Confirmed: Sky Sports Xtra to rebranded as Sky Sports 4 next month

From January 6th 2010 Sky Sports Xtra will be rebranded as Sky Sports 4 on Virgin TV.

EXCLUSIVE: Absolute 80s ready to launch

A Virgin Insider has confirmed to me that Absolute 80s will be available on Virgin Media Channel 951 from Tomorrow (Friday).

December 1st update

• Disney Cinemagic is now free to all Sky Movies customers on Virgin Channel 728.
• Fun Kids Radio has been removed from Virgin Channel 926.

EXCLUSIVE: Virgin Media to add Disney Cinemagic to Sky Movies Pack

A Virgin Media insider has confirmed that from 1st December Disney Cinemagic is included for all Sky Movies subscribers. Any customer who had both will no longer pay the £5 subscription for Cinemagic.

It will remain a seperate subscription channel for customers not on Sky Movies.

LIVING2 to be rebrand on November 30th as LivingIt

LIVING2 to be rebrand on November 30th as LivingIt.

Absolute Radio to launch 80s station

Absolute Radio is to ditch Absolute Xtreme and replace with with the more mainstream Absolute 80s, from early December.

MTV to rebrand TMF as Viva

From October 26th MTV will rebrand TMF as Viva on Virgin Channel 313.

ZEE Network UK to rebrand ZEE Muzic as Zing on Friday 2nd October

ZEE Network UK has confirmed to BizAsia.co.uk that Zing will fully replace the ZEE Muzic brand on Friday 2nd October.

Virgin viewers can view Zee Music on Virgin TV Channel 811 (Not in Ex-Telewest areas.)

Sky leads the pack to buy VMTV’s portfolio

BSkyB is the clear favourite to land the Virgin Media Television channel portfolio as the sale process moves towards its conclusion.

Living HD tests appear

Virgin have renamed VMTest6 as Living HD however it is not currently testing and showing the test card of ESPN channels coming soon.

Setanta Sports Fallout: Racing UK to be axe from Virgin Media's XL Pack

From Next Monday (August 17th) Racing UK will be remove from the XL Pack and will be an standalone channel at an cost of £20 per month.

Info from Virgin Channel 536.

Setanta Sports Fallout: Aresnal TV Closedown

Aresnal has today closedown their TV Channel - but it may relaunch that an later date.

Aresnal TV was on Virgin Channel 542.

Digital Spy: C4 HD coming to Virgin Media tomorrow

Virgin Media has announced that Channel 4 HD will become available tomorrow on its cable TV network.

Setanta Sports Fallout: More news to come from Virgin Media - This week

News on what's happening with the remaining channels left from the old Setanta offer - like Racing UK and Arsenal TV.

Cable Forum: MUTV moves to make way for ESPN Channels on Virgin Media

New Sports Channel EPG Lineup for Virgin TV from Monday.

Latest on when HD Channels will launch on Virgin Media

Here is the list of HD Channels that I know Virgin Media has signed deal for to carry:

Virgin Media: ESPN to launch on XL Package

The plan is to make ESPN, ESPN HD and ESPN America available to Virgin Media's XL customers will help ESPN better serve sports fans in the UK. It's an exciting season ahead and we look forward to bringing our new channels, ESPN and ESPN HD as well as ESPN Classic, to as many sports fans as possible.

Jetix to closed on August 31st

Jetix will be rebrand as Disney XD on 31st August on Virgin Channel 707.

EXCLUSIVE: Channel 4 HD May launch next week

Channel 4 HD may launch on Virgin Media next week with MTVNHD, FX HD and Nat Geo HD.

EXCLUSIVE: New info on HD Channels on Virgin Media Tests

A Virgin Media viewer has pm me today with new information on Channels testing on Ex-C&W boxes.

Teletext to shut down in 2010

Teletext will cease all transmissions - analogue and digital - of its main text services including those on ITV, Channel 4 and Five in January 2010.

HD Channels on Virgin Media update

Here is the latest HD Channels on Virgin Media information I have at time of posting.

Digital Spy: 4 HD channels to launch on Virgin Media

Story from Digital Spy:

Virgin Media has confirmed that four more high definition channels will join its digital cable TV lineup.

EXCLUSIVE: Virgin Media tests Five HD Channels

An Virgin Media viewer in an Ex-ntl area has told me the following in an email:

Virgin Media TV Blog: August 1st for six HD channels on Virgin?

THIS POST WAS ADDED TO MEDIA BOY BLOG ON JULY 21ST 2021:

According to a forum post on Digital Spy, Virgin will launch six HD channels on August 1st:

Just received a reply from Mr Berkett's office regarding HD Channels and ESPN. Below is the reply (Please note no mention of coming soon)

Howard
We are in negotiation with ESPN
We will launch half a dozen channels on August 1

Nothing official from Virgin and not the first time we've seen a possible date. I will see if anyone at VM can substantiate this. Stay tuned...

UPDATE: Just got this back from VM support:

At the moment there have been no announcements, as soon as anything new does come out this will be communicated to the customers.
thanks

Kind Regards
Laura Jay
Virgin Media Technical Support

©copyright 2021 Virgin Media TV Blog 2007 - 2021.

Setanta Sports Fallout - EXCLUSIVE: Virgin Media insider give Media Boy HQ an update on Setanta Sports Channels

A Virgin Media insider has just given an updates on what may happen to the Setanta Sports channels on Virgin Media.

Setanta Sports - Guardian Media: Setanta goes off air with loss of more than 200 jobs

Story from Guardian Media:

Irish pay-TV company Setanta has today been placed into administration after rescue talks designed to secure new funding collapsed.

Digital Spy: Virgin Media confirms ESPN talks

Virgin Media is in talks with ESPN about its recently secured TV rights to English Premier League games.

Broadcast: Living primed for HD roll-out

Virgin Media will roll out an HD version of Living this year as part of a cross-platform strategy to boost the channel’s brand.

Bauer radio stations leave Virgin Media

A ex-NTL viewer (Nialli) has confirmed that Virgin Media has today axe the following Bauer's radio stations:

Digital Spy: UKTV Food to become Good Food

UKTV Food to become Good Food

Virgin Media TV Blog: Virgin testing 7 new channels

THIS POST WAS ADDED TO MEDIA BOY BLOG ON JULY 21ST 2021:

Off EPG, Virgin currently have seven channels "testing" - VMTest1 -VMTest7. However, before anyone gets too excited it should be pointed out that they're showing standard definition test broadcasts rather than HD, so chance are they're for regular channels and the numbering is just a coincidence

©copyright 2021 Virgin Media TV Blog 2007 - 2021.

Film4 to broadcast an extra two hours from May 23rd

It's been announced that from Saturday 23rd May, Film4 will be extending it's broadcasting hours with transmission beginning at 11am on Virgin Channel 444.

That also mean Film4 + 1 will start at midday on Virgin Channel 445 on the same day.

Virgin Media TV Blog: Berkett talks HD

THIS POST WAS ADDED TO MEDIA BOY BLOG ON JULY 21ST 2021:

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:

Virgin Media TV Blog: Virgin Media in negotiations for History HD

THIS POST WAS ADDED TO MEDIA BOY BLOG ON JULY 21ST 2021:

According to Cable Forum A&E, the folk behind the History channel, say that

We are in active discussions with Virgin Media in relation to both Military and History HD.
We hope that our discussions will be successful, but in the meantime would suggest that you also express your desire to receive these Channels directly to Virgin Media.

It is unclear whether this is for the HD channel or more on demand content (there has been some History HD on demand programming already, notably The Universe).
Still no official confirmation from Virgin regarding the timing of any additional HD services.

©copyright 2021 Virgin Media TV Blog 2007 - 2021.

Digital Spy: Virgin "actively focused" on HD

Story from Digital Spy:

Up to four more linear high definition channels will launch on Virgin Media's digital cable service over the next few months, Digital Spy was told today.

UKTV reveal more dates for channel rebrands

Home will launch on April 30th. With Really launch being on May 19th.

Gardens shows will be part of ''Home'' and Really will target predominantly women aged 18 to 35 and launches with the tag line: Really - you couldn't make it up. UKTV describes it as a "zeitgeisty and noisy female brand".

Broadcast: Virgin Media to closed Trouble on March 31st

Virgin Media Television will close its youth channel Trouble on March 31, kickstarting an overhaul of the Living portfolio on Virgin Channel 159.

Digital Spy: Virgin Media to axe Trouble channel

Story from Digital Spy Forum:

Virgin Media Television will close its Trouble channel and replace it with another version of Living, it has emerged.

Discovery Shed will launch on Virgin TV on March 20th

Discovery are to Closedown Discovery Real Time Extra to make way for Discovery Shed to launch on Virgin Channel 274.

EXCLUSIVE: ITV Player launches on Virgin Media this week

I have just been told from an Virgin insider that ITV Player is to launch on Virgin Media from tomorrow.

Digital Spy: Discovery Shed to launch next month

Discovery is to launch a new channel called 'Discovery Shed' next month, it has been announced.

Comedy Central launches in UK and Ireland in April

Paramount Comedy 2 will become known as Comedy Central Extra from April 6 and not Comedy Central 2.

Real Radio set to launch in Gateshead area

Local Radio news for Ex-Telewest viewers:

EXCLUSIVE: Media Boy HQ given launch dates for new channels names by UKTV

I have been given the launch dates for Blighty & Yesterday by UKTV in an email:

EXCLUSIVE: Virgin Media to launch Magic and Kiss Radio on Virgin Media in all areas

As well as adding the Missing BBC Branded channels to Ex-Telewest I have today been told that Virgin Media are also added Magic 105.4 (Channel 928) and Kiss 100 (Channel 963). 

Radio Times: UKTV reveal new channel names

UKTV People is to be rebranded as ''Blighty'' in February. With UKTV History being rebranded as ''Yesterday'' in March.

Info from Next weeks Radio Times.

DS Forum: Five on Demand may launch on Virgin Media

Five claim that Virgin Media will launch their Five on Demand service this year.

ITV and Virgin Media signed new deal

The ITV and Virgin Media deal signed today we may get:

• ITV2 +1
• ITV3 +1
• ITV4 +1
• ITV1 HD. 

New Channel coming next Month

Living2 +1 will launch on the 5th of February 2009 on Virgin and Sky.

Mediaweek: Disney has took over Jetix

Disney has struck a deal to move to full ownership of children's TV broadcaster Jetix Europe.