UKTV HD channels all move around

In addition to the BBC shuffles above, Virgin Media has shuffled the UKTV channels and there are changes to the BT Sports listings, too. I've tried to keep the listing on the right up to date but it's like playing Whack-a-mole at times...

BBC channel number changes

Starzplay service launching on Virgin Media this month

Starzplay will launch on Virgin Media in the UK on November 29. The Starzplay premium streaming service will give Virgin TV customers in the UK the opportunity to watch Starz series all in one place, with future Starz Originals launching exclusively on Starzplay on the same day as the U.S., including season two of "Counterpart" starring Academy Award®-winner J.K. Simmons.
The new subscription Video on Demand service offers access to a vast library of additional content including series such as "Vida," "Sweetbitter," "The White Princess" and "Mr. Mercedes" as well as an extensive movie library for £4.99 a month.

HD only channels arrive

VMHD regular Jez24 writes:
Some news might have slipped under the radar, so i thought i would mention it.
UK Gold has just started on Virgin, however that's not the big news. The big news is for the first time the HD version has replaced the SD version. They have also done this with the Free Sports channel. Virgin are the first broadcaster who can do this now they have replaced all the old non HD boxes. There is nothing to stop them ditching all the SD channels that have an HD version now, apart from BBC1 of course. We need our local news!

Virgin Media announces dedicated 4K ultra high definition channel

Here's Virgin Media's press release on a new channel launching next week:

Virgin Media is launching the UK’s first dedicated 4K ultra high definition (UHD) entertainment channel, which will start broadcasting from next week.
The Virgin TV Ultra HD channel will air a line-up of must-see shows in incredible picture quality from Monday 17 September.
The channel will be exclusively available for Virgin TV Full House and VIP customers with a V6 set-top box. These customers can tune into a collection of critically acclaimed dramas, beautifully shot documentaries and get up close to some of the biggest names in music with a selection of hot-ticket concerts; all in dazzling UHD detail and at no extra cost.
The schedule is packed with blockbuster entertainment series such as ‘Start Up’ with Martin Freeman, ‘Masters of Sex’ starring Michael Sheen and political powerhouse ‘House of Cards’ as well as wildlife and nature documentaries set in Zambia and Vietnam, plus gigs from the Rolling Stones, Sting and Imagine Dragons.
A number of these programmes will be broadcast for the first time on UK television, such as ‘Start Up’ as well as ‘Shut Eye’ with Isabella Rosselini and ‘The Art of More’ with Dennis Quaid.
To celebrate the launch of Virgin TV Ultra HD, comedian, author and ‘Love Island’ narrator, Iain Stirling will become the ‘voice’ of the channel for its opening night next Monday.
David Bouchier, Virgin Media’s Chief Digital Entertainment Officer, said:
“With the launch of Virgin TV Ultra HD we’re giving our customers the ultimate entertainment viewing experience with must-see shows in incredible, crystal-clear picture quality.
“From epic dramas and stunning documentaries to the front row feeling of a rock concert, our customers will get closer to the action than ever before – with four times the picture quality of HD. It really is the next best thing to being there.
“We’ve shown some of this year’s biggest sporting events in Ultra HD, such as the Champions League and Wimbledon finals and we’re now giving entertainment the Ultra HD treatment. It’s all part of our ongoing investment to give our customers the best way to watch the best TV.”
Virgin TV Ultra HD will air on channel 999 and broadcast at prime-time until the early hours. The channel will begin broadcasting from 8.20pm on the launch night.
Virgin TV Ultra HD programme highlights:
- ‘Start Up’ airs on Mondays at 10pm and stars Martin Freeman. The show explores what happens when a brilliant yet controversial tech idea gets funded with dirty money, from three entrepreneurs you would never find in Silicon Valley. Distributed by Sony pictures television.
- ‘Shut Eye’ airs on Tuesdays at 10pm and is a UK network premiere. It’s a darkly-comic look at the activities of storefront psychics and the underground criminal syndicate that controls them. The series stars Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice), KaDee Strickland (The Sixth Sense), Isabella Rossellini (Blue Velvet). Distributed by Sony pictures television.
- From the producers of ‘Blue Planet’ and ‘Planet Earth II’, Love Nature’s ‘The Big Dry’ will air Monday to Wednesday at 8pm during launch week. Set in Zambia’s Luangwa Valley, this visually stunning documentary series follows the challenges the valley’s wildlife must overcome during the long dry season as they await the life-giving rains.
- ‘The Art of More’ airs on Thursdays at 10pm and is a UK network premiere. Graham Conner (Christian Cooke), a blue-collar former soldier turned auction house executive, leads a dangerous double life as he uses his secret past to beat the auction world elite at their own game. Distributed by Sony pictures television.
- ‘Masters of Sex’ airs on Fridays at 10pm featuring Michael Sheen as renowned obstetrician Dr. William Masters who hires sexually liberated, single working mother Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan) as his assistant in carrying out pioneering, intimate research into human sexuality. Distributed by Sony pictures television.

Autumn price rises ahoy

Virgin Media has announced it is hiking prices for five million customers. We will be sent letters between now and the end of September outlining the changes, and the company has confirmed that anyone who wants to can leave penalty-free by providing notice within 30-days of receiving the notification.
Here are the main price increases:

• Broadband-only – up to £3/mth.
• Broadband and line rental – up to £3/mth.
• The Player bundle – by £3/mth.
• The Mix and Fun bundles – by £3.50/mth.
• The Full House bundle – by £4/mth.

Anyone who signed up to Virgin Media after August 1st 2018 won't see their prices increase.
The increase will hit bills in either October or November and will be confirmed in the notification letter.

UKTV channels return to Virgin Media

The channels added during the UKTV time away have stayed. I can see only two that have been renumbered Quest HD  is now 217 and C&I HD is on 222

Premier League looks to ISP to curb use of illegal streaming

The Premier League league is getting tougher with those illegal streams of football in the forthcoming season. The High Court has issued a "blocking order" which will force the major ISPs (including Virgin, BT and Sky) to shut down servers which are illegally streaming games.
The Premier League obtained the order as part of what it calls "biggest ever crackdown" on the illegal streaming of its content and is part of a bid to "combat the sale and use of illicit streaming devices" including the Kodi Box, which lets people watch sports and films for free.
A similar order was granted for the final two months of the 2016/17 season and saw more than 5,000 server IP addresses blocked. The latest block will be in place for the entire 2017/18 Premier League season.
Premier League Director of Legal Services, Kevin Plumb, said: “This blocking order is a game-changer in our efforts to tackle the supply and use of illicit streams of our content.
“It will allow us to quickly and effectively block and disrupt the illegal broadcast of Premier League football via any means, including Kodi boxes."
Similar measures have also been used to block bit torrent sites such as Pirate Bay, but it's proven to be like that fairground whac-a-mole game - hit one and another quickly pops up.

Virgin Media's first 4K UHD channel has arrived

From the BT Sports press release:

BT Sport 4K UHD is now available to Virgin TV customers for the very first time.
This comes as BT Sport has reached a new multi-year agreement to continue broadcasting all of its sporting action to Virgin TV customers. This includes all 351 UEFA Champions League & UEFA Europa League games alongside 42 live Premier League matches, the FA Cup, European Rugby Champions Cup, boxing, MotoGP and much more.
Many of these major sporting events will also be shown in stunning 4K Ultra High Definition – which is four times the detail of High Definition (HD).

BT Sports 4K UHD is on channel 555 on the V6 EPG.

Virgin Media signs new ITV agreement

ITV has reached an agreement with Virgin Media to continue to make its channels available to the company's 4 million TV customers for the next three years.

The deal, which ends more than a year of discussions that were acrimonious at times, comes after ITV delivered an ultimatum to Virgin Media to reach a deal this week or potentially face a blackout of shows such as Love Island and Coronation Street.

More info at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jul/27/virgin-media-reaches-deal-itv-access-channels?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Five HD channels going, six arriving

HD channels that will disappear on Sunday with the departure of the UKTV channels from Virgin Media:

• W HD (191)
• Dave HD (194)
• Alibi HD (200)
• Eden HD (249)
• Good Food HD (280)

New HD channels arriving are:

• Paramount Network HD (124)
• Premier Sports (127 - subscription free for two months)
• Quest HD (194)
• C&I HD (200)
• History HD (245)
• Love Nature HD (247)

I'll miss Eden HD, which was a regular destination in our house.
That's five gone, six incoming. There are more SD channels going and arriving - get the full list of arrivals here: https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/News/UKTV-Channels-List/ba-p/3775318
It's interesting to note that the two sides in the dispute can't even agree as to the reason for the channels departing. Virgin waffle on about the On Demand rights not being available but UKTV point to Virgin offering a lower price for the channels. I suspect the truth is somewhere between the two. I also think this could be a big problem for both companies if the dispute rumbles on into the autumn - maybe we will see a speedy resolution and then we'll have some additional HD channels as well as old favourites returning?

UKTV channels to disappear from Virgin Media from Sunday

Virgin Media’s four million pay-TV customers face being unable to watch UKTV’s 10 channels, which include Dave, Gold and Drama, from Sunday as a dispute over video on demand rights to shows comes to a head.
Full story here https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jul/19/virgin-media-customers-to-lose-uktvs-10-channels-in-rights-row?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

BT Sport 4k UHD on Virgin Media from July 30th

A new multi-year agreement will make BT’s 4K channel available to Virgin TV Full House and VIP bundle customers at no extra cost, from July 30th.
Virgin and BT’s partnership has been extended in a multi-year agreement spells good news for sport fans who own a 4K TV, Virgin TV V6 box and subscribe to Virgin TV’s Full House or VIP bundles - it will see them automatically gain the BT Sport 4K UHD channel (531). New and existing Virgin TV customers signed up to its Player or Mix bundles will be able to add all BT Sport channels, including the 4K one, to their package for £18 per month.
BT Sport’s coverage includes UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Premier League matches, the FA Cup, European Rugby Champions Cup and MotoGP - some of which will be offered in 4K.
Here's the official Virgin Media Press Release

Sky Cinema On Demand HD movies return on the V6

It's taken a while, but I've just noticed that HD versions of the vast majority of Sky Cinema On Demand movies are now available on my V6 boxes. We used to have these a few years ago but in recent times the only HD On Demand movies were the newest to Sky Cinema. Now they're back.
There are a few still missing (for example, I only see SD versions of Amistad and An Affair To Remember) but everything else seems to be in both an SD and HD version.

BBC World Cup coverage: Virgin V6 confirmed

It’s near the bottom of this alphabetical list but the V6 is supported for the BBC World Cup 4K coverage. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/latest-news/live-uhd

BBC World Cup in 4K via iPlayer

You'll be able to watch all 29 of BBC One's World Cup games in 4K on iPlayer - but it will be a effectively a beta trial as only a limited number of viewers will be permitted. 

The BBC has confirmed it will broadcast all 29 live matches due to be shown on BBC One on its iPlayer service in 4K and HDR (high dynamic range). You'll need a compatible 4K TV or 4K set-top box running a compatible version of the BBC iPlayer app to take advantage of both picture technologies.

More details at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44308154

No details on ITV coverage yet, but the ITV Hub doesn’t even offer HD currently. 

UEFA Champions League final in 4K UHD on Virgin Media

BT Sport is to air this year’s UEFA Champions League football tournament final in 4k for the first time as part of a trial of 4K UHD TV on Virgin Media’s platform.
BT Sport’s coverage of the match between Liverpool and Real Madrid in Kyiv, Ukraine this Saturday will be the first time live football has been broadcast in 4K UHD on Virgin TV and will be available in a variety of ways to Virgin TV customers.
Subscribers to Virgin TV’s Full House offering with a new V6 box will be able to watch the game on BT Sport 2 HD on channel 528 and will be presented with the option of watching in UHD on both BT Sport 1 HD and BT Sport 2 HD by pressing the red button on their remote.
In addition, all Virgin TV customers with a V6 box can watch the game in UHD through Virgin Media’s showcase channel – channel 100. Any customers wanting to watch the game in UHD will require a compatible TV set. Virgin Media has already made Netflix and YouTube content available in UHD on the V6.
 David Bouchier, chief digital entertainment officer at Virgin Media, said:

“The UEFA Champions League final is the biggest night of the year in international club football and we know our customers will relish the opportunity to get as close as possible to the action by watching in Ultra HD. Showing this game in Ultra HD is another example of our fantastic sports offering and look out for more exciting announcements to come in the near future.” 

 BT is separately making the Champions League final available in 4K UHD free of charge on its YouTube channel, the BT Sport app and btsport.com as well as for its TV subscribers on BT Sport 2 and the BT Sport 4K UHD channel.

Press blue for HD

A new feature is being rolled out on Virgin's TiVo boxes. If you're watching the SD version of a channel and press the blue button, it will change to the HD version if available. No word yet if or when this will arrive on the V6 boxes.
Virgin Media are also retiring the old V and V+ boxes, which means the entire network will be TiVo this year.

UHD on Virgin Media this weekend

Eurosport is launching a temporary UHD service with coverage of the Roland Garros French Open across Europe. UHD coverage of the tennis tournament will be available in the UK on Sky Q and Virgin Media, as well as in Germany (via HD+), Spain (Orange) and France (Canal Digital). The service will launch on Sunday 27th May, except for Sky Q users, where the channel will be available from Monday 28th May. Viewers require a Sky Q 2TB box, multiscreen subscription and a 4K UHD TV. Virgin Media offers UHD content on its V6 box. UHD coverage is restricted to the Philippe Chatrier centre court. It also represents the first time Eurosport has broadcast a live sporting event in Ultra HD in multiple markets at one time following Eurosport Germany’s successful transmission of the Bundesliga fixture between 1 FC Koln and Borussia Dortmund in Ultra HD in February.

Sky announce Spotify on Q but still no date for HDR or "Q over web"

Sky's results for the last quarter show the familiar pattern of adding more customers and the company, in the throes of takeover talks with 20th Century Fox, announced that Spotify will be on the Q boxes by the end of the week. Remember when our TiVo boxes had a Spotify App that was so flakey and useless it was pretty much unusable? I bet nobody misses it. Spotify software can be frustrating (ever used it on an iPhone? Ever wondered where all your disk space has gone??!).  Spotify on NowTV isn't any better, but hopefully on Sky Q it will be fully functional, which would be an improvement - it could hardly be any worse.
(Personally, I prefer Apple Music to Spotify: Apple's software and sound quality are, on my systems and to my ears, superior and they pay artists twice as much as the pittance offered by Spotify. But I digress…)
Anyway, the reason I'm mentioning Sky is that there's still no date set for the arrival of Sky Q over the internet, which I know is a service of some interest to visitors to this site.
Over on Cable Forum, there's a poll asking if VM TV customers are looking to switch to the new Q web service. Here's what I contributed:

I'm a "maybe". I currently have the full VM TV (whatever that's called these days) and top it up with Netflix and the occasional month with NowTV when there's something I fancy on Sky Atlantic. I can't have a dish on the outside of my home and have never wanted to directly line Murdoch's pocket, but neither of these will be relevant in 2019. We've been NTL/VM TV customers since the late nineties.
We're under contract until next January and we are in no hurry to leave VM/Netflix as, Atlantic aside, they give us everything we want to watch at an affordable price. But I'm intrigued by the new Sky Q and when it finally launches I'll consider the price (I'm on a good deal at the moment and I'm not prepared to pay more) and reports on its reliability. Having said that, I'm more likely to drop VM TV and just use Netflix and NowTV, possibly with a Freeview recorder, than try something new and probably flakey at launch. At the moment, Mrs Nialli is very happy with our pair of V6 boxes and her Netflix/VM combo, and that's probably the biggest factor of all...
But never say never, which is why I've said 'Maybe'.

Sky exclusive channel to close, May 1st

ITV is set to close its Sky exclusive pay TV channel ITV Encore on May 1st and will turn the brand into a digital on demand service.
The channel has primarily shown repeats of major ITV series such as Victoria and Broadchurch along with a number of original series such as Harlots.
ITV has confirmed that Encore will continue “purely as a box set brand”, available on demand service on Virgin, Sky, BT and TalkTalk.

Commonwealth Games in HD on the BBC Red Button

BBC Red Button HD will broadcast from 9pm to 7am when the live Commonwealth Games coverage  in underway, adding to the coverage on BBC One, Two and Four. The games are in Australia so it's one for night owls this time around. The games run (geddit??) from April 4th to April 15th
The HD Red Button service can also be found on channel 990.

Virgin's broadband top speed up again

Virgin Media is once again upping the maximum broadband speed it offers, bringing the fastest speed available in the UK up to 350Mbps. And if you already pay for the company’s 300Mbps then Virgin will upgrade you to 350Mbps for no extra charge.

Time's up for TiVo?

Multichannel.com is reporting that Virgin Media’s TiVo platform. Here's what they say:

Speaking at this week’s Cable Congress event in Dublin, Tom Mockridge, Virgin Media’s CEO, reportedly dropped a hint that the operator has plans to transition over to the “Horizon” user interface used by parent company, Liberty Global, but stressed that TiVo’s technology will remain in the picture.
“It’s no secret that Liberty Global has its own Horizon UI at the moment and you can expect that we will transition to that on the V6 box and we’ll do that in co-operation with TiVo,” he said, according to Broadband TV News. “They are very understanding of our desire to do that and will help us do that.”
A Virgin Media official said the company had nothing to add beyond Mockridge’s comments about using the Horizon UI. “There’s no changes to announce at this time and all UK set-top boxes continue to use the TiVo platform today,” the official said in an email.

Nothing concrete, nothing imminent. More can be seen at Multichannel.com's website 

Virgin teams up with Amazon for The Feed

Virgin Media has struck its first deal with Amazon to co-fund a £29m+ sci-fi series from one of the creators of The Walking Dead.

The 10-part series, called The Feed, is set in London in the near future. The series, adapted by the Walking Dead writer and co-executive producer Channing Powell, is set in a dystopian society where an implant that nearly everyone has that allows memories, emotions and information to be shared goes horribly wrong.

Virgin has been dipping its toes in some exclusive shows of late, but this is the first time to my knowledge they've actually been involved in new content creation for almost ten years.

We're still waiting for the rumoured Amazon Video app on the TiVo platform - maybe this new deal with Amazon may open the door to that appearing soon on our V6 boxes?

Radioline App on the V6

I've just discovered the Radioline App on my V6 box and it's pretty darn neat, giving access to hundreds of radio stations to supplement VM's fairly meagre offering - loving Magic Soul and Absolute 60s and 70s (showing my age, I know!).
Has anyone else used it? There doesn't appear to be a screensaver but I'm not sure that you need one with modern TVs.

Sky Atlantic to arrive on Virgin Media "in Q2 2018"

Yes, I know we've heard it all before and, yes, I know it's never materialised despite the rumours, but this time a number of sources are suggesting it could actually arrive before the summer. I'm a little sceptical, having published such rumours before many times since the channel's launch as a Sky exclusive all those years ago - the channel is still missing from our line up.
I hope I'm wrong and it arrives as rumoured, but if I were you I wouldn't put that Now TV box on eBay just yet...

Sky Q without the dish

The 2018 launch of Sky Q without a dish was first announced last year, but it doesn't look like it will arrive in the UK quite as soon as some hoped.
The 2018 Q1 Sky Financial Update says it will launch first in Italy, then Austria, followed by other "key markets".
Sky says the new move will allow "millions of homes" currently unable to install a dish to access the full Sky TV experience. Of course, you can get all the Sky channels in HD without a dish through Virgin Media (with one notable exception, Sky Atlantic) and the NowTV experience has all the channels at a lower cost too, but when Sky does finally launch Q without the dish there's no doubt it's a serious challenge to Virgin. I'd expect it to be a Sky broadband exclusive at launch and priced around the same as the satellite service (which VM often match or better if you call them), but Sky will launch aggressively and we should see some attractive offers from all pay-tv providers to compete. Interesting times.

Now TV ups its game

Launching at the end of February for just £15 is the Now TV Smart Stick. It will be the first Now TV box with voice search and can also control your TV. Oh, and you can pause live TV for up to 30 minutes.
If you already have Now packages you can buy the stick on its own for £15. If not, £20 will get you a stick and either one month of movies, a two-month entertainment pass or three months of kids' TV. If you want a month of sports thrown in instead, there's a £30 bundle for that.
Now TV still only streams at a maximum resolution of 720p but the Smart Stick itself is capable of outputting at full HD. Sky is finally upping the quality of Now TV to 1080p later this year, but it won't come as standard and will most likely cost more. I think the service has improved considerably from the early days of outages and buffering and have found the 720p on demand picture quality absolutely fine.
Now TV is a low cost and viable alternative to the year-long contracts offered by Virgin Media, Sky or BT if you don't need to record programmes and are happy with catch-up and On Demand services to compliment Freeview or Freesat. I use it solely for Sky Atlantic shows, dipping in and out when there's something I want to watch. I've just renewed my Virgin contract for another twelve months (got a very good reduction in my monthly bill from Retentions) but will consider Now TV seriously next year.
Or Sky Q without the dish. And more on that little temptation soon...

A more efficient standard for HD channels

Virgin Media TV is in the process of switching its HD channels to the more efficient H.264(MPEG4) video standard.
According to this thread on Cable Forum a number of customers have noticed that this can be a mixed blessing. Recordings take less space, which means you will be able to get almost twice as many recordings on your TiVo or V6 box*, but FF is now a more delicate beast and you have to be quicker with the remote as it flies through a recording much faster than before.
It appears that HD channel is being carried twice - once in MPEG2 and once in MPEG4 - which VM has confirmed is standard practice when switching to a new standard until all tests are completed.

*Obviously this only applies to recordings made since the switch to the new standard

Free V6 upgrades?

According to TrustedReviews:

Virgin Media is offering its customers a free top-of-the-line TV box upgrade, but you’ll need to check your contract to get the best out of the offer.
The company said it’ll offer its V6 TV box to some 2.8 million existing customers without hiking up their contract costs.
It’s an attractive offer for customers familiar with Virgin’s TV services. However, given the V6 TV box has been out more than a year, it’s likely being offered to customers who are nearing the end of their contract or are already out of contract.

MoneySavingExpert offers the following advice

If your original contract with Virgin Media has ended and you've moved onto a rolling contract, without negotiating a new deal, you could be paying hundreds of pounds a year more than the promotional rate you originally signed up to. This won't always be the case though, so here's how to check:

• Check your account or call Virgin Media to see if you have passed the minimum contract term. 
• If you're still in contract, diarise to check for new deals at least a month before the expiry date.
• If you are out of contract, this means you can leave Virgin Media penalty free.

It's going to be a competitive year for Virgin's TV product. Sky is likely to be under new ownership, Sky Q over broadband is promised and Now TV upgrading its service to 1080p. There have been a number of interesting news items this week and I'll be posting more before the end of the month. Stay tuned.