March 19, 2010

New HD channels will not be available to all immediately

From the Virgin site:
When will I get the new channels?
We’ll be launching Discovery HD, Eurosport HD, E4 HD and SyFy HD on 1st April. Not everyone will get access to these new channels straight away as we are carrying out some technical upgrades to our platform and there’ll be a few areas where we’ll be staggering the rollout. But don’t worry – we’ll be rolling them out as quickly as we can, and we should be all done by the beginning of June.
On Friday 2nd April we’ll also be launching ITV1 HD, which will be available in all ITV areas (this does not include Scotland and Northern Ireland). ITV1 HD will not be available in Scotland or Northern Ireland because it’s an ITV1 service, not an STV or UTV service. ITV is awaiting confirmation of STV and UTV’s plans with regards to the provision of HD services in the STV and UTV regions.
Not long after we'll be launching Film4 HD – keep an eye out here for announcements.
(Thanks Erich)

3 comments:

lee said...

Whilst just a year ago we'd be screaming "oh god, here we go again, terrible!"

I feel we are more accepting now for two reasons:
a) we are actually GETTING them, AND we can believe we are
b) the technical explanation is fair enough
c) they are now communicating, so it's good to hear something!

Afront said...

Ironically, if you go the the STV website and search for "STV HD" it replies with "did you mean ITV HD?"

- sigh -

Still, as @lee says things are so much better on Virgin one year on and I'm glad I stayed with them. I understand that the reduced service for the same price in Scotland is not Virgin Media's fault, and it's just a small blot on the otherwise superb new HD lineup.

LewishamLovely said...

it's a bit of a gaffe isn't it? shouting from the hills about all these launches on april 1 and then at the last minute completely bactracking to say only random areas will get them and not being able to say definitely when other areas will and in what order. it's ntl deja vu!
i appreciate there are technical requirements to be taen into account - so be it, but virgin's handling of this is farcical. would sky do something like this?