General : Changes to Virgin TV (2021)

[Legendkiller2k]

Originally Posted by Raider999

SkyQ online service has been rumoured for years, very unlikely to happen at all according to SkyQ forum.

It's happening documents are there it's just a matter of when it's happening, it's certainly being tested in house.
But then again this is Comcast we're talking about who tend to scrap good ideas lol.

---------- Post added at 15:08 ---------- Previous post was at 15:07 ----------

Originally Posted by heavyside

IIRC Virgin Media is currently testing a service to bring many streaming services together under a single umbrella for its subscribers.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.ph...t-service.html

Yeah some of you might laugh and say "Legendkiller has lost his marbles the heat is getting to him." but one to watch is Pluto tv, especially now Viacom own them.

[Media Boy UK]

Originally Posted by Legendkiller2k

It's happening documents are there it's just a matter of when it's happening, it's certainly being tested in house.
But then again this is Comcast we're talking about who tend to scrap good ideas lol.

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Yeah some of you might laugh and say "Legendkiller has lost his marbles the heat is getting to him." but one to watch is Pluto tv, especially now Viacom own them.

Don't you mean ViacomCBS?

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Comcast to buy ViacomCBS?

Those initial meetings paved the way to more wide-ranging conversations about other ways the two media companies might work together — talks that sources say could lead to some combination of Comcast’s NBCUniversal unit and ViacomCBS. No formal offers have been made.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dawnchm...h=757fbcc11056

---------- Post added at 18:22 ---------- Previous post was at 17:25 ----------

Missing Eurosport UHD on Virgin UK Channel 523 - not on TiVo boxes

Try this:

Home > Help & Settings > Help > TV Care > I'm missing some channels, and give it perhaps 15 minutes to do the necessary update.

Sources: Virgin Media Forum and japitts

[Legendkiller2k]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Don't you mean ViacomCBS?

---------- Post added at 17:25 ---------- Previous post was at 17:22 ----------

Comcast to buy ViacomCBS?



https://www.forbes.com/sites/dawnchm...h=757fbcc11056

---------- Post added at 18:22 ---------- Previous post was at 17:25 ----------

Missing Eurosport UHD on Virgin UK Channel 523 - not on TiVo boxes

Try this:

Home > Help & Settings > Help > TV Care > I'm missing some channels, and give it perhaps 15 minutes to do the necessary update.

Sources: Virgin Media Forum and japitts

Yeah lol i'm used to calling them Viacom, old habits.

[cheekyangus]

What's the point on Ch523 showing on Tivo?

V6 (which runs TiVo, I know) is UHD capable bit Original VM TiVo isn't.

Usually when someone says TiVo on a VM related forum they mean original flavour, not V6.

Yeah, I know I'm being pedantic, but sometimes you have to be to stop others being confused.

[Media Boy UK]

Originally Posted by cheekyangus

What's the point on Ch523 showing on Tivo?

V6 (which runs TiVo, I know) is UHD capable bit Original VM TiVo isn't.

Usually when someone says TiVo on a VM related forum they mean original flavour, not V6.

Yeah, I know I'm being pedantic, but sometimes you have to be to stop others being confused.

Virgin Media UHD also appeared on TiVo boxes.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Virgin Media UHD also appeared on TiVo boxes.

Does it show the UHD picture downscaled or is it blank?

[Media Boy UK]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Does it show the UHD picture downscaled or is it blank?

It goes by the channel number when you get to Virgin Media UHD. It look like an channel you do not pay for on the EPG listings.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Legendkiller2k

Tbf back then NOW didn't exist, it'll be a different ball game this time around especially with the rumoured SKYQ online service too.

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Imho i think VMs tv days may be numbered, they will concentrate more on the broadband they're already testing 3gbs speeds.

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Get a fire tv stick if you can NOWTV is on them now and you get access to more apps including plex which is great if you have stuff you purchased on a computer or even home videos etc you can view on your tv without need to run leads across.

Oh yes, it's a whole different ball game these days; that's why I think this claim is plausible.

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by cheekyangus

What's the point on Ch523 showing on Tivo?

To encourage people to upgrade?

[epsilon]

Originally Posted by cheekyangus

What's the point on Ch523 showing on Tivo?

V6 (which runs TiVo, I know) is UHD capable bit Original VM TiVo isn't.

Usually when someone says TiVo on a VM related forum they mean original flavour, not V6.

Yeah, I know I'm being pedantic, but sometimes you have to be to stop others being confused.

I guess there is no way of marking the channels to stop them showing on the Tivo. Which makes sense as there wouldn't have been UHD channels when the Tivo firmware was written. New channel markers should be possible but would need a firmware update. UHD channels will be greyed out on the EPG as will any channel not included in the subscription.

---------- Post added at 22:07 ---------- Previous post was at 22:05 ----------

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Oh yes, it's a whole different ball game these days; that's why I think this claim is plausible.

Plausible if Sky want to lose wholesale income from other providers along with reduced advertising income for a lower reach. But why would they want to lose that income?

---------- Post added at 22:21 ---------- Previous post was at 22:07 ----------

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Does it show the UHD picture downscaled or is it blank?

If selected from the EPG it will come up with the prompt it displays for any channel not subscribed. If selected by channel number it will display an error message saying something like channel not available or a subscription may be required. The old boxes aren't capable of decoding HEVC, so downscaling the picture isn't an option.

[RichardCoulter]

I remember before I got a V+ HD box, the only HD channel at the time didn't show up at all (BBC HD on channel 108).

[ScottishSteve]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

I remember before I got a V+ HD box, the only HD channel at the time didn't show up at all (BBC HD on channel 108).

I think the reason behind showing them on legacy boxes now is to give you a taste of what you are missing and would maybe entice some to upgrade or re contract

[Legendkiller2k]

[QUOTE=epsilon;36087288]

[/COLOR]
Plausible if Sky want to lose wholesale income from other providers along with reduced advertising income for a lower reach. But why would they want to lose that income?[COLOR="Silver"]





People said the same about Disney moving everything to their own platform, oh look what happened.
NOWTV which is SKY is widely available much more widely than Virgin Media is, SKY are already getting around ad revenue loss by having adverts on NOWTV VOD unless you upgrade to boost (kerching). It's happening maybe VM will go BTs route and provide the NOWTV service instead.
VM are going to focus more on faster broadband speeds and the tv will eventually be dropped one thinks.

[cheekyangus]

Originally Posted by Legendkiller2k

People said the same about Disney moving everything to their own platform, oh look what happened.
NOWTV which is SKY is widely available much more widely than Virgin Media is, SKY are already getting around ad revenue loss by having adverts on NOWTV VOD unless you upgrade to boost (kerching). It's happening maybe VM will go BTs route and provide the NOWTV service instead.
VM are going to focus more on faster broadband speeds and the tv will eventually be dropped one thinks.

Difference with Disney was that most of the content they made was on other broadcasters channels, closing their own channels didn't make much difference. Sky, until they started investing heavily in their own content, broadcast a lot of content on their channels that they didn't make. Outside of Sport I wouldn't be surprised if the most popular content on Sky channels is still the stuff they get from other providers, the Sky-branded productions rarely get talked about by people I know.

Originally Posted by spiderplant

To encourage people to upgrade?

MB mentioned the "how to get missing channels" method in the post above mine, I wasn't really thinking about greyed out channels when I said what I did, I was thinking about what the point of mentioning that method was if the box wasn't even listing it since all it would solve is adding an additional greyednout line on the EPG.

I agree encouraging to upgrade is a reason for a greyed out listing on an incapable box.

I'm not sure if I'm wording any of this properly, I'm literally yawning as I type this. Apologies if it's nonsense.

[epsilon]

Originally Posted by Legendkiller2k

People said the same about Disney moving everything to their own platform, oh look what happened.
NOWTV which is SKY is widely available much more widely than Virgin Media is, SKY are already getting around ad revenue loss by having adverts on NOWTV VOD unless you upgrade to boost (kerching). It's happening maybe VM will go BTs route and provide the NOWTV service instead.
VM are going to focus more on faster broadband speeds and the tv will eventually be dropped one thinks.

BT had recordable IPTV stream boxes on their system so the conversion was seamless. That's not really the case for Virgin where new boxes would probably be required to record IPTV streams. Even with a basic Now TV app would be unlikely to be added to original flavour Tivo models which, probably, still make up a significant proportion of the boxes on Virgin's network.

As I've said on another forum, withdrawal of a significant number of channels would be a significant blow to Virgin's tv platform. Coupled with a loss of subscription income, would they really invest in supplying new boxes just to act as an income collector for Sky?

NOW is hardly on the same scale as Disney, it just doesn't have as much to offer. It would be a very risky move for Sky to stop providing their channels to third parties if the NOW provision is the only alternative.

However, this is currently a rumour from an unnamed source. I'll not worry about it unless and until the usual reliable industry sources make similar reports.

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Originally Posted by cheekyangus

Difference with Disney was that most of the content they made was on other broadcasters channels, closing their own channels didn't make much difference. Sky, until they started investing heavily in their own content, broadcast a lot of content on their channels that they didn't make. Outside of Sport I wouldn't be surprised if the most popular content on Sky channels is still the stuff they get from other providers, the Sky-branded productions rarely get talked about by people I know.

Sky seem to get most of their bought in content from NBC and CBS, so an NBCUniversal / ViacomCBS merger with a combined streaming service would be a significant change to the playing field. Although combining the NBC and CBS networks in the USA isn't going to get regulatory approval.