Virgin announces Tivo 1 Tb V+

Press release: 

Virgin Media announces details of new TiVo-powered next generation connected TV service

• New HD/3D set top box will offer 1TB of personal storage
• Thousands of hours of TV on Demand instantly available
• Dedicated internal modem to bring internet services and apps direct to TV

Virgin Media today announced the first details of its upcoming TiVo-powered HD/3D set top box which will give customers a whopping 1 TeraByte of storage for personal recordings.  The new HD/3D set top box will launch alongside Virgin Media’s new TiVo-powered next generation connected TV service scheduled for later this year, and will be capable of storing up to 500 hours of content. When coupled with Virgin Media’s pioneering TV on Demand service, the new service will give UK consumers unrivalled access to over 4,600 hours of TV shows, movies and music videos, including hundreds of hours of HD and 3D entertainment, plus catch up TV from the terrestrial broadcasters, all available instantly.
Powered by Virgin Media’s unique fibre optic network, the box will also feature its own dedicated internal modem able to deliver HD video and other online services without impacting customers’ regular broadband connections. As a result, Virgin Media’s new TiVo-powered service will not only be able to deliver linear TV alongside an unbeatable instant TV on demand offering but will also be able to support compelling online video in HD straight to customers’ TVs without having to sacrifice other online activities when in use.
Competitors’ ‘connected TV’ products rely on just one central broadband connection, typically DSL, making it difficult for families to watch online TV or TV on Demand and take advantage of the internet at the same time. With Virgin Media, a typical family enjoying the new TiVo-powered TV service alongside Virgin Media's ultrafast 50Mb broadband connection will be able to enjoy a seamless experience with incredible connectivity, allowing the whole family to watch, surf, and play, all at the same time without compromise.
Cindy Rose, executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media, said: “Virgin Media’s next generation connected TV service - powered by TiVo - and combined with our superior broadband will blow other ‘connected TV’ products out of the water. We’re really proud of our new next-generation TV service which will appeal to anyone and everyone looking for the best of live broadcast TV, catch up, on demand and internet apps and services.”

No more details yet but should be imminent "will launch [...] later this year" which, given that we're already into November means in the next month or so. 
I've no idea what pricing will be; Sky's 1Tb Sky+ is £249 plus a £15 install for existing customers, but that's no real indicator as Sky customers then own their box, Virgin Media customers won't. Also, the TiVo service is a subscription service in the US, not sure if that will hit us or not. (Tivo US pricing can be found at www.tivo.com.) More news, hopefully, to follow really soon.

BBC HD boss Danielle Nagler talks Picture Quality

With Wednesday's launch of the BBC One HD simulcast, Danielle Nagler has been discussing the thorny question of the picture quality on BBC HD with Digital Spy: BBC HD's Nagler on... picture quality.

18 free HD movies this weekend

A reminder: Virgin Media customers can watch 18 movies from Saturday 30th October 6am until Monday 1st November 6am on Sky Movies Showcase Channel 403 and Sky Movies Showcase HD channel 433. You don't need to pre-register, nor be a Sky Movies subscriber.
Here are the movies showing:

Saturday 30th October

6.15am  You're So Cupid
8am  Rugrats In Paris: The Movie
10am  Cats & Dogs
12pm  Race To Witch Mountain
1.45pm  Alex Zane's Guest List: Simon Pegg
2.15pm  Paul Blart: Mall Cop
4pm  Cats &Dogs
6pm  Confessions Of A Shopaholic
8pm  Fast & Furious
10pm  Paul Blart: Mall Cop
11.45pm  Transporter 3

Sunday 31st October

2.05am  Fast & Furious
4.05am  You're So Cupid
6.10am  Coraline
8am  Bedtime Stories
10am  Confessions Of A Shopaholic
12pm  Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Season 3, Episode 1
12.30pm  Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Season 3, Episode 2
1.20pm  Bolt  *Special showing courtesy of Disney Cinemagic*
3pm  A Bug's Life  *Special showing courtesy of Disney Cinemagic*
4.40pm  Brother Bear  *Special showing courtesy of Disney Cinemagic*
6.15pm Coraline
8pm  Bedtime Stories
9.45pm  Seven Pounds

Monday 1st November

12am Righteous Kill
1.45am Forrest Gump
4.15am Stone Of Destiny

Syfy cancels Caprica

The US Syfy network has announced that the low-rated Battlestar Galactica prequel has been cancelled. Hopefully Sky 1 HD will carry the remaining episodes of season one before too long. Or maybe it will air them on Sky Atlantic?

Added to the VMHD blog

I've added two new features to this blog:
VMHD Most Popular Posts 
These are the five most-read posts on the blog. Most visitors just hit the home page, but where people have gone to specific posts these are the most popular in the three years the blog has been running. Interesting that several of them report things that were rumoured by reliable sources but have yet to happen (ITV2, 1Tb V+, Sky News in HD).
What Nialli is watching on his V+
The HD series I'm recording as Series Links at the moment.Interesting that the only two series not available in HD are Spooks and Match of the Day. Some series I don't record in HD as I will take a while to getting round to them AND THERE JUST AINT ENOUGH SPACE ON THE DISC!!!

BBC One HD on channel 108, BBC HD now on 187

Information page on ch.108

Great BBC advertisement for Virgin Media 50Mb broadband

Heard this on Radio 5Live this morning. Mr Berkett (for that is he commenting in the background) must be well-chuffed - great advertising on the BBC.
It was part of the news story on Virgin's launch of 100mb home broadband btw.

Sky Atlantic

Just got an email from Cindy Rose, Virgin Media's Executive Director of Digital Entertainment, on Sky Atlantic. She says

Regarding Sky Atlantic, we are in discussions with Sky regarding this channel now.  We know little more about the channel and its programming than we have read in the press.  It is entirely up to Sky as to whether they make the channel available to us and at what price.  As always, we will do our very best to continue to offer our customers the best entertainment content available, but as I'm sure you'll appreciate, there are no guarantees.  As soon as we have something to announce, rest assured we will.

I'm still confident that we'll get Sky Atlantic at launch and that Digital Spy have got things wrong in their report on Sky's EPG announcement earlier this week.
One would have hoped that there would have been something in the carriage deal agreed with Sky for the Sky Basics and the VMTV stable that would ensure that VM customers got new or additional channels if others were closed. For the record, since the deals we've lost Sky Real Lives, Sky Real Lives 2 (and the promised HD versions of both), Virgin (now Channel) One, +1, Bravo, +1 and Bravo 2. That's seven SD channels down and two HD that we were expecting, and the only new one announced, Sky Atlantic, we may not be getting. In fact, who's to say that when Living becomes Sky Living we don't lose that one too? And Sky Living +1 and Sky Living 2? And if Sky 1 becomes "Sky One" again?
Alarmist I know, but I just thought I'd throw it out there - as I say, I'm confident Cindy and the VM team won't let us down.

Virgin Media Q3 2010 results

From the press release:

Revenue growth in all segments drives strong financial performance

• Total revenue up 6.4% to £978m
  • Revenue growth in all areas, including strong growth in both Mobile and Business
• Fourth successive quarter of double-digit percentage OCF² growth, up 11.0% to £387m
• Operating income doubled to £102m from £51m
• Free cash flow³ up 8.6% to £119m; last 12 months FCF up 18.2% versus previous 12 months

Operational performance driven by continued ARPU and customerincreases

• Cable ARPU up 3.7% to a record £46.38
• Cable customers up 1.9% with 14,100 net new cable customers in Q3, up from 8,100 a year ago
  • Cable gross additions of 236,000 up 10.4%
• Triple-play penetration increased to 62.7% and quad-play penetration increased to 11.5%, reflecting focus on bundling
• Pre-registration for UK's fastest widely available broadband opens today; 100Mb broadband service further extends Virgin Media's speed advantage

Continued improvement of Company's capital structure

• Accelerated Stock Buyback programme of £125m completed; Board authority remains for £250m of further buybacks
• Effective increase of Convertible strike price from $19.22 to $35
  • Execution of conversion hedges against 90% of convertible notes
  • Would reduce future dilution by 21m shares, assuming $35 stock price in 2016
  • Existing convertible noteholders unaffected

Neil Berkett, Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Media, said: "Our continued focus on exploiting our strategic advantages with the resulting multiple opportunities for revenue growth, as well as robust financial discipline has delivered another strong financial performance this quarter. We are extending our lead in broadband even further with the imminent availability of 100Mb as consumer demand for consistently faster broadband grows."

Strengthening "Digital Entertainment"
We grew our TV base by 14,800 in the quarter to 3.77m customers. These viewers continue to enjoy our market-leading video-on-demand (VOD) service with well over half of them using and watching VOD as part of their everyday lives.
We have continued to aggressively expand our High Definition (HD) offering. Just over a year ago, we carried one HD channel, but we have increased this to 28 currently, including Sky Sports HD and Sky Movies HD. Basic HD channels are available to customers for no additional monthly fee and, as a result, our HD base is growing rapidly. We added 222,100 HD customers in the quarter to reach an installed base of 1.4m and HD penetration of 38%. During the quarter, we also added over 100,000 Sky premium subscribers to reach a total of 725,000 which included 52,000 customers who have subscribed to Sky Sports HD and/or Sky Movies HD since launch in August.
In September we launched the UK's first 3D VOD TV service to be commercially available to millions of homes. We have an exclusive partnership in the UK with Samsung Electronics to explore and develop opportunities in the 3D marketplace; including expanding the number of our retail stores where 3D is showcased.
Work continues with TiVo to develop and launch our next generation TV service, which is on track to be installed in the first homes in the fourth quarter.

Sky Atlantic and on demand

It looks increasingly like Virgin Media will carry the new Sky Atlantic HBO/AMC imports channel. Why do I think this? Well if it was going to be a satellite exclusive they'd be shouting about it big time, yet the investors statement made this morning simply says:

Sky Atlantic – From early 2011, the brand new channel will provide an exclusive home to some of the most eagerly anticipated shows intelevision, including all of HBO's new series such as the already critically acclaimed Boardwalk Empire and the forthcoming Game of Thrones,  Luck and Tremé. Sky Atlantic will also be the exclusive home of Mad Men from 2011.  

Plenty of use of the word "exclusive", but nothing about it being exclusive to Sky customers. Fingers' crossed.
Also announced last week was the launch of Sky's internet-based Anytime+ video on demand service, which is likely to be good news for those of us waiting for Sky One programmes to start appearing on Virgin Media On Demand as promised. Whilst Sky were never going to let VM have this as a service before Sky got its on demand act together, presumably now they're launching the Sky service we're finally going to see the likes of Fringe and Modern Family on demand now too.