTV services'. The agreement with Cisco is to help enhance our existing TV platform, which broadcasts content over DVB-C and then our VoD service runs on IP." On 24 November 2009, Virgin Media entered into a strategic partnership with TiVo. Under the mutually exclusive agreement, TiVo developed a converged television and broadband interactive interface to power Virgin Media's next generation, high definition set-top boxes. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. TiVo became the exclusive provider of middleware and user interface software for Virgin Media's next generation set top boxes. Virgin Media became the exclusive distributor of TiVo services and technology in the United Kingdom. Virgin Media will pay TiVo monthly fees, which commenced upon delivery of its first set-top box, which are guaranteed and increase over time. The agreement has a multi-year term with additional limited renewal rights granted to Virgin. The agreement created a mutually exclusive distribution arrangement under which TiVo will develop software for DVR set top box platforms and non-DVR set-top boxes that will be deployed in the future by Virgin in the United Kingdom. Virgin Media will promote the product and has exclusive rights to use the TiVo brand and technology in the United Kingdom. As part of the agreement, Virgin Media and TiVo entered into a mutual covenant not to assert with regards to each party's intellectual property. Investment bank

Lazard Capital Markets Lazard Capital Markets is an American New York-based full-service broker dealer founded in 2005 in a spin-off from its parent Lazard. Lazard Capital Markets focuses its activities on equity research, sales and trading; fixed-income and convert ...

estimated the hookup as a "$48 million deal" for TiVo. Virgin Media is to maintain its current Liberate middleware provided by SeaChange International through until at least January 2011. In 2014 Virgin Media bought Smallworld Cable, a regional cable company. As a result Virgin Media is now the only cable company in the UK apart from

WightFibre WightFibre is a full-fibre network operator on the Isle of Wight. WightFibre provides telephone and broadband internet In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range o ...

which operates on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Is ...

Availability

Non-digital areas

The

BT Group BT Group plc ( trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, bro ...

owned (but Virgin Media leased)

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...

franchise which was analogue-only was switched off in November 2013. BT's Openreach division selected Milton Keynes for a large scale fibre-to-the-premises trial (as opposed to fibre-to-the-cabinet in other parts of the UK). It remains to be seen what impact, if any, this will have on the viability of the Virgin Media leasing arrangement of the analogue HFC network there, which, uniquely, is believed to pass through BT infrastructure – not wholly VM's. The leasing arrangement dates back to 1999 and was mandated by the European Union in response to competition concerns surrounding BT's Cable TV interests in Milton Keynes and Westminster. Virgin Media completely withdrew its services in Westminster on 31 January 2012, after being unable to upgrade the network and deliver their digital services at a reasonable cost. The Milton Keynes cable network, which has a significant number of users due to technical satellite and aerial reception issues down to local geography, does not suffer the same 'conservation' area rules as the Borough of Westminster. Milton Keynes remained analogue-only until the end of 2013, at which point the network was shut down due to a contractual breakdown with BT, the owners of the network in Milton Keynes. During 2009 digital upgrade work began on the last Virgin Media owned analogue-only areas in Bolton, Slough and West London as well as parts of Leicester, Northern Ireland and Southampton, with most areas completed between 2010 and 2011. In these areas Virgin Media had only offered customers analogue cable television.

Non-cabled areas

For customers in non-cabled areas, Virgin Media offered a branded set-top box for the

Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...

digital terrestrial television service, called "Free TV", until December 2009 when it was discontinued. The set-top box was free to any customer taking the Bundle One subscription package or for an addition fee to other customers, up to five additional set-top boxes were available per account. The next phase of this service was to be a combined

IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded med ...

and digital terrestrial television service similar to

BT Vision BT TV is a subscription IPTV service offered by BT; a division of United Kingdom telecommunications company BT Group, and was originally launched as BT Vision in December 2006. As of the end of June 2019, BT TV had 1.9 million customers. ...

and TalkTalk TV. Virgin Media signed an agreement with Cable & Wireless to become the unbundled local loop (LLU) network provider, providing access to 4 million homes outside of the Virgin Media cable franchise network and would include linear pay broadcast channels and

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

. This was originally scheduled to be released during 2008 but was delayed and scaled back as Virgin Media concentrated on improving its cable broadband proposition instead of focusing on competing with Sky in the premium television market. As of 2010, no further developments have been announced and the plans appear to have been abandoned.

Products and services

Virgin TV carries around 301 digital television and radio channels, including a mixture of subscription, premium subscription and pay-per-view channels.

HD services and PVR

Telewest (one of Virgin Media's predecessors) became the first UK broadcaster to offer

HDTV High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...

, launching its service in December 2005; several months earlier than that of its chief competitor, Sky. An HD-enabled set-top box is required to view HDTV. Virgin TV branded its original high-definition (HD) Digital Video Recorder ( PVR) service as '' V+''. The service uses a PVR set-top box, with three tuners and a 160 GB

hard disk A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magn ...

for up to 80 hours' recording. The presence of three tuners means that V+ can record two channels at the same time while viewers watch a third. This contrasts with most other PVR systems such as Sky+, which supports only two tuners. In December 2010 a 1 TB TiVo HD PVR from Cisco was released, with a 500 GB model released in May 2011. From late 2011,

Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is the pinnacle of the Samsung chaebol, acc ...

will join Cisco as a second supplier of TiVo STBs for Virgin Media. Virgin also offer a Cisco ''V HD Box'', for a fixed upgrade fee from their standard set-top box with no additional monthly subscription fee. The V (HD) and V+ boxes are now obsolete and no longer supported. Newer TiVo-based boxes are the only supported devices for Virgin TV nowadays. The newest V6 box is very fast and multi-functional, however, it only supports a

HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controlle ...

-equipped TV set (the

SCART SCART (also known as or , especially in France, 21-pin EuroSCART in marketing by Sharp in Asia, Euroconector in Spain, EuroAV or EXT, or EIA Multiport in the United States, as an EIA interface) is a French-originated standard and associated 21- ...

port is disabled and not supported) and requires a valid Virgin Media broadband service connection to the box. If these conditions are not met, only the older TiVo box can be used which has an operational SCART connector and an internal communication modem which removes a need for a broadband connection.

HD channels

At the product launch of Telewest's TVDrive on 1 December 2005, the only HD channels available were

BBC HD BBC HD was a 24-hour high-definition television channel provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007 before its discontinuation on 26 March 2013. It broadcast ...

and ITV HD trial channels. ITV HD was removed from the network after the completion of the trial on 30 November 2006. On 1 December 2007, BBC HD was transformed into a full service. During 2009, Virgin launched FX HD, MTVNHD,

National Geographic HD National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney General E ...

Channel 4 HD Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in ...

ESPN HD ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The co ...

and Living HD. Living HD represented the first HD channel to be made exclusively available to Virgin TV. In 2010, Media added E4 HD, Syfy HD, Discovery HD,

Eurosport HD Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its international sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territories, ...

, ITV HD,

STV HD STV is a Scottish free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the STV Group. It is made up of the Central Scotland and Northern Scotland Channel 3 public broadcaster licences, formerly known as Scottish Television (n ...

, Channel 5 HD, Film4 HD, ten

Sky Movies Sky Cinema is a British subscription film service owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). In the United Kingdom, Sky Cinema channels currently broadcast on the Sky satellite and Virgin Media cable platforms, and in addition Sky Cinema ...

HD channels,

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

HD1 and HD2, Sky1 HD, Comedy Central HD, UTV HD and

BBC One HD BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

. Both Film4 HD and UTV HD are exclusive to Virgin TV. In 2011, Virgin Media added Sky Arts 1 HD and 2 HD, Eurosport 3D, Sky Movies Classics HD, Dave HD and Watch HD. In 2012, Virgin Media added Eurosport 3D, Alibi HD, British Eurosport HD, the BBC's 24 Olympic HD channels and Channel 4's 3 Paralympic channels. In 2013, Virgin Media added

Cartoon Network HD Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, C ...

, TCM HD, British Eurosport 2 HD,

ITV2 HD ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a ...

, ITV3 HD, ITV4 HD, BBC Two HD, TLC HD,

NHK World HD NHK World-Japan (formerly and also known simply as NHK World) is the international arm of the Japanese State media, state-controlled public broadcaster NHK. Its services are aimed at the overseas market, similar to those offered by other nationa ...

Animal Planet HD Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily dev ...

, BBC Red Button HD, MTV HD, Nickelodeon HD, BT Sport 1 HD, BT Sport 2 HD and More4 HD. Later in the 2010s, Virgin Media began removing standard definition feeds of channels it offers in high definition. The first SD removal was on 25 September 2018 when

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

's SD channel is removed from the platform. This was followed on 4 December by the removal of the stand definition feeds of

BT Sport BT Sport is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe and BT Group, they first launched on 1 August 2013. The channels are based at the former International Bro ...

and a week later,

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

in SD was replaced on channel 102 by the high definition version although BBC Two continues to be available in SD as ''BBC Two England'' on channel 862. 2019 sees the ending of the broadcast of many more channels in standard definition, including

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 7–16 ...

and CBeebies (SD channels removed on 19 February), Lifetime,

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

, H2 and

Crime & Investigation Crime & Investigation (stylized as Crime + Investigation) is an American pay television channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between the Hearst Communications and the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company. The cha ...

(removed on 14 May), the Sky Cinema channels (apart from Sky Movies Premiere +1, removed on 1 August),

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its international sports unit, it operates two main channels— Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

and

Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discove ...

(removed on 26 September). On 27 May 2020,

Sky Documentaries Sky Documentaries is a British pay television channel owned and operated by Sky, a division of Comcast, which launched on 27 May 2020. Sky Documentaries broadcasts imported programming from US networks HBO and Showtime, alongside new origina ...

and

Sky Nature Sky Nature is a British pay television channel owned and operated by Sky, a division of Comcast, which launched on 27 May 2020. Sky Nature broadcasts original Sky content, content from Canadian channel Love Nature, and Sky's collection of Da ...

launched on Virgin Media but the platform only provided the high definition versions of the channel although towards the end of the year, the SD versions also appeared so that the channels could be watched by lower tier customers who do not have access to Virgin media's high definition feeds of pay channels.

On demand

Virgin TV ranks as the UK's largest provider of on-demand content, with over 3 million

(VoD) customers and over 6,500 hours of programming. The company brands its VOD service as "On Demand". In contrast to the Sky On Demand system from Sky, Virgin Media offers a "true" VOD system, allowing customers to stream programmes whenever they want to watch them from servers at the customer's local head end. As the broadcaster automatically stores content on Virgin Media servers, this removes the need to pre-record many programmes. Users can search through a large library of programmes (called "TV Choice") from content providers including the BBC, ITV,

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

, Channel 5,

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, ...

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Comp ...

Discovery Networks Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1985, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Channe ...

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widel ...

, CBS Paramount,

Buena Vista Buena Vista, meaning "good view" in Spanish, may refer to: Places Canada *Bonavista, Newfoundland and Labrador, with the name being originally derived from “Buena Vista” *Buena Vista, Saskatchewan * Buena Vista, Saskatoon, a neighborhood in ...

Alliance Atlantis Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. (commonly known as Alliance Atlantis and commonly shortened to simply Alliance or Atlantis and formerly traded as TSX:AAC) was a Canadian media company that operated primarily as a specialty service operato ...

, Warner Bros., Viacom (

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

, Comedy Central,

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

Current TV Current TV was an American television channel which broadcast from August 1, 2005, to August 20, 2013. Prior INdTV founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, with Ronald Burkle, each held a sizable stake in Current TV. Comcast and DirecTV each held a smal ...

BabyTV BabyTV (stylised as Baby''tv'') is a multilingual international television channel for babies, toddlers and preschoolers aged 3 or lower, owned by Fox Networks Group, a subsidiary of the Disney International Content and Operations division of T ...

, PictureBox Movies,

NBC Universal The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are ...

and

BSkyB Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...

; and watch them when they want to. Subscribers to Virgin Media's premier television package, ''Size: XL'', have the content included in their subscription, while other customers can pay £5 per month for unlimited access, or can utilise pay-per-view. In addition, Virgin Media offers a "Catch-up" service, which includes a free 7-day "watch-again" feature for selected television programmes broadcast by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. The service also offers over 500 films (service-branded " FilmFlex"), and more than 8000 music-videos. On 12 July 2007 the music videos became free for all XL customers. Additionally, it was revealed that one third of BBC television programmes viewed on its

iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...

service are accessed through Virgin Media's on Demand service and that 50% of all Virgin Media customers "regularly" use on Demand services. On 25 November 2009, Virgin Media added dynamic advertising using SeaChange International's AdPulse system. Ads will appear in thirty second pre-roll and post-roll ads which will be matched to the programme being watched. In January 2010, Virgin Media launched Virgin Media Music, offering over 3,500 videos to watch completely free. Virgin Media confirmed it would be launching a rival to both the BBC iPlayer and Sky Player by the end of 2010, with subscribers accessing content both online and through their mobile devices. On 26 April 2010, Virgin Media announced the launch of its first online movies service: Virgin Media Online Movies. All rentals will offer unlimited streamed views for 48 hours so viewers can pause, rewind and watch again, plus the film can be watched wherever the account holder logs on. Virgin Media Online Movies is powered by FilmFlex Movies Ltd., the service is delivered over the web using

Microsoft Silverlight Microsoft Silverlight is a discontinued application framework designed for writing and running rich web applications, similar to Adobe's runtime, Adobe Flash. A plugin for Silverlight is still available for a very small number of browsers. ...

and will initially present movies in standard definition. A HD version of the service is in testing, though there is no word on when it might become available. On 29 July 2010, Virgin Media announced the beta launch of ''Virgin Media Player'', an online and mobile TV player. Hundreds of hours of content for the beta trial were made available from ITV plc,

Living Living or The Living may refer to: Common meanings *Life, a condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms ** Living species, one that is not extinct *Personal life, the course of an individual human's life * H ...

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

and MTV Networks Europe. The beta trial is open to Virgin Media's XL TV customers who also have a broadband connection with the company. Virgin Media brought more content to Virgin Media Player as the company built towards full launch later in the year. Virgin Mobile pay monthly customers are able to access an hour of Virgin Media Player every day, at no extra charge. Virgin Media Player on mobile launched with 4oD content which was joined by MTV Snax, MTV Music,

and Comedy Central. A full launch for Virgin Media Player happened in late October 2010 on both computers and mobiles, with the latter charging additional fees for each hour or part hour of access on an escalating price scale, and availability initially only over 3G not Wi-Fi. A facility allowing customers to watch a programme on one device, pause it and then continue viewing from exactly the same point via another device expected to be added in mid-2011. On 7 September 2012, Virgin Media announced the launch of ''Virgin TV Anywhere'', a new service that will enable Virgin TV customers to watch live TV channels and on-demand content via the internet through their computer or iOS device, similar to Sky Go. The service was launched two months later on 7 November 2012, replacing ''Virgin Media Player''.

HD on demand

At the product launch of Telewest's TVDrive on 1 December 2005, their Teleport service included a modest selection of on demand HD content including episodes of BBC nature documentaries

Pride Pride is defined by Merriam-Webster as "reasonable self-esteem" or "confidence and satisfaction in oneself". A healthy amount of pride is good, however, pride sometimes is used interchangeably with "conceit" or "arrogance" (among other words) w ...

The Blue Planet ''The Blue Planet'' is a British nature documentary series created and produced by the BBC. It premiered on 12 September 2001 in the United Kingdom. It is narrated by David Attenborough. Described as "the first ever comprehensive series on t ...

and Wild Weather, pay-per-view episodes of

Lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography * Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland *Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

and

Desperate Housewives ''Desperate Housewives'' is an American comedy-drama soap opera television series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. It aired for eight seasons on ABC from October 3, 2004, until May 13, 2012, for a t ...

from

, a small selection of documentaries from the History Channel, Metropolitan Opera Live in HD's

The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a '' Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that in ...

and pay-per-view films from FilmFlex. On 8 October 2007, Virgin Media announced that they had struck a deal with Channel 4 that enables them to offer a selection of Channel 4 programming in HD via their TV on demand service. On 8 January 2009, it was announced that ITV Player would be added to Virgin Media's digital cable TV service. A selection of ITV's High Definition programming was supposed to be made available on demand as part of the deal. 12 March 2010, it was announced that some of ITV HD's content will be available on demand via ITV Net Player on Virgin Media's TV platform. On 16 April 2009, the BBC announced that they would offer HD content through

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...

, with a Virgin Media spokesperson adding "We're working closely with the BBC to make this service available on our platform as soon as possible." HD content, including

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is dep ...

, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and Later... with Jools Holland, became available on 1 May 2009. On 29 June 2009, Virgin Media announced that from July the PictureBox movie service would be made available to Virgin Media's 3.6 million TV subscribers providing a broad selection of 28 films at any given time, with seven new titles being added to the line-up each Friday. Most of the PictureBox films are available in HD and many will not yet have been seen on free-to-air television in the UK. It marks the PictureBox's first UK platform to present films in HD. On 17 September 2009, Virgin Media announced an agreement with

, securing the rights for three TV channels (

Disney XD Disney XD is an American pay television channel owned by the Disney Branded Television and Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution units of The Walt Disney Company. The channel is aimed primarily at older children ages six to eleven yea ...

and

Playhouse Disney Playhouse Disney was a brand of programming blocks and international cable and satellite television channels that were owned by the Disney Channels Worldwide unit (now Disney Branded Television) of The Walt Disney Company's Disney–ABC Tel ...

), TV on demand content including HD programming and on demand content to be made available online. The deal also includes the rights for Virgin Media to air Disney XD and on demand content from Disney XD via the mobile. On 10 February 2010, Virgin announced that

would make HD on demand content available, such as ''

Deadliest Catch ''Deadliest Catch'' is a Reality television, reality television series that premiered on the Discovery Channel on April 12, 2005. The show follows Crab fisheries, crab fishermen aboard fishing vessels in the Bering Sea during the Alaskan king crab ...

'' and '' Miami Ink'', during Spring 2010 as part of a deal to add Discovery HD. On 15 March 2010, Virgin Media and NBC Universal Global Networks announced that they would also look to make HD content available on demand where possible, as part of the deal to add Sci Fi HD. On 5 August 2010, Virgin Media announced that popular Comedy Central HD programmes available on demand from 1 September 2010. HBO content such as ''

The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster, portraying his difficulties as he tries to balance ...

'' were removed on 14 October 2010, following HBO's exclusive deal with Sky, which led to the creation of

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. On 25 October 2010, Virgin Media announced a deal with NBC Universal Television Distribution for the video-on-demand rights in the UK to a broad selection of

series. Under the terms of the agreement, these titles will be offered as new content across Virgin Media's three entertainment platforms; TV, online and mobile. From 1 December, Virgin Media customers were able to access past seasons of shows such as ''

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'', '' Heroes'', ''

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'' and ''

30 Rock ''30 Rock'' is an American satirical sitcom television series created by Tina Fey that originally aired on NBC from October 11, 2006, to January 31, 2013. The series, based on Fey's experiences as head writer for ''Saturday Night Live'', tak ...

'', in HD through TV on Demand. On 11 November 2010, Virgin Media announced a multiscreen deal with Channel Five to bring programming from all of Five's linear TV channels to its TV, online and mobile video on demand platforms, with some shows also available in HD. The service has access to video on demand: current HD providers include BBC, FilmFlex, Fox,

, National Geographic Channel and PictureBox programming. Notable content includes ''

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'' and ''

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''.

3D

All of Virgin Media's HD set-top boxes are 3D compatible. Virgin Media had displayed a V+ in their

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store using polarised glasses and trialled over a private video on demand network using a HD stream interlaced with two pictures in 2009. In March 2010, during the Ideal Home Show at the

Earls Court Exhibition Centre Earls Court Exhibition Centre was a major international exhibition and events venue just west of central London. At its peak it is said to have generated a £2 billion turnover for the economy. It replaced exhibition and entertainment grounds, ...

, Virgin Media showcased a reel of 3D content – including sport and video games – as a taste of its plans for 3D television. Virgin confirmed plans to start offering 3D content to subscribers via its on-demand platform rather than launching a static channel. The demo used active glasses but Virgin Media said that its 3D service would also support passive glasses. On 28 September 2010, Virgin Media announced the launch of 3D Movies on Demand – the first commercially available 3D TV service in the UK. All Virgin Media TV customers, with either a V HD, V+ or TiVo box, 3D TV and glasses, are able to experience 3D Movies on Demand. The launch of 3D Movies on Demand, powered by FilmFlex, initially featured '' StreetDance 3D'', '' Garfield's Pet Force 3D'', '' A Christmas Carol 3D'', '' Step Up 3D'' and '' Despicable Me 3D''. Virgin Media also announced an exclusive 3D TV partnership with

which would see Samsung 3D TVs featured in Virgin Media stores as well as other joint 3D showcases and marketing opportunities. Virgin Media also committed to investing in producing original 3D content. "We can confirm we're looking at producing original content in 3D, it makes sense for us to look at things like live music with the Virgin Media V Festival," said Cindy Rose, executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media. Going on to explain that movies in 3D would remain available on a paid-for basis, but Virgin Media customers would be able to access other 3D content, such as TV shows, for free. She confirmed that the company has already secured the rights of a couple of TV programmes to be shown in 3D, but could not name them yet. Between 22 May and 5 June 2011, Eurosport 3D was broadcast exclusively on Virgin Media for the 2011 French Open. Selected 3D matches were also available on demand. The channel will return on 27 May 2012, to cover the

2012 French Open The 2012 French Open (also known as Roland Garros, after the famous French aviator) was a tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 116th edition of the French Open, and took place at the Stade Roland Garros from 27 May until 11 ...

and

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, th ...

UHD

On 17 September 2018 Virgin Media launched a linear UHD channel. It broadcasts a mix of drama, documentaries and music to customers who have its premium V6 set-top box. On 25 February 2021 UHD content from Sky appears following the launch on Virgin Media of Sky Entertainment and Sky Cinema Ultra HD. More than 1,300 TV episodes and 250 films are available from day one.

External links

Virgin TV GoList of channels on Virgin Media (UK)

References

{{CATV Europe Digital television in the United Kingdom Video on demand services Virgin Media