Films on 4HD

Sunday, 28th February
9pm Saving Private Ryan
Saturday, 6th March
9pm Braveheart
Sunday, 7th March
8pm Stardust (the Neil Gaiman story - not the David Essex one)
10.30pm 30 Days of Night

Not bad for nowt...

More HD rumours

According to a thread on Digital Spy, the following will arrive on Virgin this year:

Bio HD
Sky Arts 1 HD
Sky Arts 2 HD
Sky Real Lives HD
Nat Geo Wild HD
C&I HD

True Blood Season Two: FX HD at 10pm tonight

Q4 Results presentation

 

Here's the only slide directly relating to Virgin's TV growth in today's presentation. A quarter of VM TV customers now have HD capable equipment but I still think they're undermarketing the V+. There's a non-specific "launching more HD channels" line. 

Interesting that Berkett is saying than the Tivo software will benefit all TV customers - I thought it was just the IP service that was being primed for Tivo and the cable TV boxes would continue to use Liberty software?

Damages season 3 - Thursday nights at 10pm on BBC HD

Not a simulcast with the BBC1 broadcast but better late than never.

Virgin Q4 2009 results and 100mb broadband announced

First the results [full press release here]

• 40,600 new cable and non-cable customers; 228,900 product net additions
• 63,600 new cable broadband subs compared to 57,100 in Q4-08
• 45% more homes on 20Mb or higher than a year ago reflecting improved demand for higher speeds
• 100Mb service to be commercially launched later this year
• 56,900 new digital TV subs, 112,700 new V+ HD subs and 74 million average monthly Video-On-Demand views as growing awareness of total TV offering leads to strong take-up
• 77,100 new mobile contract subs; total up 46%, nearing 1 million milestone
• Low churn of 1.2%; 60.5% triple-play penetration and 10.7% quad-play penetration reflect success of good value bundles strategy 

Analysis and more detail on The Guardian

The 100mb broadband announcement is less precise:

Virgin Media, the UK's leading internet service provider, today announced it would begin the roll-out of a 100Mb broadband service, the fastest available commercial product in the UK, by the end of 2010. 

Press release on that here 

Neil Berkett video interview here

Slightly better numbers than predicted though I'm not sure there will be much demand for 100mb broadband given that there are only 41,400 customers who have taken up the 50mb service. I think it's time those of us still paying the full whack for VIP's now pretty average looking 20mb service got a bump up - how about it, Mr Berkett?

Constant Sky HD promotion makes man angry

Anyone else getting seriously ticked off with the incessant promotion of Sky's HD channels on every bloody programme on Sky these days? It's bad enough having it before the start, but that bit they do after every ad break where they bring a graphic up at the bottom of the screen telling you to tune in to channel XXX for the HD version really pisses me off. I'm surprised OFCOM hasn't made something of it - it goes waaaaay beyond being for viewer information and is a blatant plug for the premium service at every opportunity. Funny how when we had the Sky v Virgin dispute a few years back Sky was dropping Virgin-specific ads into the VM feed, but this promotion for channels only available to Sky customers isn't made Sky-specific...
Presumably if you are tuned to channel 170 on Sky you don't get them?

Mad Men goes missing from BBC HD

If, like me, you enjoy your weekly dose of Mad Men on BBC HD, you best be prepared for some disappointment this week. Episode six of the third season is only showing on BBC4 this Wednesday - there's no BBC HD simulcast.
Even more confusing is that according to the Radio Times web site the next episode showing on BBC HD is actually the episode 'The Arrangements' (episode 4), which is on Tuesday March 2nd at 11.20pm, followed by 'The Fog' (episode 5, already shown last Wednesday) which is on at ten past midnight. They then appear to miss episode 6 completely from BBC HD as on Wednesday, March 3rd at 10pm the simulcasts resume with episode 7 'Seven Twenty Three'.
Probably a mistake somewhere along the line - hopefully the Tuesday double-bill will show 5 and 6 on BBC HD rather than 4 and 5.

Freeview HD

Danielle Nagler has blogged about the launch of Freeview HD: how long before the comments posted degenerate into folk complaining about the PQ of BBC HD on satellite again? I give it a few minutes...

Sky Sports and Sky Movies HD on Virgin Media

I've been thinking that the signs are good for us getting Sky Sports HD and Sky Movies HD pretty soon on cable. I'm sure that's jinxed it for good, but bare with me...here's my logic...
Sky has done remarkably well with its HD offering - it remains unique in the UK, they've exploited their investment in content and technology (some would argue as is their right) and they've achieved stunning growth in a recession against not just the competition of Virgin Media but also of course Freeview, Freesat, BT Vision and the download community. They've lowered the cost of entry to the point where the HD Sky+ is the standard install, but have managed to maintain the £10 a month surcharge for HD. With the explosive demand for HD (who saw that coming? Certainly not Virgin) they own the premium market and have exploited their unregulated monopoly to great effect. Sure, OFCOM's done some initial sabre rattling about the HD versions of Sports and Movies being covered by the same rules as the standard definition channels, but Sky have ridden that so far and are marketing "Supertelly" like there's no tomorrow. But there is a tomorrow, and here's where I think they're going next.

• Sky will shift its marketing focus to 3D, another premium priced product. I've no interest in it personally, but others will buy it if it's pushed hard enough, and if there's one thing Sky truly excels at, it's marketing
• Sky will respond to Virgin's free HD channel offering by reducing the monthly sub to HD and making the non-premium HD channels in its offering free to owners of the Sky HD+ box
• There'll be a big push for the new Sky HD+ box with the 1Tb disc (actually 1.5Tb - a third of that is set aside for the Sky Anytime service). £249 a pop
• Sky will now cash in on the HD channels by selling them through Virgin Media - exploiting their investment further, picking up more viewers and allowing them to sell premium advertising spots on the HD channels. As we exit the recession, advertisers will be asked to cough up even more if they want to reach the discerning audience with the deepest pockets
• Sky knows that they still have the best HD service - not only do they have superior coverage, but they also have Mpeg4 and have increased the PVR capacity, whereas VM customers still have the wasteful MPeg2 compression filling their smaller discs. (What's more, we can't upgrade our discs to large capacities legally). If you're serious about HD, 160Gb discs are not sufficient
• OFCOM will tell them they must do it anyway, and the Tories won't overturn that over night nor can Sky drag it through the courts.
• Sky1 HD will remain unique to Sky 
• Virgin will continue to offer the barest bones of an HD service via VoD.

I reckon we'll have the Sky Movies and Sports HD in the next few months, albeit at a price.  Maybe even tied in with the sale of Virgin's TV channels to Sky.
Comments? Like I say, that's probably jinxed it for good...