In the news

Been a busy week in the news for Virgin and high definition services. Here are a few stories worth checking out.

• There's a report on the forthcoming arrival of high definition channels on Freeview HD in the Telegraph
• Speculation that Virgin is considering selling access to its fibre network for broadband and telephone services to third parties from The Guardian
• Accessing an alternative "free" HD service online is tested in this report from Home Cinema Choice

Berkett talks HD

A full transcript of Virgin Media's presentation to investors is now available online. To save you plodding through all ten pages of financial results and debt management, here are the bits that refer to HD services:

Neil Berkett (Virgin Chief Executive): We are working to ensure our TV services stay ahead of changes in the consumer behaviour. We expect to increase our HD content steadily to complement our existing linear and on-demand lineup. We are currently negotiating with several broadcasters with a view to launching at least five new HD channels in the third quarter.
Looking further ahead to the next generation of TV, we are working on capitalsing on technological convergence by developing a prototype next generation screen-based interface that combines traditional broadcast content with on-demand programming, web-based entertainment, and interactive features in a simple and user-friendly format. We believe these elements will enable us to differentiate our offering even further and drive further growth over the coming years.
All of our 600,000 DVR boxes are HD ready and as I have said, we intend to grow our HD content and capability this year, commensurate with the pace of market demand for HD. Of course, our key competitive TV advantage is video-on-demand and we already have around 270 hours of HD VOD content, which has recently been bolstered by our launch of the HD version of BBCI player on our platform.
Question from audience: ...on HD and Sky in particular, you had a very good quarter on gross adds. Can you just tell us of any sort of specific retention measures you had to put in place this quarter to counter that, and whether those should ease off as maybe Sky’s level of activity on HD drops off for the next couple of quarters?
Berkett: We see HD as an evolution in the U.K. It’s not a revolution, and we think it’s appropriate that we enter the market now, so we are making appropriate investments in terms of HD. Priority to date has been to ensure that we can absolutely leverage our network advantage and now we’ll start to, if you like, take application back into content and invest in acquiring HD -- appropriate HD channels. Again, I think it’s important that we acquire HD content where HD makes it different and we won’t be investing in the tile.
In respect to specific retention around Sky’s push in terms of HD, we haven’t had to have any material retention in place. I think more and more we are seeing the market segment around various offerings from ourselves, from Sky, or from BT. You know, this is not a zero sum game and so we haven’t had to do anything material in the retention space against HD and therefore to your follow-up question, there will be no lessening of that because it’s not in place in the first place.

Virgin Media to redesign EPG and boost HD

From MediaGuardian:

Programme guide redesign and new HD content to boost service already tried by half cable company Virgin Media's users

Virgin Media is planning to change its electronic programming guide so that catch-up TV content is as easy to find as linear television channels. The company has also been testing tying adverts around VoD content, offering another potential money-spinner.

"We are seeing catch-up programming driving things forward," Berkett added. "But HD on demand is also becoming important and we are launching, in July or August, another half a dozen linear HD channels as well. We think it is time to start to join the evolution of HD viewing, economically it is about the right time."

Earlier this year, Sky slashed the cost of its HD service and launched a major advertising push to persuade viewers to start watching HD content. The move helped the satellite broadcaster add 80,000 new customers in the first quarter.

Sky persuaded 243,000 of its customers to take up HD television in the first three months and now has more than 1 million HD households.

Now Virgin Media is looking to get in on the act. Berkett said its new HD channels with "be principally from external parties" rather than developed by its in-house content business.

Virgin Media is able to increase the amount of HD and VoD content available on its cable network, which covers roughly half the UK's households, because of a technical upgrade, which allowed the company to last year launch broadband at 50Mb per second.

Berkett refused to say how many customers have signed up to the super-fast service but the company has already started trials of an even faster broadband offering. Commercial trials of broadband at 200Mb per second began in Ashford, Kent, last week.

Alongside the introduction of much faster speeds than are currently possible on BT's copper network - which is used by rivals including Sky and TalkTalk to provide internet access - the upgrade of Virgin Media's cable network is allowing the company to upgrade its basic broadband service from 2Mb per second to 10Mb. The upgrade of its 2.4 million basic broadband customers starts this month and as a result Virgin Media recently announced it will be increasing the price of its basic service by £2 a month.

Three-quarters of the 47,300 broadband customers that Virgin Media added in the first three months of the year took a service at 10Mb per second or higher. Including a quarter of a million customers who are outside its cable network, Virgin Media currently has just under 4 million broadband users.

From Berkett's presentations

I haven't followed the Virgin Media webcast of the quarterly presentation to investors but above are a few slides from the presentations pertinent to future HD services

Bond arrives in HD on Filmflex in May

Here are the Filmflex HD premieres this month:

• Quantum Of Solace 07-May-09
• Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa 21-May-09
• Twilight 21-May-09
• The Women 01-May-09
• Defiance 31-May-09
• Transporter 3 18-May-09
• Zack & Miri Make A Porno 08-May-09
• Waltz With Bashir 30-May-09

Some of last summer's blockbusters will be disappearing (notably Indiana Jones and Iron Man) so if you were planning to watch them, move quickly.

Also here are some of the series appearing in May in TV Choice on Demand (no details as to HD - sorry):

Sci Fi & Fantasy
• Star Trek: Voyager s7
• Star Trek: Enterprise s2
• Babylon 5 s3
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles s1
• Andromeda s2
• Primeval s1
Drama
• The Closer s3
• ER s14
• Men In Trees s1
• Nip/Tuck s5
• One Tree Hill s5
• Smallville s7
• Without A Trace s6
• Band Of Brothers
• Carnivale s1
• Entourage s3
• Six Feet Under s4
• Tell Me You Love Me s1
• The Sopranos s2
• The Wire s2
• Regenesis s2
• Lost In Austen
• Superhuman
• Sharpe’s Challenge
• See No Evil
• Dr Zhivago
• Persuasion
• Wired
• The Listener s1
• The Border s1
• Supernatural s2
• Close To Home s1
• Studio 60 s1
• The West Wing s2
• Mind Of The Married Man s1
Comedy
• Big Bang Theory s1
• The Class
• Friends s3
• Joey s2
• Old Christine s1
• Curb Your Enthusiasm s2
• Dane Cook: Vicious Circle
• No Signal s1
• Comic Strip Presents…
Private Enterprise/Consuela
• Fonejacker
• Just For Laughs s2
• Veronica’s Closet s3
• Two And A Half Men s4
• IT Crowd s1
Factual & Entertainment
• Vimy Ridge: Heaven To Hell
• What Happened To Natalee Holloway
• Crime Stories: David Shearing
– The Wells Grey Gunman
• Crime Stories: David Snow
– The House Hermit
• Storm Chasers: Tornado Intercept Tank
• Dr G: Medical Examiner: Under The Knife
• Most Evil: Jealously
• Living With… Boy George
• Deep Jungle s1 HD
• Fat Teens In Love
• Marco’s Great British Feast

HBO's Carnivale in HD

Not the greatest show ever made by HBO but still visually sumptuous - the first season of Carnivale is now appearing slowly in TV Choice on Demand. This is the show Ronald D Moore worked on before Battlestar Galactica - something of an oddity and not to all tastes, the title sequence alone is worth watching in high def.

BBC iPlayer HD on Virgin

Official press release:

The BBC and Virgin Media (NASDAQ: VMED) today announced the launch of High Definition (HD) content on BBC iPlayer on Virgin Media.

Virgin Media's TV customers are now able to watch some of their favourite BBC programmes, including Robin Hood, Friday Night With Jonathan Ross and Later… With Jools Holland, in HD and on demand [see Notes to Editors].

Virgin Media is the first TV platform to make BBC iPlayer available in full screen picture quality, directly to its TV customers. Demand for the service has been strong with over 100 million views since BBC iPlayer launched on Virgin Media in May 2008 and almost 15 million views in March alone.

Katharine Burns Rivington, Executive Director of Content Acquisition at Virgin Media, said: "As more households become HD Ready, we're keen to ensure that Virgin Media customers benefit from the most advanced digital TV service possible. BBC iPlayer has been a huge success on our TV platform and we're thrilled to be expanding the service with HD content. We're looking forward to increasing our line-up of broadcast HD channels over the next few months and combining the very best of HD and on demand TV."

Rahul Chakkara, BBC Controller, TV Platforms, said: "There's a real appetite for BBC iPlayer on TV screens and the addition of the BBC HD programmes further adds to its appeal. HD lets viewers enjoy their favourite programmes in exceptionally vivid colours and crisp pictures, perfect for the TV screen."

Upcoming highlights from the BBC HD channel, now available for catch-up on BBC iPlayer on Virgin Media, include the two remaining Doctor Who specials, the new series of Dragons' Den and children's show Kerwhizz.

UPDATE: There's a BBC Internet Blog post on the launch on Virgin, too.

BBC HD in catch up

It seems to be a list growing by the hour. No sign of the BBC's US imports (Damages, Mad Men, Heroes) but as the first two of those have their season finales next week that's not surprising. Here's what my V+ has as of 7am May 1st:

• All The Small Things
• Doctors (28/3)
• Gardeners' World
• Kerwhizz (2 ep)
• Last of the Summer Wine
• The Old Guys
• Reggie Perrin (with its awful laughter track)
• Robin Hood
• Tellytales
• Tonight's the Night

I have a feeling that the arrival of HD in iPlayer is going to be Virgin's sole announcement on HD service improvements this month. I hope I'm wrong.

BBC HD content appears on VM iPlayer

As mentioned in a few comments to earlier posts, a new folder, HD Catch Up has appeared in the on demand catch up TV listings (option 5). Content appears to have been added over the evening - all so far has been from BBC HD.
Also, someone has posted that there are now subtitles available on BBC HD - haven't checked this myself.

BBC HD copy protection

Whilst we're now counting the hours down to Virgin's inevitable so-so quarterly results and maybe (but don't count on it) an announcement about more HD, here's an interesting article from Crave about the BBC HD copy protection standards. I don't necessarily agree with what the guy is saying, but I do think that copy protection is a thorny issue for HD once Blu-Ray recorders become more commonplace.