Virgin Media UK Gifts Free Mobile Data and TV Channels to Customers
Some customers of broadband ISP Virgin Media are being offered a set of freebies to help keep them connected and entertained during the latest COVID-19 lockdown, which covers a range of things from the addition of extra Pay TV and on-demand content (at no extra cost) to free mobile data, minutes and texts.
In terms of TV, Virgin Media is making a number of factual pay TV channels available until 9th February 2021 at no extra cost for existing TV customers (Mixit TV and Player bundles), including: Animal Planet HD, Animal Planet +1, Crime+Investigation HD, Crime+Investigation +1, Discovery History, Discovery History +1, Discovery Science, Discovery Science + 1, Discovery Turbo, Eurosport 1 HD, Eurosport 2 HD, Sky History HD, Sky History +1 and Sky History 2 HD.
In addition, customers with the Documentaries Personal Pick or Mix bundle can also tune into two additional channels: Sky Documentaries and Sky Nature. Meanwhile, to help Virgin TV’s youngest viewers stay entertained, the operator has extended free access to the ‘Hopster’ app until 31st March 2021. Lastly, the ‘Get Fit Now’ app by Body in Balance is offering a range of free fitness content for the next 8 weeks, starting with ‘Yoga Groove’.
As for connectivity improvements, the operator said they’re “helping families facing financial difficulties and vulnerable customers to stay connected and online,” such as by offering related mobile customers 20GB of data and zero-rating (no charges) data usage for remote learning (at present the first to benefit from this is the ‘Oak National Academy’).
Furthermore, the operator is offering vulnerable customers who are on Pay As You Go (PAYG) contracts 500 minutes, 500 text messages and 1GB of extra data at no extra cost every month, while vulnerable customers on Pay Monthly contracts can receive unlimited minutes and 10GB of additional data every month. Both offers are available until the end of March 2021.
Jeff Dodds, Chief Operating Officer at Virgin Media, said:
“As we have done since the start of this pandemic, we want to support our customers during the difficult months that lie ahead. We know how important it is for people to have the connectivity to get online, as well as to stay entertained while spending more time at home.
From offering free mobile data to support remote learning to providing a great line-up of pay TV channels at no extra cost, we’re pleased to be playing our part in helping our customers during this challenging time.”
Finally, it’s worth remembering that Virgin Media recently launched a new £15 per month unlimited 15Mbps (2Mbps upload) broadband package to those receiving Universal Credit from the Government (here).
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Queue the ones who aren’t eligible for these offers coming in crying they got nothing but “pay a premium price :(“
You took the words right out of my mouth. It’s guaranteed than whenever an operator is being helpful there will always be some who will post disparaging comments.
They could start by offering good customer service……
That maybe asking too much of them
Most definitely.
That is physically impossible. One difference of opinion and anyone can complain about poor customer service, it’s very rarely to be the agents fault or lack of care but instead on Virginmedia for not giving the tools or adequate training to resolve issues properly so an agent will be under the belief they’re being helpful but instead not. Even if you don’t like it, they’re held to whatever Virgin want from them even if they disagree. If system says no engineer, then no engineer. If system says no refund, then no refund, system says no discounts then guess what? No discounts.
That’s the way of business, they’re there to protect that the interests so likely won’t be helpful to you but instead to the company they’re a good puppet.
It’s sad but the way of a large business. They have investors and as such it’ll be as “ok” as possible to retain as much of that money so they aren’t haemorrhaging money
Wow, at least two channels from that list have any value. Both can be accessed via Discovery+.
I don’t have their TV and don’t use the free SIM I got from them last time I renewed. However, it is good to see a company give something for nothing, regardless of what it is.
Its recent greedy price rises obviously pay for it. No such thing as “something for nothing.
In which way is it “greedy”? It’s a maximum of 4.50 from what I’ve seen online, think about what you have from them & what they provide, they’re making deals with companies like Netgear for their legacy boosters & router, Arris for their Hub3 and 4 + V6 boxes + TiVo for their software, Humax for the TV360 + TV360 system developers. Free engineers if you’re fortunate enough to actually get one, repulls if needed, paying phone agents to handle calls(for the lucky thousands or more that get through every day).
Like it or not, gotta be paid for one way or another and money doesn’t grow on trees, if you’d like I’m sure enough campaigning can create paid engineers where you can then pay the fee of £99 when in need of an engineer & I’m sure you’ll still cry about it even then because one was sent.
If you dislike it, switch to another company. I know for a fact Virgin won’t be the only provider your area. Price increases will always be a thing for any provider, if you don’t want an increase then you’d need each and every single individual to pay their non discounted prices to which you’d most likely never see another increase again, but that won’t happen because it’s a dumb business decision & nobody likes paying full price for anything.
This absolutely sad, I’ve been with them for four years (loyal customers and pay a premium for their service both on fixed broadband phone contract too and this is just unfair why do new customers always get new freebies but loyal virgin customer get nothing but inflated price tags on broadband and phone contracts). 🙁
is*
Unless I have misread, this is for existing customers?
“Some customers”, so not all.
Boo! Boo!
A more precise city by city, town by town Gig1 roll out schedule would be much preferred to any other news from Virgin at this time.
That’s commercially sensitive information
@JitteryPinger Sadly, it is.
This comes after they announce a price rise. Hmm
And next week – Virgin puts the price up again 😀
They can keep this freebie stuff up if they want just keep it to Tele channels and Phone and Mobile…. You’ll see me in here throwing the toys out the pram if they start boosting BB speeds.
After many years the Virgin TV service got too expensive now,
so I got rid of it
and got 1Gig Broadband instead