Two new HD channels launching on June 27th

According to Media Boy:
-MTV HD to launch on Virgin Channel 183 on the XL Package.
-Nick HD to launch on Virgin Channel 714 on the XL Package.

Game of Thrones s3 on Blinkbox in HD this July

The everyone's-talking-about third season of Game of Thrones will be available in HD on Blinkbox from 15 July, the streaming service has announced. Blinkbox doesn't currently offer any shows in high definition, but it's using the latest series of the epic fantasy to launch its HD service. No pricing yet for the HD though: standard definition will be available too. The price for the first two series currently costs £1.89 for each show, or £18 for a full season. That's on a buying, not rental, basis so you can watch them however many times you like. More info on www.blinkbox.com

TiVo wins almost half a billion bucks in settlements

From Variety: Google and Cisco Systems will pay TiVo an upfront sum of $490 million to settle the DVR company’s patent litigation — much less than Wall Street anticipated — and TiVo also announced that it has resolved its lawsuit against Time Warner Cable. The payments from Google and Cisco bring the total from awards and settlements related to the use of TiVo’s patents to roughly $1.6 billion, including previous deals with Dish Network, AT&T and Verizon, according to TiVo. In conjunction with approving the terms of the settlement, TiVo’s board approved a major expansion of the company’s stock repurchase program. However, investors and analysts had expected TiVo’s payout from Cisco, Google (which acquired Motorola Mobility) and TWC to be higher — with some estimates around $1 billion for Motorola alone. TiVo itself had said in court filings that it could be entitled to “billions of dollars” in royalty fees from Motorola Mobility based on the number of Motorola DVRs deployed by Time Warner Cable.

Virgin Media adds to TV Anywhere lineup

Virgin Media has added 11 more channels to Virgin TV Anywhere, its award-winning cloud-based entertainment service available exclusively to Virgin TV customers. That's in addition to the 21 added recently. Starting to look like a decent service now. The new array of live channels – including channels from ITV, A&E Networks UK and Viacom International Media Networks – enables Virgin Media subscribers to take their home entertainment beyond the TV to devices such as computers, tablets and smartphones at no extra cost. More details at http://store.virginmedia.com/discover/tv/tvanywhere/online/watch.html Still weak on the smartphones and tablets compared with Sky Go, but slowly getting there on iOS at least.

TiVo customers get the VIP treatment for Glasto

From Recombu:

Virgin Media TiVo customers stand to get the closest to the action with this year’s Glastonbury coverage. The BBC’s six live feeds will be accessible on TiVo via the Connected Red Button whereas other TV platforms will only be able to access at least two.

The new Connected Red Button service will give viewers the option to access all of the live feeds as well as view archive content from previous festivals. At a media event earlier today, we were treated to a work in-progress version of what the Connected Red Button service will look like once Glastonbury 2013 rolls around.
Footage from last year's festival was used to demo the Connected Red Button service. The self-explanatory Artists tab will led you jump to a specific band or artist if you want to watch, say Foals' set. We were told by BBC developers that the Highlights tab, which would serve up curated clips and sets, might not make it to the final version.
It’s estimated that over 250 hours of live footage will be broadcast live by the BBC, with one live feed per each of the six main stages plus a seventh roaming camera crew capturing ancillary festival revelry.
While Virgin Media TiVo customers stand to get the best seats so to speak, you’ll also be able to access all six of the live streams online as well as from the BBC iPlayer Radio apps for iOS and Android.

More information can be found at Sky, Freeview and Freesat to get less BBC Glastonbury coverage than Virgin ...

BT Sport will be on Virgin Media, but pricing and HD details still to be confirmed

From Virgin Media:
Get ready to experience the awesomeness of BT Sport when it launches on Virgin Media this summer. You’ll have access to some of the biggest games and matches on the planet:

• 38 live Barclays Premier League football

• Hundreds of top-flight football matches from Italy, France and Brazil

• Exclusive Aviva Premiership rugby matches

• Women's Tennis Association matches from 21 tournaments

• 2013/14 FA Cup

• Clydesdale Bank Scottish Premier League

• UEFA Europa League

• German Bundesliga

Along with fantastic sports action from across the pond with NCAA College Basketball, NCAA College Football and NASCAR.
Jake Humphrey will anchor Barclays Premier League coverage, Lawrence Dallaglio will be the leading rugby union expert, and Clare Balding will have a weekly show. They'll also be joined by some of sport's biggest names.
The big day is coming, be the first to get BT Sport on Virgin Media.

 (Thanks David)

Justified in HD

Thanks to Martine93 for this:
"Justified is available in HD on Demand 5, They did the same with Season 4 of Sons Of Anarchy as well."

BT Sports on Virgin Media

There's no confirmation still on whether or not we will get the new BT Sports channels on Virgin Media. Today it was announced that BT Broadband customers will get the channels "free" (check the small print) whilst Sky customers will need to cough up £15 for HD versions, £12 for the SD, but there's nothing about VM carriage.
Could be that the legals around the Liberty Global merger are prohibiting other deals for now, or maybe they just can't agree a deal. As soon as I hear anything official I will let you know.

New Virgin Media Chief Executive announced

Another team in red is changing its top man today:

MediaGuardian is reporting that Tom Mockridge, a former News International chief executive, is to replace Neil Berkett as CEO at Virgin Media when the takeover by Liberty Global is completed.

Mockridge quit News International in December after losing out to Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thomson for the top job in the separate book and newspaper publishing business that will be spun off from News Corporation's film and TV assets into a separately listed company later this year.Fries said: "Tom will bring to Virgin Media a breadth of experience in the pay-TV industry, both in the UK and throughout Europe. I have known and worked with Tom for nearly 15 years and have always admired his leadership and operating success in a number of highly competitive media markets."We are fortunate to bring an executive of Tom's talent and experience in to lead Virgin Media in its next phase of growth. I'd also like to wish Neil Berkett all the best in his future endeavours. He has done an outstanding job at Virgin Media and will be missed by all."

Animal Planet HD launched on channel 217 and TLC HD on 168