Virgin Media UK Add Sky Sports Ultra HD Channels to Pay TV
Broadband ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) has today informed us that existing customers of their pay TV service can now add “Sky Sports Ultra HD” (4K) to their package for £7 extra per month, which also includes support for High Dynamic Range (HDR) picture quality (assuming your TV can support this).
The new Sky Sports Ultra HD channels include Sky Sports Main Event Ultra HD and Sky Sports Ultra HD 1. Existing Virgin TV customers wanting to add Sky Sports Ultra HD to their subscription can do so by contacting 0800 052 0813. Customers must already have Sky Sports HD to upgrade to Sky Sports Ultra HD.
David Bouchier, VM’s Chief TV and Entertainment Officer, said: “For years, Virgin TV has offered access to all of the best live sport in one place and at great value, and now we’re offering it in the best picture quality available. With Sky Sports Ultra HD now available on our platform, fans of the Premier League, Formula 1 and a host of other top sports will be able to get even closer to the action.”
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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, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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An additional £7 a month for 2 4k versions of Sky Sports channels doesn’t feel like good value at all.
“Sky” and “value” are not words that generally come together, tbf… 😉
It’s three channels, not two: Sky Sports Main Event UHD, Sky Sports Ultra HD 1 and Ultra HD 2. Sky Sports Main Event UHD is a direct simulcast of the existing Main Event HD channel with Sky Sports Ultra HD 1 and Ultra HD 2 offering highlights from the rest of Sky Sports channels. You get HDR (HLG to be exact) and Dolby Atmos.
Most customers have to pay £7pm for Sky Sports UHD but those with the Ultimate Volt package (with the included Sky Sports HD and Sky Entertainment & Cinema UHD) will pay £4pm.
I have been waiting for this for years. Previously if you wanted to watch all Premier League games in 4K you had to have both BT Sports from BT or Virgin Media and Sky Sports from Sky. Isn’t it silly that now the only one of the 3 (BT, VM and Sky) that can offer both BT Sports and Sky Sports is VM? I will wait for VM to raise my bundle price and then I will ask for the UHD upgrade as part of my haggling.
@Roger_Gooner: Thanks for the clarification, now I know I shouldn’t pa more than £4 for the UHD upgrade as I am on the VOLT ultimate bundle.
@GreenLantern22 BT Sport Ultimate was made available on Sky early this season- channel 493. I do agree however that it is ridiculous it has taken this long to get to this point, which is why I have Sky and BT TV.
@JEdge Thanks for the info! I wasn’t aware. Do BT then have now Sky Sports UHD too?
@GreenLantern22 I don’t believe so, no, as their Sky Sports channels come via Now TV.
BT TV has always been backward compared with Sky and Virgin Media: no Sky Sports (the NOW app is no substitute for broadcast channels), no Eurosport until recently (and in HD only).
Back to VM: I think the only think missing now is HDR from BT Sport Ultimate.
After being transferred between 4 different people, I finally got someone who’d heard of Sky Sports UHD and the price was £3.50 a month.
Let’s hope it comes to IPTV soon
Has anyone had any luck? I’m just on the phone and they are trying to tell me its a £14.00 upgrade
If you have Sky Sports SD then you need a double upgrade (to HD and to UHD), so this will explain the £14 you’ve been quoted.
I am waiting for them to send me the raise prices email so I can haggle my whole bundle price at the same time. It will be easier for me to add UHD at point. But do let us know what’s your current bundle so we know why it costs £ 14 to get UHD.
Virgin won’t let you buy UHD without having the HD package.
So if all you have is Sports in SD then you need to pay for both HD and UHD, meaning it’s more likely £14 instead of £7.
Is there any confirmation whether this will also apply to customers with Sky Sports via their Stream box?
It’s not mentioned anywhere, but a live chat agent just confirmed it was (however given that they were eager to apply it to an account with no active Stream subscriptions I’m still not convinced)
I have the virgin ultimate package. I called to get the sky sports ultra but they said it is £7 extra there is no discount that is £4
I’d like to add this to the Virgin Stream box. Any idea when UHD will be available as the sports prices on there for 18 months are really cheap!