Broadband ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) recently announced that customers of their Stream (IPTV) Pay TV platform can now access a total of over 100 channels “at no extra cost” (up from c.50 at launch), including a range HD (High Definition) and +1 options. See below for a list of the recent channel additions.
In addition, Sky Sports customers may like to know that the red button functionality has also been boosted on Stream, which means customers will be able to experience HD match selection, enjoy in-game recap clips for football and F1 as well as gain access to the latest news and highlight clips.
David Bouchier, Chief TV and Entertainment Officer at Virgin Media O2, said: “Virgin Media O2 now provides more IP channels than any other provider, and we will be continuing to introduce even more exciting updates and features throughout the year, so keep an eye out.”
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Readers can see a list reflecting 79 recent channel additions for Stream below, while Virgin’s website includes a full channel list.
Full List of Stream’s Latest 79 Channels Editions
Virgin TV Highlights
NOW 70s
NOW 80s
NOW ROCK
That’s 60s
ITV1 +1
Channel 4 +1
Channel 5+1
E4 +1
ITV2 +1
Drama +1
ITV3 +1
ITV4 +1
ITVBe +1
5 USA +1
W +1
5STAR +1
Dave ja vu
YESTERDAY +1
Quest +1
More 4 +1
True Crime +1
Legend Xtra+1
HGTV +1
Store
GREAT! Romance
GREAT! Movies
GREAT! Action
Film4 HD
Film4 +1
Talking Pictures
Sky Sports Racing HD
BBC NEWS HD
Sky News
GB News
BBC Parliament HD
Talk TV
Bloomberg HD
CNBC
NBC News Now
Euronews
NDTV 24×7
Al Jazeera English
France 24 English HD
NHK World-Japan
Kids TV On Demand
CBBC HD
CBeebies HD
POP
Tiny Pop
QVC
QVC Beauty
QVC Style
QVC Extra
Create & Craft
Gems TV
TJC HD
B4U Music
Al Jazeera Arabic
Islam Channel English
Islam Channel Urdu
BBC One OOR HD
BBC ONE London HD
BBC ONE Scotland HD
BBC ONE NI HD
BBC ONE Wales HD
BBC TWO HD
ITV1 OOR HD
ITV1 Meridian HD
RTE One
RTE Two
TG4
A Message For Parents
Adult Previews
Babenation
Meet The Babes
A Message For Parents
BBC RB 1 HD
Virgin TV Highlights
NBC News Now was removed from Virgin Media on 1st Jan 2024. It is not clear why it is still on the Feb channel list.
Are Virgin likely to make it available to customers on other broadband networks as well? Sky doesn’t impose restrictions with its stream product.
I reckon the answer is inextricably linked to when (if ever) VM ever get round to offer wholesale access to their own networks. Nexfibre have said plan to offer wholesale over their network, as far as I know they’ve not got a single true wholesale customer, and Nexfibre is so far working out simply an FTTP expansion of the VM HFC and RFoG networks.
I’d imagine there’s a few issues to overcome:
Virgin Media leaders can say the words about wholesale, but culturally the entire organisation is still centred around the operating model of offering an integrated TV, broadband and physical network. There’s a trust issue for potential wholesale suppliers. There’s support quality and service quality challenges on the HFC network. I also suspect there’s a cost challenge – Nexfibre new build might be competitive on wholesale pricing, but the HFC network probably isn’t even if it were offered – so as a wholesaler, why engage with VMO2/Nexfibre and their complications, when you can use OR’s fast growing FTTP network?
The direction of travel for VMO2 is towards splitting the ISP, TV and phone supplier business from the physical networks, whether that’s going to work out when VM and the Liberty Global side of things are drowning in debt who can say? They don’t come anywhere near covering their cost of capital, so if the supplier operations standalone and do cover their cost of capital, the remaining networks will need some monstrous writeoffs of debt to stay afloat.
Like BT (EE) TV, Virgin Stream utlises multicast delivery methodolgy rather than unicast. Multicast means they both save costs by restricting IP offering to their own network and means for the customer live tv is delivered as near live as possible. Unicast such as Now can have significant delays on live broadcats
It doesn’t use multicast. It’s a business decision, not a technical one.
Did the benefit of Dave
All linear TV content is sent from headends to hub sites via IP multicast on the core network.
Still no UHD for sports which is one of the reasons I got the cable TV box rather than stream. I suspect this will come as they have to move people onto iptv who get pure fibre.
Sky sports UHD has been added to the channel’s don’t know why it isn’t shown above but it does carry an additional £6.50 a month charge I believe
Can we have the NOW music channels on Sky Stream please!
Did you read the article? It shows them
We’ll give you another go at that one Pepstar… 😉
They have hiked the Entertainment Essentials pack though. Was £8 and now £15. Fortunately, most of the channels are free (unlike Sky Stream where nothing is free) apart from the usual subscription suspects like Sky Mix/GOLD/ALBI/Discovery etc.
Its enough though to cancel Sky Stream now as double the price (for same 30 day rolling contract on subscription Entertainment channels)
Can I get more than 1 puck please?
Sorry if this point has been made but ITV1 & ITV1+1 should count as 1. Claiming otherwise is false advertising!
its free channel, both are. Unlike Sky Stream where you would need a subscription. Its effectively like Free to Air. You have the VM broadband, you activate the box, and then you get A LOT of channels for no further subsciption.
I preffer CommunityFibre TV, because has much more channels!
225+ live channels !!!
See: https://communityfibre.co.uk/tv
”
=> TV & Streaming
.225+ live channels
.40+ apps
.125+ HD channels (on top of Freeview)
.Unlimited tablet and mobile TV
.30 games
.100,000+ hours on-demand
.Free 4K and & WiFi box, Alexa compatible TV box – worth £149
.Choice of add-ons (BT Sport, Rakuten TV, BritBox, Hayu and more)
.Record/pause live TV
(from £10/month – Prices fixed in 2024)
TalkTalk TV 4K Box, like CommunityFibre TV, as also much more than 100 channels!
TalkTalk TV 4K Box has 225 live channels and 40 top streaming apps, only for additional £ 5 a month
See:
https://new.talktalk.co.uk/tv-fibre-broadband/4k-tv-box
Talktalk. No thanks. VM Stream had 100+ channels ADDED to existing lot. Not total of 100. Its also a fast box not a dog like TT.
So Virgin media are offering “exclusive streaming” access to free-to-view channels that everyone already has access to…. LMAO.
This company goes from terrible to utter bloody criminal!
I am on the phone to them right now to ask to reduce my package because I no longer want to pay £62 for 1Gig lux option, and they quote me £66 to move to the “world” 500 package! WTF! then £60 to move to 350 package.
so now I’m on mega-long hold waiting to be transferred to cancellation department just so I can find out what day my service would terminate on if I cancel my account so I can switch to a provider with a customer service that contains at least 10 IQ between all staff members and a website and app which actually works.