October 04, 2011

Confirmed: UKTV and Sky Classics HD channels

The official press release:
More amazing HD with no extra fee
Virgin Media today announced seven new TV channels, including five in HD, would join its digital TV service from this month. The latest line-up will extend Virgin Media’s high-definition channel offering to an impressive 37 of which 24 stunning HD channels are available to its ‘XL’ TV customers with no extra monthly HD fee. The full channel line-up includes Eden HD, Eden +1, Good Food HD, Yesterday +1, Watch HD, Dave HD, with Alibi HD due to follow in 2012. 
Cindy Rose, executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media said: “We’re thrilled to be bringing more dazzling HD channels to our TV service, offering our customers even more choice and variety. Our commitment remains to deliver and develop the most compelling digital home entertainment service available in the UK and we will continue to build on our great TV and On Demand offerings to give our customers the best range of services now and for the future.”
Keith Porritt, Executive Director, Commercial at UKTV said: “We’re delighted to become a leading supplier of Virgin Media’s HD offering. These channels show the breadth of HD content we offer on our network from jaw-dropping natural history and mouth-watering food programs to amazing magic and the best in stand-up comedy, with TV’s ultimate compendium in crime to follow, all in HD exclusive to UK Pay TV.”
According to Media Boy (and his copy of the Radio Times) the launch date for Eden HD and Good Food HD will now be October 7th, and  Dave HD will now launch on October 10th.

I've been asked about ITV2, 3, 4 HD: at the moment there is nothing official about these - Virgin Media saying that they are "still in negotiations".

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

more HD channels....that has to be a step in the right direction.

Rich said...

People will no doubt complain and wonder where Sky Atlantic HD and iTV 2HD etc are but I for one am quite happy with these additions. Roll on more of the same.

Martin_e93 said...

Rich go to this
"I asked that office myself and they said there are no plans to launch any new channels and the only confirmed channels are the UKTV HD channels as well as ITV HD channels and Sky Atlantic is still to be negotiated with the broadcaster.

Reason for the lack of channels is because some channels are restricted to Sky only due to Sky carriage contract terms other reasons are because Virgin Media don't feel that there is a big demand for them."
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showpost.php?p=53227806&postcount=20

campbellg said...

"Reason for the lack of channels is because some channels are restricted to Sky only due to Sky carriage contract terms other reasons are because Virgin Media don't feel that there is a big demand for them."

Because there was great demand for Good Food and Eden in HD right enough!

The addition of anything is better than nothing but these are hardly worth shouting about.

Martin_e93 said...
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Martin_e93 said...

"the only confirmed channels are the UKTV HD channels as well as ITV HD channels"
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showpost.php?p=53227806&postcount=20
ITV HD channels are coming to Virgin Media.and Glenn said on this blog they were coming in November

Darren Taylor said...

Wow, these are stunning quality channels. How many people are going to watch these channels? not many i bet. Cheap and chearful. Come on Virgin Media get your customers some decent quality channels. BIO HD, HISTORY HD and Universal HD would be nice.

Nialli said...

@Darren Taylor: but everyone has different tastes? I watch a fare amount of Dave and often enjoy the BBC Attenborough programming on Eden. I've watched Watch on occasion too. I have never watched History, Universal or Bio.
If you want every HD channel available, you should invest in Sky and be done with it. If you want a good selection of what's available, Virgin Media will probably meet your needs. I'm happy, would be happier with Sky Atlantic but wouldn't change platforms to get it.

Martin_e93 said...

Watch +1 and Dave ja vu move to channel 190 and channel 191 tomorrow. Watch HD launches on 12th of October and Dave HD launches on 10th of October
http://my.virginmedia.com/customer-news/articles/UKTVNew/

streaky_7 said...

@Nialli - well said - I like Dave so will welcome it in HD, especially as the quality in SD isn't great. I too have never watched Bio, Universal or History.

I say this everytime, yes I'm sure most would like Atlantic and ITV2 etc, myself included, but don't knock VM for getting new channels added to the line up. Just because you aren't that bothered doesn't mean there isnt thousands of people out there that doesn't welcome the additional channels - and I'm one of them.

Hell, there's been people on this blog say they aren't bothered about Atlantic - does that mean we shouldn't get it?

In an ideal world all channels would be in HD, an maybe one daythey will be.....until then, relax, they will come, welcome the new ones as and when they come along, even if your not personally bothered, and if it's all too much, download the programmes u can't get or go to Sky - remember Sky only have 50 odd channels in HD so I'm sure there's plenty of channels out there not in HD - would you moan to Sky as much if they didn't have it?

Darren Taylor said...
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Darren Taylor said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Darren Taylor said...

@Nialli I dont have the option of going over to Sky. My only point is that surely Virgin Media has enough money to invest in some more of the major HD channels, what about the ITV HD Channels 2,3 and 4 surely Virgin Media can do a deal to carry these channel's. I except that Virgin Media does not have the money or power that Sky has.

Anonymous said...

They certain dont have the money and power of sky and they never will,I have always remained loyal to vm an supported them for many years however whilst it is nice to see new channels i am disappointed we have not aleast seen universal hd come over.Its clear that we aint gonna see sky atlantic for the forseable future and i think that would have least pleased some people,Out of the uktv hd channels launching personally the only one worth a look is alibi and we aint seeing that till next year.Its clear we only got these due to the sale and it was part of the deal to sell(so in other words got on the cheap)that is concerning because after all these months of promises of new channels and the talks that vm have supposed to been having with channel providers have amounted to nothing.Is anyone else not concerned by this

Lee said...

Does anybody know if we will also be getting Universal HD channel ?