38 Facts About Virgin TV

1.

Virgin TV is a digital pay cable television service in the United Kingdom, owned by Liberty Global and Telefonica after the merger its UK businesses to form Virgin Media O2.

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2.

Since the acquisition of Smallworld Cable in 2014, Virgin TV is the sole national cable TV provider in Great Britain.

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3.

In May 2008, Virgin TV Media began their "long term" region-by-region analogue television service switch off project, beginning with Coventry and Glasgow.

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4.

Virgin TV Media deployed Cisco Digital Video Headend technology in all of its regional and central headends, across its national fibre optic network.

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5.

On 24 November 2009, Virgin TV Media entered into a strategic partnership with TiVo.

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6.

Virgin TV Media became the exclusive distributor of TiVo services and technology in the United Kingdom.

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7.

Virgin TV Media is to maintain its current Liberate middleware provided by SeaChange International through until at least January 2011.

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8.

In 2014 Virgin TV Media bought Smallworld Cable, a regional cable company.

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9.

Customers in non-cabled areas, Virgin TV Media offered a branded set-top box for the Freeview digital terrestrial television service, called "Free TV", until December 2009 when it was discontinued.

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10.

Virgin TV carries around 301 digital television and radio channels, including a mixture of subscription, premium subscription and pay-per-view channels.

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11.

Virgin TV branded its original high-definition Digital Video Recorder service as V+.

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12.

Virgin TV offer a Cisco V HD Box, for a fixed upgrade fee from their standard set-top box with no additional monthly subscription fee.

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13.

In 2011, Virgin TV Media added Sky Arts 1 HD and 2 HD, Eurosport 3D, Sky Movies Classics HD, Dave HD and Watch HD.

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14.

In 2012, Virgin TV Media added Eurosport 3D, Alibi HD, British Eurosport HD, the BBC's 24 Olympic HD channels and Channel 4's 3 Paralympic channels.

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15.

In 2013, Virgin TV Media added Cartoon Network HD, TCM HD, British Eurosport 2 HD, ITV2 HD, ITV3 HD, ITV4 HD, BBC Two HD, TLC HD, NHK World HD, Animal Planet HD, BBC Red Button HD, MTV HD, Nickelodeon HD, BT Sport 1 HD, BT Sport 2 HD and More4 HD.

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16.

Later in the 2010s, Virgin TV Media began removing standard definition feeds of channels it offers in high definition.

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17.

In contrast to the Sky On Demand system from Sky, Virgin TV Media offers a "true" VOD system, allowing customers to stream programmes whenever they want to watch them from servers at the customer's local head end.

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18.

On 25 November 2009, Virgin TV Media added dynamic advertising using SeaChange International's AdPulse system.

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19.

Virgin TV Media confirmed it would be launching a rival to both the BBC iPlayer and Sky Player by the end of 2010, with subscribers accessing content both online and through their mobile devices.

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20.

On 26 April 2010, Virgin TV Media announced the launch of its first online movies service: Virgin TV Media Online Movies.

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21.

On 29 July 2010, Virgin TV Media announced the beta launch of Virgin TV Media Player, an online and mobile TV player.

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22.

Virgin TV Media brought more content to Virgin TV Media Player as the company built towards full launch later in the year.

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23.

Virgin TV Mobile pay monthly customers are able to access an hour of Virgin TV Media Player every day, at no extra charge.

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24.

On 8 October 2007, Virgin TV Media announced that they had struck a deal with Channel 4 that enables them to offer a selection of Channel 4 programming in HD via their TV on demand service.

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25.

On 29 June 2009, Virgin TV Media announced that from July the PictureBox movie service would be made available to Virgin TV Media's 3.

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26.

On 17 September 2009, Virgin TV Media announced an agreement with Disney, securing the rights for three TV channels, TV on demand content including HD programming and on demand content to be made available online.

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27.

On 10 February 2010, Virgin TV announced that Discovery Networks would make HD on demand content available, such as Deadliest Catch and Miami Ink, during Spring 2010 as part of a deal to add Discovery HD.

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28.

On 5 August 2010, Virgin TV Media announced that popular Comedy Central HD programmes available on demand from 1 September 2010.

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29.

On 25 October 2010, Virgin TV Media announced a deal with NBC Universal Television Distribution for the video-on-demand rights in the UK to a broad selection of NBC Universal series.

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30.

On 11 November 2010, Virgin TV Media announced a multiscreen deal with Channel Five to bring programming from all of Five's linear TV channels to its TV, online and mobile video on demand platforms, with some shows available in HD.

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31.

Virgin TV Media had displayed a V+ in their Oxford Street store using polarised glasses and trialled over a private video on demand network using a HD stream interlaced with two pictures in 2009.

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32.

In March 2010, during the Ideal Home Show at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre, Virgin TV Media showcased a reel of 3D content – including sport and video games – as a taste of its plans for 3D television.

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33.

Virgin TV confirmed plans to start offering 3D content to subscribers via its on-demand platform rather than launching a static channel.

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34.

The demo used active glasses but Virgin TV Media said that its 3D service would support passive glasses.

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35.

On 28 September 2010, Virgin TV Media announced the launch of 3D Movies on Demand – the first commercially available 3D TV service in the UK.

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36.

Virgin TV Media announced an exclusive 3D TV partnership with Samsung Electronics which would see Samsung 3D TVs featured in Virgin TV Media stores as well as other joint 3D showcases and marketing opportunities.

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37.

Virgin TV Media committed to investing in producing original 3D content.

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38.

Virgin TV's confirmed that the company has already secured the rights of a couple of TV programmes to be shown in 3D, but could not name them yet.

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