Justified in HD

Thanks to Martine93 for this:
"Justified is available in HD on Demand 5, They did the same with Season 4 of Sons Of Anarchy as well."

BT Sports on Virgin Media

There's no confirmation still on whether or not we will get the new BT Sports channels on Virgin Media. Today it was announced that BT Broadband customers will get the channels "free" (check the small print) whilst Sky customers will need to cough up £15 for HD versions, £12 for the SD, but there's nothing about VM carriage.
Could be that the legals around the Liberty Global merger are prohibiting other deals for now, or maybe they just can't agree a deal. As soon as I hear anything official I will let you know.

New Virgin Media Chief Executive announced

Another team in red is changing its top man today:

MediaGuardian is reporting that Tom Mockridge, a former News International chief executive, is to replace Neil Berkett as CEO at Virgin Media when the takeover by Liberty Global is completed.

Mockridge quit News International in December after losing out to Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thomson for the top job in the separate book and newspaper publishing business that will be spun off from News Corporation's film and TV assets into a separately listed company later this year.Fries said: "Tom will bring to Virgin Media a breadth of experience in the pay-TV industry, both in the UK and throughout Europe. I have known and worked with Tom for nearly 15 years and have always admired his leadership and operating success in a number of highly competitive media markets."We are fortunate to bring an executive of Tom's talent and experience in to lead Virgin Media in its next phase of growth. I'd also like to wish Neil Berkett all the best in his future endeavours. He has done an outstanding job at Virgin Media and will be missed by all."

Animal Planet HD launched on channel 217 and TLC HD on 168

Sky Sports continues on Virgin Media, but BT struggling to reach agreement with Sky

Interesting piece on MediaGuardian

Virgin Media has secured the Sky Sports channels for the coming year, piling further pressure on BT to do a deal with the satellite broadcaster before the next football season begins in August. 

Virgin Media's agreement to carry Sky Sports 1 and 2 was negotiated in 2010 and due to expire this summer, but it is now expected to extend into next year. "We have surity through 2013," Virgin Media chief executive Neil Berkett said. "I'm comfortable with where we are in terms of continuity and surity of supply." 

By contrast, BT is struggling to agree terms to carry Sky's two main sports channels on its flagship YouView service.  BT has a deal until 2016 to carry Sky Sports 1 and 2 on its BT Vision box, but that service is being phased out in favour of YouView. 

In a sign of how telecoms and content are converging, it is thought Virgin and Sky have traded football for fibre-optic cables. Virgin announced Wednesday that it had struck a deal to rent its fibre 'backhaul' to the satellite group, helping carry internet traffic across its core network, although not as far as customers' homes, for which Sky still relies on BT. 

"I find it unbelievable that Virgin won't have a deal with Sky on the sports because they've just done a deal on backhaul and they'll all be connected," said Toby Syfret at Enders Analysis. "There is a better and better relationship between them helped by the aggressive stance taken by BT which it feels it has to attack Sky directly in the content area." 

Virgin is Sky's biggest wholesale customer, generating around 700,000 Sky Sports subscriptions, according to Enders.

Virgin Media first quarter of 2013 results announced

Here's this quarter's business speak:

• Revenue up 3.6% to £1,043m 
• OCF up 5.8% to £399m
• OCF before merger-related costs up 7.9% to £406m
• Operating income up 14% to £150m
• Net income of £139m, up from £7m
• FCF(2)up 54% to £135m
• Net cash provided by operating activities up 44% to £306m Improved churn, ARPU and customer mix Cable customer net additions of 8,600
• Churn fell to 1.1%; sixth consecutive quarter of year-on-year improvement
• Triple-play penetration up to 65%; quad-play penetration up to 16%
• Cable ARPU up 5.2% to £49.38* Improved customer mix
• TiVo customers increased 171,900 to 1.5m; 40% of the TV base
• Paying TV customers(3)increased 13,700 to 3.3m; 87% of the TV base
• Superfast broadband customers (30Mb and above) increased 337,900 to 2.5m; 58% of the cable broadband base
• Contract mobile customers increased 35,100 to 1.7m; 58% of the mobile base
• Business division: new major backhaul contract wins from Sky, Telefonica and another large UK mobile network operator 

Very, very rich bloke Neil Berkett, Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Media, said: 'We have had a good start to the year with accelerated revenue growth, improved churn, and strong free cash flow growth. The great value we provide through our Collections packages, which bundle superfast broadband and our next generation TiVo service, has seen new customers join and our existing customers stay loyal to us. This positive momentum in the business positions us well for our planned merger with Liberty Global.'

Interesting that the business division has secured Sky as a big contract...

21 new channels added to Virgin TV Anywhere

Virgin Media Press Release:

 Extra Sky channels, Nickelodeon, Channel 4 and more join line-up
Total streaming channels on Virgin TV Anywhere increased to 66

Virgin Media has added 21 new live channels to Virgin TV Anywhere, the cloud-based entertainment service available exclusively to Virgin TV customers.

Virgin Media’s subscribers will be able to stream the new array of channels – including channels from BSkyB, Channel 4, Discovery Networks, NBCUniversal, Turner Broadcasting and Viacom International Media Networks – on devices beyond the TV such as computers, tablets and smartphones at no extra cost. The new channels join the collection of entertainment, news, documentaries, music and even premium sport and movies channels already available on Virgin TV Anywhere.

The introduction of Channel 4 to the service makes shows including One Born Every Minute and The Mimic accessible on the go, while the range of Discovery channels offers everything from Dark Matters to Breaking Magic.

Meanwhile, SyFy’s Defiance and Lost Girl aim to satisfy those cravings for a fantasy drama fix and pre-school channel Cartoonito will help keep the kids entertained with a whole host of fun and educational shows including Lazy Town and Bananas in Pyjamas.

Scott Kewley, Virgin Media’s multiscreen product director, said: “We know our customers love being able to watch whatever they want at a time that suits them, and by adding 21 live channels to Virgin TV Anywhere at no extra cost we’re also enabling them to watch their favourite shows wherever they want too. Whether our customers are looking for something to keep the kids happy, an enthralling drama or a cutting-edge documentary, the new line-up on Virgin TV Anywhere really does have something for everyone.”

In addition to the new channels now available on Virgin TV Anywhere, Discovery Networks’ TLC channel will join the line up on 30^th April, bringing a host of UK and US reality entertainment shows to the service that will really get people talking.

Virgin TV customers can access Virgin TV Anywhere through the web or, if they have Virgin Media TiVo®, through a mobile and tablet app. The online service is available to all Virgin TV customers, with extra features for TiVo users to manage their boxes through a range of exclusive tools such as remote record and managing ‘My Shows’.

The mobile and tablet app is available on iOS devices such as the iPad and will be coming to Android devices later this year. The app offers the ability to manage TiVo boxes including scheduling recordings and deleting shows. It also acts as a touch/gesture-based remote control when at home which means viewers can search for whatever they want using a full QWERTY keyboard and without taking over the big screen. They can flick any live TV show or recording straight to the TV and even immediately start watching something On Demand from any point without the need to fast-forward or rewind.

For further information on Virgin TV Anywhere, head to virginmedia.com/discovertvanywhere.

TV Anywhere (unless you're on Android)

What's going on with the Android version of Virgin Media's TV Anywhere App? For iPhone and iPad users it's been around a while now, and jolly useful it is too, but for non-Apple mobile and tablet users the wait is proving increasingly frustrating. Not only are there mixed messages emanating from VM as to whether they actually are going to release an Android App (see the later posts here: http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/TV-Anywhere/Tv-anywhere-android-support/td-p/1573160/page/9 ) but the US TiVo Android App is over a year old (see the video). How frustrating, and how long does it take to change the colour from blue to red?? (Thanks for the tip, Neil G)

Historical greats: Da Vinci, Hannibal and Raylan Givens

The much-hyped action drama Da Vinci's Demons debuts this evening on Fox HD at 10pm. From the trailers I've seen it doesn't look to be big on the old historical accuracy but may prove to be an entertaining diversion and worth a look.
Also looking interesting is Hannibal, which arrives on Sky Living HD on May 7th at 10pm. It's had strong reviews and looks tasty.
But where's everything else? There are a number of shows I'd expected to return by now but actual dates are thin on the ground still. The following are all promised for "spring" so keep an eye out for Raising Hope, The Americans (on ITV HD), 30 Rock, Supernatural and Cougar Town.
What I find really frustrating though is the treatment of the fantastic Justified by 5. Season four of  the higly acclaimed, Emmy-winning law and disorder drama is still only broadcast in very poor SD in the UK (on 5USA) and to add further insult there is still no start date for season four which concluded in the US a few weeks back. Why? No idea. And why don't they broadcast it in HD on 5 HD? Even less idea. When you look at what else is on the 5 channels it's completely baffling. And they wonder why people resort to "other means" for their viewing.
At least season one has turned up in Virgin's On Demand listings in HD recently, even if the show didn't really hit its stride until the stunning second season.
(And don't get me started on the absence of Breaking Bad on UK channels.)

Animal Planet HD arriving April 30th (confirmed by VM)

Virgin's own listings are showing Animal Planet HD as coming soon on channel 217. No official word yet on the rumoured Universal HD, and Sky Atlantic, even in SD, remains the most notable absentee from the channel line up.