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.

Details: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/may/28/virgin-media-to-disappear-from-uk-high-street-coronavirus

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

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

Now TV adds Disney Plus

Now TV customers can now directly access the Disney Plus streaming service from their Now TV device.
With no further news on Virgin Media introducing the app on the V6 boxes this is an easy way for Virgin Media customers who have Now TV for Sky Atlantic to access the new streaming service.
Now TV Smart Stick and Smart Box owners will need to purchase Disney Plus (£5.99 per month or £49.99 per year) directly through Disney before signing into their account through their Now TV streamer’s Disney Plus app. You can take advantage of a free seven day trial if you want to try before you buy. Details at the Disney Plus website.
Note that a Disney Plus subscription is not included in any Now TV passes.

Suspending Sky and BT Sports during the pandemic lockdown - update

Virgin has updated the form where you can suspend payments for Sky Sports during the current pandemic crisis so that you can suspend payment for BT Sports too. Here’s the new form https://www.virginmedia.com/help/thinking-of-leaving/talk-to-us/submitted.
I’m on the Oomph package, and I’m seeing a monthly credit of £27 for Sky and £9.25 for BT.

Brand new in-cinema releases available to watch at home on Virgin for less

To help customers through the pandemic lockdown, Virgin Media has some brand new films on current release to watch now on Virgin Movies, and at a reduced price for Virgin customers. These are Emma, Military Wives, The Hunt and The Invisible Man are available to rent, £9.99 for 48 hours.
Also, from Monday 23rd March Virgin are giving over 2.7 million Pay Monthly customers unlimited minutes to landlines and other mobile numbers, plus a 10GB data boost, at no extra cost, for a month.

Pausing Sky Sports during the pandemic

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/thinking-of-leaving/talk-to-us

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, Virgin Media is offering us the option of pausing our Sky Sports payments until live sport resumes. If you’d like to do this, please enter your details on this form on the above link and Virgin will pause your Sky Sports payments.
During this paused period, you will still be able to watch the Sky Sports channels. Virgin will make this change as soon as possible, if they need anything from you they will get in touch and there’s no need to call them.
(And you don’t need to do anything once live sport resumes, Virgin restart your payments automatically.)

Mixed messages on Disney+

Disney+ has launched in the UK and is available on Sky Q (but not in 4k yet) and various smart tellies. But it's not Virgin’s V6...yet.
Sky are boasting

‘We’ve partnered with Disney to be the only pay-TV provider to offer Disney+ on their platform.’ (https://www.sky.com/help/home/sky-tv/sky-tv-q/using-sky-q/q-tv-apps-test/using-sky-q-tv-apps/diagnostics/sky-tv-apps-on-sky-q/using-disney-plus)

but only last week Disney said they were still in discussions with Virgin and BT. Are Sky making this claim while the other suppliers finalise deals? I think they may be - they’ve made similar ambiguous claims before and we know the Sky/Disney deal is ‘non-exclusive’. And Disney+ hasn't appeared on NowTV yet we know that's a done deal as it's already been announced and that's a pay-TV provider (albeit owned by Sky). Don't give up hope on Disney+ on the V6 just yet.