Virgin introducing the Superhub 3

(Thanks to Matthew Smith for the lead on this story)
Virgin Media's broadband customers may soon have a new Superhub 3 (pictured) according to ISPreview.

Gregor McNeil, Virgin Media’s Managing Director for Consumer, said: "As we roll out our Vivid services with speeds up to 200Mbps across the UK we’ll be future-proofing customers’ connections with a new home router launching in the coming months."

That new router is the Superhub 3, and ISPreview has more of the technical details. It's interesting that the box's white styling (my first thought was 'it's a Wii!') is very similar to the TiVo Bolt we may be seeing in the next few months.

Virgin Media annual profits rise 38%

Wow. Didn't see that coming.
Virgin Media has reported a leap in underlying earnings to £377.5m in 2015, up from £274.1m in 2014, as a jump in broadband customer numbers offset high numbers of TV subscribers quitting following those hugely unpopular price rises and the ill-timed expiration of "loyalty" bonuses.
Virgin Media’s results showed its best broadband performance for more than five years, with 69,000 UK internet customers added on a net basis in the final three months of 2015 – the highest since the beginning of 2010. Fixed-line telephone customer numbers rose strongly, up 56,000 in the fourth quarter, and by 94,000 for the whole year, helping the group notch up a record 99,000 additional customers overall in the UK in 2015.
It's good to see that people voted with their wallets and the painful TV prices hit hard with only 900 TV subscribers added during the fourth quarter – a fraction of the 21,500 who joined in the same quarter a year earlier. It would be interesting to see how many downgraded their bundles as a result (which is what I did) but sadly VM don't report that. They do admitted it had seen “elevated TV churn” after raising the price of its TV XL package by £3 in September – a move it made to recoup some of the increased costs of sports rights, which include live Premier League football. The numbers of TV customers quitting stabilised in the fourth quarter of last year, but I expect this month's subsequent price increase will hit Q1 2016 numbers even harder - I've had lots of feedback on that one from folk who saw that as just too much to stomach.

NowTV Sky Sports picture quality

Has anyone with a Now TV box tried the Sky Sports service? If so, what's the picture quality like these days? Good enough or pretty good? I'm not impressed by the box's Sky Sports News's picture. 

Changes with Sky Movies HD on demand?

I just received this from a moderator on VM's Community Boards:

"Virgin Media has had to make a temporary change to the Sky Movies HD On Demand line up, in order to make some upgrades to our network. And we plan on getting things back on track as soon as possible."

Hmmmm. 

Sky Q pricing announced, new Now TV box later in the year

It's always interesting to see what Sky are doing, and Virgin Media's TiVo will start to look even longer in the tooth come February as Sky starts to introduce the new Sky Q service around the country. Pricing details have been announced too and the top priced Sky Q bundle, including Sports, Movies and HD, will be £88.50 per month (the current top priced Sky TV bundle is £75.75, so that's a tenner more).
There's also a one-off charge for the new box too - and it will be cheaper for Sky broadband customers. If you don't have Sky broadband, Sky Movies or Sky Sports, the Q box will be £249 and the Q Silver box will be £299. A Sky Q Silver bundle with the Sky Q Silver box and one Mini box will also be available for £299. The new boxes looks awfully like the Roku 4 box in the US to my eyes.
Hands on reviews for the new Sky tech have been largely positive but the absence of 4k programming at launch has been commented on.
There is also the promise of a 'more advanced' Now TV box later this year. Existing Now TV customers will see a new interface roll out to their boxes from February.
The new Now box will combine Now TV and Freeview channels for the first time and will allow Sky to better compete against BT and TalkTalk’s low priced TV services which are also delivered via broadband and include a mix of pay channels alongside Freeview’s aerial-delivered channels. It's a Roku, too.

Murdoch's back at the helm at Sky

It's like phone hacking never happened...
James Murdoch has been appointed as the Chairman of Sky, increasing the influence of the Murdoch dynasty as the UK's leading pay TV empire. Full story at The Guardian. I'd expect Rupert Murdoch to make another attempt to take over the whole of Sky now, and it's not like a British government is going to stand in his way, is it?
In recent times the relationship between Sky and Virgin Media has been pretty amicable; VM needs the Sky channels and content and, aside from Sky Atlantic, pretty much has it and in HD too, and Sky benefits from the audience of 4m Virgin Media households.
With TV services I don't think Sky has regarded VM as a serious commercial rival for many years, more a partner where they always have the upper hand. Besides, Sky seems to have turned its heavy artillery on BT and Netflix/Amazon these days, which makes Virgin a useful little brother in the content battles ahead.

X-Files HD bonanza

If you're impatient for the new X-Files 'event' on Channel Five next month you can get yourself all Scully n Muldered up in HD beforehand. 

H2 HD is currently showing season 2 around midnight. It's upscaled but an improvement on the old DVDs I have. Even better are the 5* repeats showing around the same time, which are a selection of "essential" episodes and the very best from across all 9 seasons. If you want to watch in HD search for X Files in the On Demand listings. Currently up is the disturbing "Home" from season four. Brrrrr

Sky Atlantic adds Showtime shows to its 'exclusives' roster

Not content with signing HBO up as exclusive to the channel, Sky Atlantic has now announced it's also tied up Showcase with a similar deal, depriving Virgin Media customers of further US cable hits. 

“This is one of the most important content deals Sky has ever agreed, cementing Sky’s position as the market-leader in Europe for world-class drama,” said Sky Content boss Gary Davey.
“The agreement means our customers can enjoy an incredible slate of upcoming new dramas like Billions, Twin Peaks and also explore hundreds of hours of amazing series such as Dexter, Californication, The Affair and House of Lies on demand from the back catalogue of one of the world’s most exciting pay TV networks.”
The value of the deal was not revealed but Sky is known to have paid at least£55m a year for a UK-only HBO rights agreement, which runs until 2020.
The pan-European Showtime deal is thought to be worth about £75m per year.

 The absence of Sky Atlantic from Virgin has long been a bone of contention for many cable customers, myself included, and for the last few years I've subscribed to Now TV's Entertainment package just to get access to the channel and related Sky Box sets. The downside for Virgin Media is that, as the Now TV platform matures, the money I spend on Virgin's XL TV is increasingly looking like poor value compared with the Sky-powerered alternative and unless something changes soon I may abandon Virgin's TV service simply because I'm paying VM a small fortune each month when almost all the shows I watch are on Freeview, Netflix or Atlantic.

New Virgin Media TiVo boxes this year

Nothing confirmed by Virgin Media yet, but I've heard now from several sources that Virgin are currently testing a new TiVo box for introduction in the first half of 2016. I would guess that it will be based on the US TiVo Bolt (pictured above and reviewed already stateside) which means 4k capability and a considerable step up from the TiVo currently supplied.
And, of course, if they keep the name 'Bolt' they already an ad campaign star who they can capitalise on.
Bring it on...

Netflix Originals in 2016

Fans of the first season on Netflix of Jessica Jones will be pleased to hear that a second series is already in production, whilst the other Marvel show, the excellent Daredevil, returns for a second season on March 18th.

Netflix has also announced the fourth season of House of Cards will arrive on March 4th whilst the superior Orange is the New Black will return on June 17th. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (which for reasons beyond me The Guardian ranked as the number one TV show of 2015 - seriously??) gets its second season on April 15th; the almost unwatchably bad Grace and Frankie returns on May 6th.

New shows are also now scheduled. The Will Arnett comedy Flaked arrives on March 11th, followed by the Ashton Kutcher family drama The Ranch on April 1st. The teen-targeted Lost & Found Music Studios also launches on April 1st, followed by an animated series Kong on April 15th, the French political drama Marseille on May 5th, the Winona Ryder supernatural Stranger Things on July 15th and Baz Luhrmann's The Get Down on August 12th.

The big one for me is the return of Better Call Saul on February 14th. It may not be a 'Netflix Original' is the strictest sense (it's shown on AMC in the US) but it is unique on Netflix in the UK and is one helluva show.