Virgin Media’s UK Pay TV Customers Get Access to Sky Atlantic Channel
Broadband ISP Virgin Media (O2) has this morning confirmed that all new and existing Virgin TV 360 and Stream box customers with the ‘Sky Entertainment‘ channels (Sky Comedy, Sky Witness, and the soon to be relaunched Sky One) will soon also be able to access popular Sky Atlantic programming on channel 111, “at no extra cost“.
The addition of Sky Atlantic, which will take place on 1st April 2026, follows the news that HBO Max will also be available to subscribe to via Virgin TV 360 and Stream boxes when it launches in the UK next month. Sky Atlantic will give Virgin’s customers with the Sky Entertainment channels (c.1 million of them) access to view popular TV shows like ‘The Last Of Us’, ‘House of Dragon’, ‘Amadeus’ and many more.
New customers can take a Virgin TV package, including access to Sky Atlantic, by selecting a Virgin TV and broadband Flex bundle, with prices currently starting from £31.99 per month.
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David Bouchier, VMO2’s Chief TV and Entertainment Officer, said:
“Our promise to our customers is simple – to offer seamless entertainment at incredible value – and the addition of Sky Atlantic on Virgin TV is testament to that. The channel is home to gripping drama and incredible stories from the UK and the US and has given us some of the biggest watercooler moments of our times. Now, over a million Virgin TV customers can enjoy Sky Atlantic with no added cost or action required.”
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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Well well, Sky finally give Virgin Media customers access to Sky Atlantic at the point where the channel has virtually no value to them compared to the ‘old days’
The thinking of Sky has been out of touch from reality for a long time, maybe this means in a small step make them understand that withholding services from other providers does not make them stronger anymore.
99% of all TV channels have no value and exists only to sell ad time.
It’s almost like they kept a major selling point of their own service away from competitors for as long as it was of value…..
I hope PLEIO’s cloud gaming service starts being offered to Virgin Media pay-TV customers in the UK!
Who knows more about this?
Someone who knows more about your hope or are there actual rumours?
The device is being marketed as a stand alone service and offered by altnets as a way of bundling TV with broadband.
Even EE stopped bundling cloud gaming with their services.
Why would Virgin touch it?
Whilst I won’t likely watch much on it, nice to see an actual channel being added than endless FAST channels which clog up the guide these days.
Likely as the existing deal between Sky UK Ltd and HBO/Warner Bros is ending next month and the latter launching their HBO Max streaming service in the UK.
Expect the HBO content of Sky Atlantic when it become available to Virgin Media subscribers will be greatly reduced compared to what it is now.
I guess with HBO content gone Sky have lowered the price to a level Virgin are agreeable to paying.
What other apps. are coming to virgin media this year or in 2026. I read several New apps and content services will be launched or available. When will this be and which apps will be
The HBO Max / Sky Atlantic Shift: Why Virgin Media Just Won the Streaming Chess Game
This is a bigger news story than might be thought. Ever since its launch in 2011, Sky has kept Sky Atlantic as the “crown jewel” of its exclusivity, meaning Virgin Media customers had no access to cultural juggernauts like Game of Thrones. As of April 1st, 2026, VM’s million+ subscribers to Sky Entertainment will finally get Sky Atlantic on their 360 and Stream boxes. But look closer: the channel is being “hollowed out”. It’s becoming a showcase for HBO, but it’s no longer the home of HBO. While legacy hits like House of the Dragon and The White Lotus will still air there, the full back-catalogue and the high-budget “Max Originals” (like the new Harry Potter series and Lanterns) will live exclusively on the HBO Max app. From Sky’s perspective, charging VM carriage fees for a “reduced asset” is just good business.
The Real Story: The “Fattening” of WBD
The real catalyst is March 26, 2026—the day HBO Max finally launches in the UK. Since 2019, Sky held the “fortress” around HBO content, but that deal effectively ended in 2025. Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), currently carrying $40bn in debt, has wasted no time getting its app onto VM’s 360 and Stream boxes.
This is part of a massive global “pre-sale” strategy. WBD is currently caught in a bidding war between Netflix (bidding $83bn for the studios and streaming) and Paramount Skydance (launching a $108bn hostile takeover for the whole company). WBD is “fattening itself for sale” by maximizing reach; they need the million-plus Virgin households to bolster their subscriber numbers before the shareholder vote on March 20th.
The Death of discovery+?
What about discovery+? The writing is on the wall. As of March 26, TNT Sports is moving out of discovery+ and into the HBO Max app. For VM customers, HBO Max effectively becomes the “everything app.” discovery+ will likely linger as a low-cost “zombie app” for factual and reality fans until the remaining contracts expire and it’s fully absorbed.
The Implications for VM
The shift is substantial. With HBO Max joining Disney+, Netflix, Paramount+, and Prime Video (plus FAST players like Pluto TV and Tubi), VM has achieved “App Parity” with Sky. VM can now boast that its boxes deliver more content than Sky’s, and crucially, VM is now “bid-proof.” Whether Netflix or Paramount wins the war for WBD, the app will be on VM’s Horizon 4 boxes (and it’s an incentiver for the users of the older TiVo boxes to upgrade).
In short Sky’s 15-year lead on “Prestige TV” will be under real pressure.
Netflix won 10 years ago, why are you talking about a mammoth battle between Sky and Virgin? Sky has pretty much double the reach of Virgin so that’s not even a debate really
Was that written by AI?
@Jon PENNYCOOK: I’ll let Mark make that decision: if he thinks I copied and pasted from AI he can decline to approve my posts.
Sky talk Virgin Media we want to Sky Atlantic which safe or danger watching programming services?
It’s wrong that only 360 box users get this channel ! It’s a sad ploy by vm to force v6 users to get 360 system !
The Horizon 4 platform is the future, and the TiVo and V6 boxes will disappear. Eventually the 360 will go as well, leaving only the Stream as it will deliver what is coming: a streaming-only service with no recordings.
Things come full circle. Wasn’t Sky Atlantic what Bravo became after Sky bought it from Virgin Media?
I was a Telewest customer and remember its content arm was called Flextech, and it got renamed Virgin Media Television when NTL took over Telewest. When Sky bought VMTV in 2010 it got Channel One (formerly Virgin1, formerly FTN), Bravo, Bravo 2, LIVINGtv, Trouble and Challenge. However what Sky really wanted was the valuable EPG slots, and at the time the channel slots were:
Slot Channel
112 Living
121 Bravo
122 Bravo +1
123 Bravo 2
124 Channel One
125 Channel One +1
Sky closed all these channels bar Living, did a lot of revamping but when they launched Sky Atlantic it was given the prime slot number of 108 (so not one of the acquired ones).
Well of course right called families and friends we wants to Virgin Media V6 Sky Atlantic number 111 channel date 1st April 2026 which better for 360 box available from Virgin media 02??