 | This article needs to be updated. (May 2020) |
 | |
| Type | Pay TV |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Availability | Cable television |
| Founded | March 2006 (February 2007 as Virgin TV) |
Broadcast area | United Kingdom |
| Owner | Virgin Media O2 |
| Parent | Liberty Global (50%) Telefónica (50%) |
Official website | VirginMedia.com |
Virgin TV is a digital pay cable television service in the United Kingdom, owned by Liberty Global (50%) and Telefónica (50%) after the merger its UK businesses to form Virgin Media O2. Its origins date from NTL and Telewest, formerly two of the UK's largest cable operators, which merged on 6 March 2006. All NTL:Telewest services were rebranded as Virgin Media in February 2007. Since the acquisition of Smallworld Cable in 2014, Virgin is the sole national cable TV provider in Great Britain.[1] Currently[update] about 51% of UK households have access to Virgin's network, which is independent from BT's Openreach network.[2][3]
Virgin ranks as the UK's second-largest pay TV service, and the service is provided in conjunction with Virgin Media broadband and phone.[2] As of Q3 2007, it had 3.6 million subscribers, compared to 8.2 million on its traditional rival Sky.[4] As of 2009, Virgin's digital cable television currently uses the Nagravision 3 conditional access system.[5][6] The service was fully digitalised in 2013.
Since November 2016, the service's flagship set top box is the TiVo-powered Virgin V6 Box, or the Virgin TV 360 which has an updated HORIZON interface,[7] competing with Sky Q.[8]
- ^ "All about cable TV - a broadbandchoices guide". broadbandchoices.co.uk.
- ^ a b "StackPath". www.choose.co.uk.
- ^ White, Dominic (20 January 2007). "Virgin media launch to cost £20m". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 21 January 2007. Retrieved 1 February 2007.
- ^ The Communications Market: Digital Progress Report -Digital TV Q3 2007 Archived 25 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Ofcom. Retrieved on 23 February 2008
- ^ "Your new TV Smartcard". Virgin Media. Retrieved 16 October 2009.
- ^ "Virgin plans Yorkshire smart card swap". Digital Spy. 26 October 2009.
- ^ "Game-changing Virgin TV Launch". Virgin Media.
- ^ "Virgin V6 TV review: jack of all trades, master of none". The Guardian. 14 November 2019.