Coming soon...

The revelations about the Home Secretary's husband's Virgin Media viewing habits in the press will no doubt drive punters to cable in the belief that it harbours on demand porn on a grande scale. They're likely to be disappointed, but there's no such thing as bad publicity and I suspect there'll be an increase in subscribers as a result. I have no idea how VM's adult selection compares with Sky's, but I've noted before that there's a fair amount available in high definition. In fact, it's an area that seems to be growing whereas other on demand HD content is shrinking.

The week ahead of Channel 4 HD

Despite being heralded in a press release from Virgin Media back in 2007 we still don't have the high definition simulcast of Channel 4 on cable. Over the last 15 months or so the HD output from C4 has steadily grown, albeit mainly with films and US imports. This week seems pretty typical, so here, for curiosity value only for VM customers I'm afraid, is what recipients of C4 HD can look forward to this week:
Saturday
21.15 Film Brokeback Mountain
Sunday
14.10 Big Bang Theory
17.30 Time Team
20.00 Come Dine With Me
22.50 Film John Q
Monday
09.50 Brothers & Sisters
18.30 Hollyoaks (and at every night at this time)
Tuesday
00.55 film I [heart] Huckabees
10.00 Brothers & Sisters (and at every morning at this time)
22.00 Shameless
23.05 Big Bang Theory
23.35 My Name is Earl
Wednesday
20.00 Relocation Relocation
22.00 Desperate Housewives
23.00 Shameless
Thursday
13.50 Film Cattle Empire
Friday
20.00 A Place in the Sun: Home or USA
22.00 Film The Ringer

It's better than most weeks on ITV HD and arguably on a par with BBC HD. Whatever your view on the C4 HD programming, any additional HD on cable would be greatly appreciated after such a long wait. Surely it must be truly be "coming soon"...

High Definition soap

BBC HD has its own soap. Not Eastenders (though it is coming) - Doctors. No, I hadn't heard of it either, but tonight's a big night as it's the final episode of season 10 - episode 223 of 223 no less. Quality.
Those suffering withdrawal symptoms from this "medical drama series set in a busy Midlands practice following the turbulent lives and loves of the staff and patients" can undertake immediate treatment on Monday when season 11 kicks off with episode 1 ... of 224 ...

Robin Hood returns to BBC HD

Saturday evenings on BBC HD take on a familiar look from March 28th with the return of Robin Hood at 6.50pm. Not a personal favourite, but it has plenty of fans young and old. According to the promotional material, this series opens with Robin's sad demise...
Saturday also has Planet Earth and Tiger - Spy in the Jungle repeats starting for those that have miraculously avoided those series in HD over the last few years...

BT take on Virgin Media - why??

Can anyone explain how BT's initial roll out plans for its fibre-based cable are to enable a "Digital Britain"? No fewer than 25 of the announced BT 29 exchanges to get the upgrade are already covered by Virgin Media's 50Mbps fibre-optic broadband. BT is investing £1.5bn in its fibre rollout, so why prioritise customers who can already get faster broadband, albeit from a competitor?
Meanwhile, Berkett announces his expectation that Virgin will offer 150Mb broadband by next year (see this BBC story). It seems there are two definitions of "coming soon" in the Berkett Lexicon: one for the 'mine's bigger than yours' broadband boasting, a completely different one for the promised HD service expansion...

Six Nations rugby on BBC HD

Two games today on BBC HD:
15.15 England v Scotland
17.20 Wales v Ireland
Which is followed by a half hour studio discussion on this year's tournament at 19.30

Later on Saturday evening at 22.45 is a BBC drama Trauma starring Colin Firth - click the link for more details.

The hottest HD...

Is there no end to the stunning documentaries in high def the BBC is showing this week? After Yellowstone and the awesome Nature's Great Events (both shown last night) we have on Thursday Hottest Place on Earth, a two-part series about the Ethiopian desert. (9pm BBC HD)

BBC HD now nine hours a day

Quietly, when no-one was really paying attention, BBC HD slipped an extra hour into its daily broadcasting schedule and it now gives us nine hours a day, the full amount agreed with the BBC Trust when the channel was formally launched back in 2007. Okay, so it seems to have filled the earlier hours with family fayre, but it's still good to see the channel broadcasting as promised.
This and a few other interesting tidbits are in Danielle's latest post over on the BBC HD blog - a recommended read as always

The Wire coming to BBC2

All five season's of HBO's finest will soon be shown on BBC2 for wider appreciation after the critical acclaim has reached fever pitch. Unfortunately it won't be on BBC HD - it was shot in Digibeta rather than on film and it's a 4:3 presentation rather than widescreen despite being only a few years' old.
But that shouldn't stop anyone from dipping in to the finest US TV drama ever. Bar none.
And for those who wonder what all the fuss is about, this classic clip (contains quite a few bad words - do not play aloud in the office!) is a brief demonstration of its appeal. CSI was never like this...

More on next gen TV from Virgin Media

Couple of interested comments posted to the story below about Cable Congress this week that I'm promoting to their own post so that they don't get lost:

The next-generation service delivery gateway architecture being discussed by Motorola and Virgin Media is proposed to deliver advanced multimedia services, such as:
* Multi-room TV – the ability to watch recorded content from any TV or PC in the house
* Converged entertainment services across three screens – PC, TV and mobile
* Media Mobility – moving your content from device to device and taking it on-the-go
* Customizable user interfaces.

Visitors to Motorola’s stand (#25) will experience the company’s next-generation technology showcase, developed in conjunction with Virgin Media, which demonstrates the drive towards a less complex delivery of the personalized viewing experience.

Full story here

And Jasmeet 181 has also sent this link Virgin Media, Where Are We Now? to three tantalising slides of Virgin's IP vision