General : Changes to Virgin TV (2020)

[denphone]

Originally Posted by newapollo

SkySports and Movies next in UHD please

That might come with the next price rise.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by figgyburn

CNN next please!.

Would be timely given events in US and November elections there. Also good to start building a stronger relationship in with WarnerMedia in case they ever decide to launch HBO Max in the UK.
CNN is not a channel Sky would over-promote given its own news channel plus its upcoming global news channel with NBC.

[SonicMaster]

STV Player to launch UK-wide on Virgin Media

Scottish broadcaster, STV, has agreed a deal with Virgin Media which will enable its TV customers across the UK to watch Scotland’s leading commercial Video On Demand service, the STV Player, via their Set Top Box (STB) from this summer.

The STV Player app and catch-up service was integrated into Virgin Media’s STBs for viewers in Scotland in December 2018. This new deal ensures that STV content can now be accessed throughout the UK, considerably extending the reach of the Player.

The partnership is a key part of the broadcaster’s strategy to significantly increase the market for its rapidly growing digital streaming platform. Constantly refreshed, quality content and an enhanced user experience has helped accelerate digital growth for STV, with revenues up 60% over the past two years and, already in 2020, digital viewing on the Player up 70%.

Virgin Media is the third connected TV platform the Player is automatically installed on outside of Scotland. Due to licensing agreements, STV can only broadcast its Channel 3 Network schedule in its broadcast regions in Scotland. However, over the last 18 months STV has been building up a rich catalogue of UK-wide licensed content on the STV Player and this, alongside a range of STV’s own productions, is now available across the rest of the UK on Virgin, YouView and Freesat – with more platforms to follow.

This summer, Virgin Media viewers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be able to access more than 1500 hours of content from STV, including high quality drama series, true crime, children’s programming and over 50 box sets, for free. This STV Player-exclusive content is increasingly popular amongst viewers and now constitutes 25% of streams.

Richard Williams, STV’s Managing Director, Digital, said: “We’re delighted to be working closely with Virgin Media in bringing our ever-increasing Player content offering to more households across the UK. We see significant scope for future digital growth from both our core audience and new audiences, and partnerships such as these are key to delivering such progress.”

David Bouchier, Chief Digital Entertainment Officer at Virgin Media, said: “STV has a diverse range of programming so it’s great news that all of our customers across the UK can now access its content.”

Upon launch, the STV Player app will be available on compatible Virgin Media STBs, as well as Youview and Freesat boxes. It is also available UK-wide via download from app stores on web, iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, Kindle tablets, Apple TV, Samsung, Fire TV and Roku, Now TV and via Chromecast. STV Player is available in Scotland on Sky.

STV has secured a range of new content partnerships including Endemol Shine International, TCB Media Rights, TVF Media, Hopster, Flame, and Jukin’ to add to their rich and varied inventory and complement the broadcast schedule.

http://www.stvplc.tv/blog/2020/06/st...n-virgin-media

[denphone]

Excellent news.

[Aguero9320]

Does this mean the remaining Sky SD channels will eventually be replaced? Sky Racing is gone, along with Sky Cinema. Documentaries and Nature both launched HD only.

[cheekyangus]

If STV Player is going UK-wide on Virgin Media, will ITV go the other way and have ITV Hub for ITV2/3/4/Be/CITV in Scotland? Currently the latter is still hosted by VM up here.

Will those outside Scotland get a separate version of STV Player? I'd assume so since it has ITV1 content, unless it can determine your location in future.

[BenMcr]

On the ITV Hub that's on my Smart TV it has an option to enter a location, which sets it to either 'ITV' or STV' as a content region depending on the postcode. On Virgin it doesn't - so I assume that's being done behind the scenes.

As far as I know the STV Hub is the same core platform technology so would work in the same way.

However for the ITV Hub to be in Scotland, that would have to be an agreement by ITV with VM to do that.

[ozsat]

All4 app is now available.

The STV Player is more than just ITV catchup. There is quite a bit of the STV archive on there too.

[vincerooney]

Originally Posted by ozsat

All4 app is now available.

The STV Player is more than just ITV catchup. There is quite a bit of the STV archive on there too.

Didn’t even think the all4 app was going to launch soon so that’s a nice surprise!

When is STV player launching? Free sports is advertising it and it is showing a lot of original programming

[ozsat]

Press release says this summer.

Originally Posted by vincerooney

When is STV player launching? Free sports is advertising it and it is showing a lot of original programming

[denphone]

Originally Posted by ozsat

Press release says this summer.

Obviously sometime within the next 10 weeks.

[SonicMaster]

Originally Posted by ozsat

All4 app is now available.

The STV Player is more than just ITV catchup. There is quite a bit of the STV archive on there too.

Hooray! Finally.

Thanks for the heads up.

[jobbie8]

Great to see the All4 app on V6 today. Wonder when MTV Play and the full Pluto TV app will arrive?

I hope VirginMedia add more apps such as D-Play and UKTV Play, maybe Virgin could use those app's integrated into Tivo as I'm sure there will be a lot of duplicate shows on those apps and their own OnDemand service?

I would also like to see apps like Shudder, BFI Player and Disney+
I do like everything in one place

[Media Boy UK]

We feel 4Seven HD* may close on Virgin Media UK on June 22nd.

*Channel is set to close on Freeview HD on that date.

[cheekyangus]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

We feel 4Seven HD* may close on Virgin Media UK on June 22nd.

*Channel is set to close on Freeview HD on that date.

If they did it would probably bring them closer to having Channel 4 HD on 104 in every region, rather than just London.

---------- Post added at 15:58 ---------- Previous post was at 15:56 ----------

Originally Posted by ozsat

All4 app is now available.

The STV Player is more than just ITV catchup. There is quite a bit of the STV archive on there too.

Thanks for heads up re: All4.

I was aware of the extra non-ITV STV Player content.