Deal Brings UKTV Channels Back to Virgin Media’s UK Cable Network

Cable broadband ISP and TV operator Virgin Media has this morning announced the signing of a new long term deal, which will restore all of UKTV’s channels to their platform “as quickly as possible” (this has already begun). The agreement includes five times more on-demand programming than before and there’s more.

Apparently customers will also be able to keep all of the extra channels that were added as compensation for the initial loss of UKTV content. On top of that the Dave HD and Gold HD channels will now be added to Virgin Media’s Mix bundle and above.

Outside of this agreement, Virgin Media said they were in separate discussions directly with BBC Studios to explore bringing full BBC box-sets to Virgin TV.

David Bouchier, Chief Digital Entertainment Officer at Virgin Media, said:

“Reaching this agreement reaffirms our longstanding partnership with UKTV and is fantastic news for our customers.

They can enjoy channels like Dave and Gold once again, including in HD, and also get more UKTV on-demand programming than ever before. On top of this, the channels we’ve recently added to Virgin TV will remain.

We are sorry for what we know has been a frustrating time for our customers, but are pleased that our TV bundles are now even bigger. Our unwavering commitment to investing in incredible programming remains.”

Simon Michaelides, Chief Commercial Officer of UKTV, said:

“Viewers are at the heart of UKTV and we want to thank them for all of their support. We know this has created real disruption for some of our viewers and we’re so sorry for this, but we are thrilled to be back, broadcasting our channels and shows to customers of Virgin Media once more.”

The original dispute was typically centred around money (here). On the one hand Virgin Media claimed that UKTV wanted “inflated sums” for their channel line-up, while on the other UKTV said that Virgin was seeking a “drastic price cut” for the content. In any case the result was that 10 TV channels including Alibi, Gold, W, Eden, Good Food, Dave, Yesterday, Drama, Really and Home ended up being pulled, prompting some users to leave.

At the time UKTV added that it was “unreasonable to ask [them] to pay to be part of a product that Virgin Media sells to customers …. Virgin Media don’t offer a TV package to customers without some kind of subscription fee. In effect, they want UKTV to subsidise their business by paying to be part of a product that they sell for a minimum of £29 a month.” Clearly a compromise has finally been reached.