Virgin flashes pair at competition
Wednesday, June 13th, 2007New sports and entertainment channels set to arrive on cable platform
Virgin Media has recently unveiled Virgin 1 - a new entertainment channel set to be launched on its own digital TV platform as well as Freeview and, hopefully, Sky. The channel is set to be aired in the autumn, and will most likely feature content from Virgin-owned subscription channels Bravo and Living.
There have also been repeated whispers from sections of the press concerning talks between Virgin and a sports broadcaster – most likely Setanta – over a deal which would create a new sports news channel which would replace the missing Sky Sports News.
It is hoped that these new channels will go some way in restoring the damage done by the March loss of channels farce, and it makes sense for Virgin and Setanta to jump into bed with one another as they are both arch-rivals of Sky.
Virgin had stated in the past that money saved from not paying carriage fees to Sky was going to be reinvested into new programmes, content and features – so far we have seen Virgin Media boost their broadband speeds, give away free DTT receivers and extend their ADSL network so non-cable customers can sign up for the full ‘quad-play’ of available services.
