Re: Virgin TV (2026)
 

Prior to TiVo there never was an extra fee, any development & maintenance was funded by the general subscriptions paid.

Also, if the costs to maintain/develop the 360 aren't any cheaper than the TiVo fee, there wouldn't have been any point in introducing it for such a relatively short time before it's discarded in favour of their streaming box.

Re: Virgin TV (2026)
 

not sure if its been mentioned but it appears the Paramount purchase of WBD has been approved by US officials

https://www.vulture.com/article/doj-...bd-merger.html

Only EU and UK to go it seems

Re: Virgin TV (2026)
 

That's TV is being replaced on Freesat (164) with Rewind TV on Thursday 25th June, so maybe it is closing on all platforms.

If so, I wonder if we will see Rewind TV being added to Virgin as a replacement??

Re: Virgin TV (2026)
 

But does anyone care? Viewing figures must be way down in the basement.

Vince’s news is far more significant. Paramount+ will become a giant amongst streamers.

Re: Virgin TV (2026)
 

I doubt getting added to Freesat has any bearing on whether it's added to Virgin, still isn't on Sky Stream either (closed platform) even though it's been streaming on Freely for 18 months.

Re: Virgin TV (2026)
 

Fox has agreed a takeover of Roku in a deal worth $22bn (£16.4bn).

Re: Virgin TV (2026)
 

AIUI channels have to pay extra if they want to join Sky Stream, so a lot of the poorer channels haven't joined yet. I suspect that, as Stream customers grow in popularity, some will eventually leave Sky Q in favour of Sky Stream, or for a time, be made available on both.

Though I personally doubt it with regards to this particular channel, it could be that Sky have refused to let them onto Sky Stream, something they're not allowed to do with Sky Q.

---------- Post added at 21:21 ---------- Previous post was at 21:20 ----------

Those that want to watch it will care, regardless of the number.

---------- Post added at 21:24 ---------- Previous post was at 21:21 ----------

That's TV is on Virgin, but they are in financial difficulties. If it ends up that it closes altogether, my thoughts are that Virgin may add Rewind to replace That's TV as it's a similar channel.

Re: Virgin TV (2026)
 

Richard Latto said Virgin is invite only and they haven't been invited (so far) hence no Rewind TV on VM

Re: Virgin TV (2026)
 

Thanks, but I believe that any channel can approach Virgin with a view to being added, subject to successful negotiations. Some time ago I approached them with regards to negotiating for the addition of a radio station, but they wanted too much money to make it viable.

Virgin are the most expensive platform per viewer, which is why many channels don't join or do and then decide to leave as it's not profitable, even with the potential increased ad revenue, after Virgin EPG & transmission fees are paid.

I suspect that Rewind are saying it's invite only to explain away why they aren't on the platform.

However, if Virgin specifically want any channel(s) on their platform that couldn't normally afford to join, there are ways around it. When the UKTV channels were removed, they wanted to fill the void with various new channels, such as Horse & Country. I believe that they offered to pay carriage fees equal to the costs of joining, something not normally done for channels on FTA platforms.

Maybe they will do this for Rewind??

Re: Virgin TV (2026)
 

Nat Geo +1 will close on Virgin Channel 383 on July 1st.

Re: Virgin TV (2026)
 

always wondered why virgin media charge so much for channels to join their service. they dont have the financial power of sky (hence why they never bid for anything) so if its a money thing it clearly isnt working

Re: Virgin TV (2026)
 

Maybe they could change to the Freesat way of doing things to help to persuade some of the missing channels that are on Sky to join Virgin? Freesat changed their EPG fee to one that reflected the number of viewers that they get, so the popular channeks paid more & the more niche/minority channels paid less.

Re: Virgin TV (2026)
 

There is zero reason why Virgin Media would be interested in a little niche channel like Rewind TV especially as VM wants to cut back its broadcast channels. With the move to IPTV and the likely reduction of multiplexes by Arqiva, we'll see the likes of Rewind TV disappearing as they won't be able to afford the higher costs of broadcasting.

Re: Virgin TV (2026)
 

They may wish to start taking it to replace That's TV if it leaves the platform as it's a similar genre.

I don't think we're at the stage yet where Virgin want to cut back on channels on their traditional cable offering, particularly because the vast amount of their TV customers are on this system.

I'm sure that any new channel that comes along will be added to the V6/360 boxes if the broadcaster wants this & some will want to be added to streaming too.

Re: Virgin TV (2026)
 

All broadcasters (Virgin Media, Sky, PSBs) are moving to IPTV, meaning fewer broadcast channels - which will cost more per channel even if Arqiva makes cost savings like halving the six multiplexers to just three as fixed costs of the transmitter network (the "towers") are largely static. The big boys like the PSBs can afford to pay Arqiva's carriage fees but higher fees will kill the little channels. And these little channels like Rewind TV and music cannot just pivot to FAST as they won't have the rights for streaming (broadcast rights rarely enable streaming rights as well) - and even then they'd have to persuade the likes of Samsung to do the hosting. The brutal reality is that these channels will just disappear as even being on YouTube is no answer if you don't have the digital streaming rights.