Coming Soon to Virgin TV

[Nhyrvus]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

=== May appear before 2009 ===
Media Boy has been told that Virgin will start adding Ex-Telewest or Ex-ntl only channels and some new channels starting in October until February 2009.
Virgin Media hope to signed an deal with Sky by Christmas for up to 15 Sky's HD Channels.

Any idea WHICH 15 channels ???

[Media Boy]

Originally Posted by Nhyrvus

Any idea WHICH 15 channels ???

Sky only owned 15 HD channels they are as followed:

Sky1 HD
Sky Real Lives HD
Sky Arts HD
Sky Movies Premiere HD
Sky Movies Screen 1 HD
Sky Movies Screen 2 HD
Sky Movies Action/Thriller HD
Sky Movies Sci-Fi Horror HD
Sky Movies Drama HD
Sky Movies Modern Greats HD
Sky Movies Family HD
Sky Movies Comedy HD
Sky Sports HD 1
Sky Sports HD 2
Sky Sports HD 3

[Nhyrvus]

well i for one will be well happy for xmas if that happens

no chance the mystery event on the 15th might be the announcement for that instead of the 50Mb ?

[SB_07]

My box rebooted itself about 15 mins ago, is this any kind of update?

[Felim_Doyle]

Originally Posted by XFS03

It's getting ridiculous now. Not only are channels changing their names to a single word, but they now seem to be competing to see who can get away with the shortest channel name!

BIO indeed!

"The word Bio is a major part of the branding and is how the channel refers to itself on air most of the time. Our viewers are now used to this and to avoid confusion we felt is was time to bring the last few references to The Biography Channel in line."

LOL. So they changed the name to "avoid confusion". Such contempt for their viewer's intelligence.

.

Too late for 'Bio', we already have 'FX' and 'E!' and I suppose 'Five' could be abbreviated to '5'. It's surprising the dumbed down BBC haven't gone for '1', '2', '3', '4' rather than 'BBC ONE', 'BBC TWO', 'BBC THREE' and 'BBC FOUR'. They did shave the '24' from 'BBC News' though, in the interests of brevity. Sceptics might have thought that it meant an end to 24 hour news from the BBC.

---------- Post added at 09:33 ---------- Previous post was at 09:28 ----------

Originally Posted by Media Boy

I think the Virgin Entertainment EPG will look like this very soon.

Excellent! Thanks, as always, for the information and speculative insight, Santa! I guess they need to free up a bit more bandwidth again before all of this can happen. Less analogue and more +1 and HD on the cards then?

We live in interesting times.

---------- Post added at 09:41 ---------- Previous post was at 09:33 ----------

Originally Posted by moroboshi

Wow, there really are a terrifying amount of +1 channels. They're an even bigger waste of space than shopping channels, and that really takes some effort.

I wish Virgin had an a la carte option, if they did I'd cut my subscription down to about 5 channels (some of which are rather inconveniently located on the current XL scam) and cut the rest off completely.

---------- Post added at 23:19 ---------- Previous post was at 23:15 ----------



Erm.. "questionable word removed"?! FFS, is this place run by Mary Whitehouse or some such? What on earth is questionable about the word 'retarded'. If memory serves, that's all I said, which the last time I checked was not in any possible sense a swear word.

Censorship is never, ever, ever cool.

I think your opening three letter acronym will be next to go!

I imagine the objection was about using a word generally associated with mental health and applying it to the channel operators' perception of their audiences intelligence. Not a swear word but perhaps trivialising the misfortune of others.

---------- Post added at 09:45 ---------- Previous post was at 09:41 ----------

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Media Boy's Afternoon update:

S4C has been moved to Virgin Channel 167 (Wales only)
S4C2 has been moved to Virgin Channel 168 (Wales only)

The following channels is now testing in Ex C&W areas.

BICS 1 - no video
BICS 2 - no video
BICS 3 - no video
BICS 4 - no video
BICS 5- no video
BICS 6 - no video
BICS 7 - no video
BICS 8 - no video
BICS 9 - no video
BICS 10 - no video
BICS 11 - Setanta 1
BICS 12 - Setanta 2
BICS 13 - Setanta News
BICS 14 - Setanta Golf
BICS 15 - Racing UK
BICS 16 - ESPN
BICS 17 - Celtic TV
BICS 18 - Rangers TV
BICS 19 - Liverpool TV
BICS 20 - Arsenal TV
BICS 21 - no video
BICS 22 - no video
BICS 23 - no video
BICS 24 - no video
BICS 25 - no video
BICS 26 - no video
BICS 27 - no video
BICS 28 - no video
BICS 29 - no video
BICS 30 - no video

Also ITV_HID1 has appeared showing CITV.
And is still showing two FIVE and FIVE AD channels

Perhaps I was a bit premature with my comments about bandwidth. There seems to be plenty there. Although I'm only showing 302 channels out of 31 streams.

[cablecrazy]

If Virgin Media get all the HD channels that Sky have, I MAY consider having V+ installed, however i would demand the box to be covered up in a paper bag.

[DC_FC79]

I noticed yesterday that they have changed the channel numbers eg FX as 179 but its now in the 160's i think, anyone know why there's some channel numbers missing

[Media Boy]

Originally Posted by DC_FC79

I noticed yesterday that they have changed the channel numbers eg FX as 179 but its now in the 160's i think, anyone know why there's some channel numbers missing

The info I was told the new channel lineup is for when Virgin signed new deal with Broadcasters like Channel 4 or Five.

Virgin Media do not need to move channels about to make more to add the missing channels.

On Monday Virgin Media lineup was like this:

145. More 4
146. Zone Reality
185. Five US
186. Fiver

But now looks like this:
145. More4
146. Free Channel - For More4 +1?
147. Free Channel
148. Zone Reality
150. Five US
151. Free Channel - For Five US +1?
152. Fiver
153. Free Channel - For Fiver +1?

[senna123]

I like the fact they have moved some channels as the genre now seems more tidy. However there is not enough space left for timeshift or other channels for some of the channels.

BBC Alba - 109 (currently On Demand Previews)
ITV3 +1 - 117 (currently ITV4)
ITV4 +1
Sky1 HD
Paramount Comedy 2 +1 - 135 (currently Sci Fi)
Sci Fi +1 - 136 (currently Bravo)
Zone Reality +1 - 149 (currently Zone Horror)
Zone Horror +1
Zone Romantica
Zone Thriller
FX HD

Where could these channels go?

[Media Boy]

Originally Posted by senna123

I like the fact they have moved some channels as the genre now seems more tidy. However there is not enough space left for timeshift or other channels for some of the channels.

BBC Alba - 109 (currently On Demand Previews)
ITV3 +1 - 117 (currently ITV4)
ITV4 +1
Sky1 HD
Paramount Comedy 2 +1 - 135 (currently Sci Fi)
Sci Fi +1 - 136 (currently Bravo)
Zone Reality +1 - 149 (currently Zone Horror)
Zone Horror +1
Zone Romantica
Zone Thriller
FX HD

Where could these channels go?

I think

On Demand Previews will be move to Channel 100)

113. ITV2
114. ITV2 +1
115. ITV3
116. ITV3 +1
117. ITV4
118. ITV4 +1
Sci fi will move to Virgin Channel 148
Zone Reality will move to Virgin Channel 178

Zone Horror will move to the Movies EPG.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Virgin Media has only moved some of they Entertainment channels about and Sky has only got one Entertainment HD channel - Sky1 HD - so it cant be that.

Media Boy, is there any sign that VM are going to add some more bandwidth to cope with the expected new HD channels? Given they seem to have a need to test before they put new channels onto the expanded bandwidth, they seem to be leaving it a bit late if we're going to get the Sky HD channels before Christmas.

I'm beginning to think the New Year is more likely. Do you have any firm indication of when we may get access to these new channels or is there no information coming out of anywhere at the present time?

[Media Boy]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Media Boy, is there any sign that VM are going to add some more bandwidth to cope with the expected new HD channels? Given they seem to have a need to test before they put new channels onto the expanded bandwidth, they seem to be leaving it a bit late if we're going to get the Sky HD channels before Christmas.

I'm beginning to think the New Year is more likely. Do you have any firm indication of when we may get access to these new channels or is there no information coming out of anywhere at the present time?

I have no info on Virgin adding more bandwidth any time soon.

If Sky HD Channels is not on Virgin Media by December 19th when they will not be on for Christmas after all - DS Forum is posting that they will come before March - BUT I did say ''Hope''.

[Horizon]

VM go into their Christmas freeze period soon, when all work to do with adding channels and enhancements to the network is suspended. So, if there's no HD channels within 2 weeks, we won't see them this year.

Originally Posted by senna123

I like the fact they have moved some channels as the genre now seems more tidy. However there is not enough space left for timeshift or other channels for some of the channels.

Where could these channels go?

Virgin Central is only a barker channel the same as On Demand Previews and launched to fill the gap that was created when the Sky channels went. I doubt VM will want to keep 2 barker channels, so if one of them is removed, there will be enough room for all the ITV +1 channels.

[demented]

Looks like the ITV hid was yet again something else. This time it was to show tennis on ITV4 like in the summer it was used for Tour de France. Oh well .

[toady]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Media Boy, is there any sign that VM are going to add some more bandwidth to cope with the expected new HD channels? Given they seem to have a need to test before they put new channels onto the expanded bandwidth, they seem to be leaving it a bit late if we're going to get the Sky HD channels before Christmas.

There are the 30 BICS channels which have been testing for a while, currently only 10 of them are showing anything. At one point one of them was showing BBC HD, so they may be HD capable, otherwise they would need to combine 4 of them to make up one HD channel