Digital TV News

BBC and Virgin Media have struck a new deal which will further enhance the user’s experience of the TiVo service.

An enhanced Red Button service offering extra interactive features, on demand video streams and BBC Online content will become available to Virgin Media TiVo customers in 2012, along with the BBC Sport and BBC News apps.

Viewers will be able to experience improved, varied and more detailed content during the major sporting events of 2012, including the London 2012 Olympics, Euro 2012, Wimbledon and the new F1 season.

The deal between the two heavyweights follows the successful addition of BBC iPlayer to Virgin Media’s TiVo service, which already offers a wealth of eye-catching features such as the ‘thumbs up, thumbs down’ option allowing you to rate shows you watch, and the impressive TiVo Search.

Jane Weedon, Controller of Business Development, BBC Future Media, said: “With its pioneering BBC iPlayer service now available on more than 300 different internet-connected TV devices, the BBC has successfully taken catch-up TV beyond the PC and into the living room.”

“Having partnered with Virgin Media to bring BBC iPlayer to TV back in 2008, we have since brought a vastly-improved, fully-integrated experience of BBC iPlayer to Virgin Media’s TiVo Service. With the addition of the BBC News app and enhanced BBC Sport services – all accessible via the Red Button – we plan to build on this partnership and continue to innovate in connected TV through 2012.”

New and existing Virgin Media customers can get TiVo, with current offers including free activation on the 500GB box. A 1TB box is also available, which can store around 500 hours of recorded standard definition content.

The UK’s leading subscription-based sports broadcasters have agreed equal deals with the Scottish Premier League, with both Sky and ESPN paying a combined £80 million for 30 exclusive live games each.

According to The Guardian, the new deal runs until the end of the 2016-17 season, and also ensures the continuation of the current league format, despite campaigning from fans for a larger league. This also means that the always feisty four Old Firm derbies per season will remain in place until at least the end of the new TV deal.

Speaking about the door closing, for now, on a significantly larger SPL, the top division’s chief executive Neil Doncaster said: “There is no room to manoeuvre in terms of expanding. Fourteen teams might potentially work in terms of having a split league and retaining four Old firm games. Maybe. That would be feasible.”

“But it has never been feasible to have 16, 18 or 20 because you automatically mean going to one home game and one away. We think that will take £20m out of Scottish football. That is a massive amount of money per season, in terms of lost gate and TV revenue. The lost gate revenue is not to be underestimated. So going to 16, 18 or 20 – financially – is impossible.”

The new deal is said to be bringing in an extra £3 million per year for the SPL.

Sky, Virgin Media and BT Vision customers can all add Sky Sports and ESPN to their digital TV subscriptions.

It’s a friendly, but England fans will expect nothing of the sort as Capello’s men challenge the current European and World Champions Spain, live this Saturday on ITV1.

England have the home advantage, but Spain’s squad is packed with breathtaking quality including the likes of midfield maestros Andres Iniesta and Xavi, as well as one of the world’s best ‘keepers in Iker Casillas and strikeforce options that include David Villa and Fernando Llorente.

The England fans insist on high standards, and recent squads have clearly buckled under the intense pressure and expectation, but with inspiring youthful talent like Phil Jones, Danny Welbeck and Daniel Sturridge breaking through, a new crop of players could be ready to bring the team out of its barren trophyless streak.

Unfortunately, controversy follows the England team, and this time round we have no Wayne Rooney due to a moment of petulance, and we may still see John Terry inexplicably start, and lead out the team, when he is still the subject of an FA investigation into racism allegations.

Nonetheless, it is sure to be an entertaining contest, as England have something to prove at home, whilst Spain currently play the most attractive football of all the nations by far.

Fans can watch live on Freeview and through any of the UK digital TV providers, with coverage starting at 4.45pm and the match kicking-off at 5.15pm.

Sky Sports will be showing the Euro 2012 qualifying play-off, between the Republic of Ireland and Estonia, with the Boys in Green looking to get into the tournament for only the second time; their debut ended in the first round back in 1988. The first leg is this evening, kicking-off at 19.45, whilst the second leg is on Tuesday at the same time. Both matches will be live on Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports HD1.

The UK’s free-to-air digital TV service Freeview has announced that sales of Freeview HD devices have gone beyond 3 million in just 18 months. UK homes with some form of Freeview now number 18 million, whilst 1.75 million are actively using the high definition channels accessed via the Freeview HD devices.

The figures run from the release of Freeview HD in March 2010 to the end of September this year, and 90% of the devices purchased are integrated Freeview HD TVs.

With Freeview HD, viewers can watch BBC One HD, The BBC HD Channel, ITV1 HD and Channel 4 HD, and there is no subscription or charge to do so.

Ilse Howling, Freeview’s Managing Director, said: “Breaking through the three million sales barrier is huge achievement for Freeview HD.”

“Television remains an incredibly important part of people’s lives and Freeview has continued to provide the most-loved programmes in the format people want since Freeview launched in 2002. Our focus now is to ensure we continue to develop and give viewers what they want over the next 10 years, post-switchover and beyond.”

Current prices for Freeview HD TVs can be anything from around £180 to just under £1,000, and the HD set-top boxes can vary between £30 and £200, all depending on specifications, features and manufacturer.

An agreement has been reached between digital TV heavyweights Sky and Virgin Media, which will see customers of the latter offered access to on demand service Sky Anytime.

Sky Anytime was originally available exclusively to Sky customers, but this deal will extend the service to Virgin Media viewers. With Sky Anytime, you can pick and choose content that is in line with your current subscription, and watch it at a time that suits you.

Virgin Media already boasts a huge on demand library of its own, including access to BBC iPlayer and 4OD, as well as a range classic and contemporary movies and TV shows. With the addition of Sky Anytime, Virgin Media customers subscribing to the full Sky Movies package will have access to an extra 500 titles. Combined with the titles available through FilmFlex, PictureBox and Virgin Media Player, that brings the total to over 1,000 on demand movies.

Virgin Media customers with the full Sky Sports package will also be able to view on demand sports highlights from the channels, including Barclays Premier League and UEFA Champions League football.

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Die-hard fans of The Doctor may need medical assistance when they find out that the Master (or the BBC) has called time on the show’s spin-off Doctor Who Confidential.

The behind-the-scenes show follows Doctor Who episode premieres every Saturday, with shorter repeats airing Sundays and Fridays. The programme offers filming footage and interviews, with the preceding Doctor Who episode usually providing the main talking points.

The Guardian has reported today that cost-cutting is responsible for the show’s axe, which follows a spate of culls which has included one-time favourite Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, as well as Coming of Age, Ideal and Hotter Than My Daughter.

BBC Controller Zai Bennett is believed to be looking at concentrating on new investment, whilst also balancing a rumoured 20% budget cut across all output.

A spokeswoman for the BBC said: “Doctor Who Confidential has been a great show for BBC3 over the years but our priority now is to build on original British commissions, unique to the channel.”

The final episode of Doctor Who Confidential will air on BBC Three this Saturday at 8.35, after the Doctor Who series finale at 7.05 on BBC One.

Digital TV behemoth Virgin Media has announced that its next generation web-connected set-top box powered by TiVo will receive a companion app on the iPad.

This new feature will give iPad users with a TiVo box alternative control over the smart piece of hardware. They will be able to search through the extensive on demand libraries, as well as the TV guide, without interrupting the show being viewed on TV.

It is essentially a TV content search engine, which can also be used to switch the TV to a new programme of the viewer’s choice.

Virgin Media’s executive director of digital entertainment, Cindy Rose, said: “The way viewers watch television is changing faster than ever. Partnering with TiVo has helped us develop the most advanced and flexible TV system in the UK ensuring our customers are able to enjoy the best connected television offering available in the market today.”

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Channel 4 has tweaked its 4OD catch-up service, and officially launched the revamp today.

4OD can be accessed at any time online, but now users can activate ‘My 4OD’, giving them the option of adding programme preferences and creating personalised playlists. This new aspect of the website will send reminders to users of ‘My 4OD’, letting them know that their favourites are due to air.

In order to activate ‘My 4OD’, users will need to register various details including date of birth.

The revamp also includes improved full-page viewing and search, as well as a recommendation service.
Sarah Milton, Head of VoD at Channel 4, said: “We have refined and optimised the design to ensure viewers get the best experience from the wealth of content Channel 4 has to offer.”

“We have over 5,000 hours of archive programming available on the Channel4.com 4oD service, and the redesign makes it even easier for users to browse our offering.”

According to The Telegraph, Channel 4 is hoping to tailor the advert selection for particular demographics by utilising the information from ‘My 4OD’.

4OD is still operating in the shadow of BBC iPlayer, although The Guardian reports impressive viewing figures of 3.4m for Channel 4’s service, which offers on demand episodes of popular shows such as Hollyoaks, 8 Out Of 10 Cats and The I.T. Crowd. 4OD, like its BBC rival, can be accessed on TV at home through Virgin Media and BT Vision packages.

Investigative organisation the Competition Commission has today announced its preliminary findings regarding Sky and its dominance over pay-TV movies.

The public body, which acts as a competition regulator, has provisionally ruled that Sky is restricting UK competition, and therefore directly causing higher prices and reduced choice, because of agreements with Hollywood studios to show films first on the Sky Movies channels.

The six major Hollywood studios are Warner Bros., Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney/Touchstone, Columbia and Universal, and Sky has deals with each one for film rights. According to the BBC, Sky also has twice as many pay-TV subscribers as all the other rivals combined.

Laura Carstensen, chairman of the Competition Commission’s movies on pay-TV investigation, said: “Sky has had control of recent movie content on pay-TV for many years.”

“At the heart of the problem is Sky’s strong position in the pay-TV market, with twice as many subscribers to pay TV as all other traditional pay-TV retailers put together.

“This provides Sky with a great advantage when it comes to bidding for movie rights, which no rival bidder has yet been able to overcome - and, if things stay as they are, we see no likely prospect of change.

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Today has seen a landmark move in the world of F1, with Sky successfully purchasing the live broadcast rights to every single race from the 2012 season up to 2018.

This deal will put the globally popular, high-octane motor sport on UK pay-TV for the first time in its history, and is sure to ruffle a few feathers amongst licence-fee payers.

The BBC will still have joint rights to show half of the season’s races, qualifying laps and practice sessions, and the free-to-air channel will include live coverage of the renowned races at Silverstone and Monaco. The BBC will also have highlights of the races that are exclusively on Sky.

Undoubtedly Sky will consider this a major coup, and whilst the BBC still has some live coverage, F1 fanatics will certainly be tempted by Sky Sports, in light of this surprising news.

Barbara Slater, director of BBC Sport, was upbeat despite the loss of live coverage, saying: “We are absolutely delighted that F1 will remain on the BBC.”

“The sport has never been more popular with TV audiences at a 10-year high and the BBC has always stated its commitment to the big national sporting moments.”

“With this new deal not only have we delivered significant savings but we have also ensured that through our live and extended highlights coverage all the action continues to be available to licence-fee payers.”

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