May 29, 2020

Football returns

Subject to Government guidance, the Premier League is to return to our screens on June 17th. Details here https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52842600. Every remaining match will be aired on Sky Sports, BT, Amazon Prime or BBC as the football authorities attempt to close the 2019/20 season in empty stadiums.
This means that charges for Sky Sports and BT Sports are back, too, so expect bills to increase to their earlier levels mid June.

Virgin Media shops to disappear

Virgin Media is to disappear from the high street after deciding its network of more than 50 retail stores will stay shut once the coronavirus pandemic lockdown ends.

May 27, 2020

Sky Documentaries and Sky Nature arrive

Sky Documentaries HD now on channel 277, and Sky Nature HD on channel 279. Also, History (270) and History 2 (272) have been renamed Sky History and Sky History 2

May 07, 2020

TiVo launches dongle in the US but unlikely to be available from Virgin Media

TiVo has officially entered the streaming war with its TiVo Stream 4K, an Android-powered HDMI TV dongle to rival the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K. Details here: https://www.whathifi.com/news/tivo-enters-the-streaming-war-with-its-amazon-rivalling-stream-4k-stick

But we’ll never see it from Virgin Media in the UK. With Virgin’s V6 equipment confirmed to be changed to Liberty Global’s Horizon platform later this year TiVo and Virgin will soon be going their separate ways. More information about Horizon when I get it.

Virgin Media announces merger with O2

The owners of Virgin Media and O2 have confirmed a £31billion merger to create a new ‘national champion’ to challenge BT and Sky in the UK.
Liberty Global, which owns the UK’s largest cable company Virgin Media, and Telefonica, which owns Britain’s biggest mobile operator O2, are to be merged in a new 50-50 joint venture.
Coverage here: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/07/virgin-media-and-o2-owners-confirm-31bn-mega-merger-in-uk and here’s the official press release with more details: https://2zn23x1nwzzj494slw48aylw-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Liberty-Global-and-Telefonica-to-Merge-UK-Operations.pdf