Virgin TV
Encyclopedia
Virgin TV is a cable television
service in the UK, owned by Virgin Media
. Its origins come back from NTL
and Telewest
, two largest cable operators in the country, of which the two companies merged on 6 March 2006. All services (thus including TV) were rebranded as the Virgin name.
Virgin TV ranks as the UK's second largest pay TV service, having 3.6m subscribers, compared to BSkyB's 8.2m on Sky, as of Q3 2007.
Virgin's digital cable television currently uses the Nagravision
3 conditional access system.
55% of UK households potentially have access to Virgin's network, while anyone in the UK with a line-of-sight view of the Astra
& Eurobird
satellites at 28.2° east
has the ability to receive Sky's service.
-based NTL, Bromley
-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
service switch off project, beginning with Coventry
and Glasgow
. 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 signaled that it wants to use the capacity to provide faster broadband internet.
On 11 September 2009, Cisco Systems
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
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.
The BT Group
owned (but Virgin Media leased) Milton Keynes and Westminster franchises remain analogue-only. BT's Openreach division has 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 will completely withdraw its services in Westminster from 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, and thus, has been spared for now.
The next phase of this service was to be a combined IPTV
and digital terrestrial television service similar to BT Vision
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
. 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.
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
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
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.
(VoD) customers and over 6,500 hours of programming.
The company brands its VOD service as "On Demand". In contrast to the Sky Anytime 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 Five
, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, Discovery Networks
, National Geographic
, CBS Paramount
, Buena Vista
, Alliance Atlantis
, Warner Bros.
, Viacom
(MTV
, Comedy Central
, Nickelodeon
), Current TV
, BabyTV
, PictureBox Movies
, NBC Universal
and BSkyB; 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
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
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, Disney, Cartoon Network, National Geographic
, Discovery 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
, Nickelodeon
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.
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
service in the UK, owned by Virgin Media
Virgin Media
Virgin Media Inc. is a company which provides fixed and mobile telephone, television and broadband internet services to businesses and consumers in the United Kingdom...
. Its origins come back from NTL
NTL
NTL Incorporated, was a U.S.-listed British company, that became the first "quadruple-play" media-company in the UK, bringing together television, Internet, mobile phone and fixed-line telephone services. While NTL has its headquarters in New York City, the company's activities focus heavily on...
and Telewest
Telewest
Telewest, formerly Telewest Broadband and Telewest Communications was a cable Internet, broadband internet, telephone supplier and cable television provider in the United Kingdom...
, two largest cable operators in the country, of which the two companies merged on 6 March 2006. All services (thus including TV) were rebranded as the Virgin name.
Virgin TV ranks as the UK's second largest pay TV service, having 3.6m subscribers, compared to BSkyB's 8.2m on Sky, as of Q3 2007.
Virgin's digital cable television currently uses the Nagravision
Nagravision
Nagravision is a company of the Kudelski Group that develops conditional access systems for cable and satellite television. The name is also used for their main products, the Nagravision encryption systems.-Digital systems:...
3 conditional access system.
55% of UK households potentially have access to Virgin's network, while anyone in the UK with a line-of-sight view of the Astra
SES Astra
Astra is the name for the geostationary communication satellites, both individually and as a group, which are owned and operated by SES S.A., a global satellite operator based in Betzdorf, in eastern Luxembourg. The name is sometimes also used to describe the channels broadcasting from these...
& Eurobird
Eurobird
Eurobird is the name for a set of satellites owned by Eutelsat. The Eurobird satellites provide broadcasting and telecommunication services primarily to the Western and Central European region from orbital positions of 28.5, 25.5 and 33 degrees East....
satellites at 28.2° east
Astra 28.2°E
Astra 28.2°E is the name for the group of Astra communications satellites co-located at the 28.2° East position in the Clarke Belt that are owned and operated by SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg...
has the ability to receive Sky's service.
History
As of 2008, Virgin Media functioned as a single company; however, it relied on its three existing infrastructures: the LangleyLangley, Slough
Langley is a large village in the unitary authority of Slough, Berkshire in South East England. It is situated 2 miles east of central Slough, and 20 miles west of London...
-based NTL, Bromley
Bromley
Bromley is a large suburban town in south east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Bromley. It was historically a market town, and prior to 1963 was in the county of Kent and formed the administrative centre of the Municipal Borough of Bromley...
-based Cable and Wireless and Knowsley
Knowsley (village)
Knowsley is a large village and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley in Merseyside, England. It is more commonly known as Knowsley Village....
-based Telewest platforms. As part of the Next Generation Television network, the infrastructure was consolidated into a single super headend
Cable television headend
A cable television headend is a master facility for receiving television signals for processing and distribution over a cable television system. The headend facility is normally unstaffed and surrounded by some type of security fencing and is typically a building or large shed housing electronic...
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
Analog television is the analog transmission that involves the broadcasting of encoded analog audio and analog video signal: one in which the message conveyed by the broadcast signal is a function of deliberate variations in the amplitude and/or frequency of the signal...
service switch off project, beginning with Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
and Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
. 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 signaled that it wants to use the capacity to provide faster broadband internet.
On 11 September 2009, Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
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
TiVo
TiVo is a digital video recorder developed and marketed by TiVo, Inc. and introduced in 1999. TiVo provides an on-screen guide of scheduled broadcast programming television programs, whose features include "Season Pass" schedules which record every new episode of a series, and "WishList"...
. 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
Lazard Capital Markets is a New York-based investment bank 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 convertible bond sales and trading; and securities underwriting...
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.
Non-digital areas
In a few areas Virgin Media has not upgraded its network to offer digital television and broadband. In these areas Virgin Media only offers customers analogue cable television. During 2009 digital upgrade work began in Bolton, Slough and West London as well as parts of Leicester, Northern Ireland and Southampton, with most areas completed between 2010 and 2011.The BT Group
BT Group
BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...
owned (but Virgin Media leased) Milton Keynes and Westminster franchises remain analogue-only. BT's Openreach division has 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 will completely withdraw its services in Westminster from 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, and thus, has been spared for now.
Non-cabled areas
For customers in non-cabled areas, Virgin Media offered a branded set-top box for the Freeview 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
IPTV
Internet Protocol television is a system through which television services are delivered using the Internet protocol suite over a packet-switched network such as the Internet, instead of being delivered through traditional terrestrial, satellite signal, and cable television formats.IPTV services...
and digital terrestrial television service similar to BT Vision
BT Vision
BT Vision is a hybrid IPTV-digital terrestrial television service provided by BT Group in the United Kingdom which was launched in December 2006...
and TalkTalk TV. Virgin Media signed an agreement with Cable & Wireless to become the unbundled local loop (LLU)
Local loop unbundling
Local loop unbundling is the regulatory process of allowing multiple telecommunications operators to use connections from the telephone exchange to the customer's premises...
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
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
. 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.
List of channels
Virgin TV carries around 300 digital television and radio channels, including a mixture of subscription, premium subscription and pay-per-view channels.HD services and PVR
Virgin Media (when branded as Telewest) became the first UK broadcaster to offer HDTV, launching its service 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)
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
Digital Video Recorder (PVR
Digital video recorder
A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...
) service as V+. The service uses a PVR
Digital video recorder
A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...
set-top box, with three tuners and a 160 GB
Gigabyte
The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...
hard disk
Hard disk
A hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...
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+
Sky+
Sky+, or Sky Plus, is a personal video recorder service for Sky in the UK. Launched in September 2001, it allows the user to record, pause and instantly rewind live TV. The system performs these functions using an internal hard drive inside the Sky+ set top box...
, which supports only two tuners. In December 2010 a 1 TB
Terabyte
The terabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix tera means 1012 in the International System of Units , and therefore 1 terabyte is , or 1 trillion bytes, or 1000 gigabytes. 1 terabyte in binary prefixes is 0.9095 tebibytes, or 931.32 gibibytes...
TiVo
TiVo
TiVo is a digital video recorder developed and marketed by TiVo, Inc. and introduced in 1999. TiVo provides an on-screen guide of scheduled broadcast programming television programs, whose features include "Season Pass" schedules which record every new episode of a series, and "WishList"...
HD PVR from Cisco was released, with a 500 GB model released in May 2011. From late 2011, Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics is a South Korean multinational electronics and information technology company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul...
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.
On demand
Virgin TV ranks as the UK's largest provider of on-demand content, with over 3 million video on demandVideo on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
(VoD) customers and over 6,500 hours of programming.
The company brands its VOD service as "On Demand". In contrast to the Sky Anytime 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
Cable television headend
A cable television headend is a master facility for receiving television signals for processing and distribution over a cable television system. The headend facility is normally unstaffed and surrounded by some type of security fencing and is typically a building or large shed housing electronic...
. 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
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
, Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, Channel Five
Channel Five
Channel 5 is a television network that broadcasts in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1997, it was the fifth and final national terrestrial analogue network to launch. The station was branded as Five between 2002 and 2010...
, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, Discovery Networks
Discovery Networks UK
Discovery Networks UK was a branch of Discovery Networks responsible for overseeing Discovery Networks Europe's channels in the United Kingdom and in the Republic of Ireland....
, National Geographic
National Geographic Channel (UK)
The National Geographic Channel is a television channel that features documentaries produced by the National Geographic Society. It features some programming similar to that on the Discovery Channel such as nature and science documentaries. The channel was launched in Europe in September 1997 and...
, CBS Paramount
CBS Paramount
CBS Paramount may refer to the following:*CBS Paramount Television , a television production and distribution company or any of the following subdivisions:...
, Buena Vista
Buena Vista (Walt Disney Company)
Buena Vista is a brand name frequently used for divisions of The Walt Disney Company, whose primary studios and offices are located on Buena Vista Street in Burbank, California. It was originally created by Walt Disney in 1953 after the release of Peter Pan to distribute his film and television...
, Alliance Atlantis
Alliance Atlantis
Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. was a Toronto-based media company that operated primarily as a specialty service operator in Canada. Alliance Atlantis also had offices in Halifax, Los Angeles, London, Dublin, Madrid, Barcelona, Shannon and Sydney.Alliance Atlantis was acquired by Canwest...
, Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
, Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
(MTV
MTV (UK and Ireland)
MTV is a 24-hour general entertainment channel operated by Viacom International Media Networks.The channel was launched as part of MTV Networks Europe localization strategy in 1997. MTV UK was launched on 1 July 1997. The channel was set up to provide audiences with local artists and more relevant...
, Comedy Central
Comedy Central (UK)
Comedy Central in the United Kingdom and Ireland is a localised version of Comedy Central which first began in the United States in the 1990s. The television channel is available through the Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk TV in the United Kingdom, Sky Ireland, UPC Ireland and Magnet Networks in the...
, Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (UK & Ireland)
Nickelodeon is a children's television channel available on Sky, Virgin Media, Smallworld Cable, TalkTalk TV and UPC Ireland in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including on demand on BT Vision. The channel was launched on 1 September 1993...
), Current TV
Current TV
Current TV, or Current, is a media company led by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and businessman Joel Hyatt. Comcast owns a ten percent stake of Current's parent company, Current Media LLC....
, BabyTV
BabyTV
BabyTV is a television channel for infants, toddlers, and their parents. Launched in 2003 BabyTV is distributed in 85 countries globally via over 300 affiliates, and is localized in 15 languages ....
, PictureBox Movies
Picturebox Movies
PictureBox is an video on demand movie service offering a dynamic selection of movies for a monthly subscription. It is available at home through several TV broadcast platform partners or via the internet using the PictureBox Player. The service is currently available in the United Kingdom, Poland...
, NBC Universal
NBC Universal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base...
and BSkyB; 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
FilmFlex
FilmFlex, is a UK pay-per-view movie service, which is a joint venture between Sony and The Walt Disney Company.- Virgin Media :FilmFlex makes up part of Virgin Media's "On Demand" video on demand system. FilmFlex has been available on Virgin since January 2005 and saw over 11 million films watched...
"), 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
BBC iPlayer, commonly shortened to iPlayer, is an internet television and radio service, developed by the BBC to extend its former RealPlayer-based and other streamed video clip content to include whole TV shows....
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
Sky Player
Sky Go is an online television service from Sky which launched in January 2006. The service allows users to watch live and on demand video content from their Mac, Windows PC, mobile phone or Xbox 360 via a broadband or Wi-Fi internet connection...
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.
FilmFlex
FilmFlex, is a UK pay-per-view movie service, which is a joint venture between Sony and The Walt Disney Company.- Virgin Media :FilmFlex makes up part of Virgin Media's "On Demand" video on demand system. FilmFlex has been available on Virgin since January 2005 and saw over 11 million films watched...
, the service is delivered over the web using Microsoft Silverlight
Microsoft Silverlight
Microsoft Silverlight is an application framework for writing and running rich Internet applications, with features and purposes similar to those of Adobe Flash. The run-time environment for Silverlight is available as a plug-in for web browsers running under Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X...
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, Disney, Cartoon Network, National Geographic
National Geographic Channel (UK)
The National Geographic Channel is a television channel that features documentaries produced by the National Geographic Society. It features some programming similar to that on the Discovery Channel such as nature and science documentaries. The channel was launched in Europe in September 1997 and...
, Discovery and MTV Networks Europe
MTV Networks Europe
MTV Networks Europe is a division of Viacom International Media Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom.MTV Networks Europe includes the multimedia entertainment brands: MTV, VH1, TMF, VIVA, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and Nick Jr...
. 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
4oD
4oD is a video on demand service from Channel 4. Launched in November 2006, 4oD stands for "4 on Demand". The service offers a variety of programmes recently shown on Channel 4, E4, More4 or from their archives...
content which was joined by MTV Snax, MTV Music
MTV Music
MTV Music is a video/music sharing website launched on October 28, 2008 by MTV. The website offers a large collection of music videos that date back to the early 1980s...
, Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (UK & Ireland)
Nickelodeon is a children's television channel available on Sky, Virgin Media, Smallworld Cable, TalkTalk TV and UPC Ireland in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including on demand on BT Vision. The channel was launched on 1 September 1993...
and Comedy Central
Comedy Central (UK)
Comedy Central in the United Kingdom and Ireland is a localised version of Comedy Central which first began in the United States in the 1990s. The television channel is available through the Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk TV in the United Kingdom, Sky Ireland, UPC Ireland and Magnet Networks in the...
.
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.