TiVo Inc., a leader in the creation of television services and advertising solutions for digital video recorders (DVRs), and Virgin Media Inc., the UK's leading entertainment and communications company, today announced they have entered into a strategic partnership under which TiVo will develop Virgin Media's next generation TV platform. Under the mutually exclusive agreement, TiVo will develop a converged television and broadband interactive interface to power Virgin Media's next generation, high definition set top boxes. The terms of the deal are not disclosed.

TiVo will become the exclusive provider of middleware and user interface software for Virgin Media's next generation set top boxes. Virgin Media will become the exclusive distributor of TiVo services and technology in the United Kingdom .

Neil Berkett, CEO of Virgin Media said, “TiVo's proven track record of innovation, strength of its patented technology and experience in developing best in class user environments, make it an ideal strategic partner for Virgin Media as we move aggressively to bring our next generation TV service to market. The superiority of our fibre optic network combined with TiVo's capabilities, will allow us to offer consumers the most significantly advanced and compelling TV service available in the UK , and we believe will do to the TV market what Virgin Media has done to the high speed broadband market.”

The next generation platform will offer a superior television viewing experience which will allow Virgin Media customers to search and discover content through major advances in video-on-demand integration and broadband video delivery creating the ultimate one-stop-shop for in-home entertainment.

“This deal underscores TiVo's commitment to expanding its global footprint through strategic alliances with leading international media companies to help them deliver the best in-home entertainment experience for consumers,” said Tom Rogers , president and CEO of TiVo Inc. “We are very excited about this new distribution relationship with the UK's most advanced pay television provider and are particularly proud to have been selected as Virgin Media's core software partner for its next generation DVR-enabled set top boxes and its next generation non-DVR set top boxes. Virgin Media is a true leader in the world of entertainment and their enthusiasm for building the next generation of pay television is an excellent opportunity to put all of TiVo's innovation to work in a product distributed by a world class partner. We believe this international deal affords us a significant subscriber growth opportunity. ”

Virgin Media currently anticipates its first TiVo co-branded product in 2010.

Virgin Media today announced that Channel 4’s High Definition (HD) channel, 4HD, will join its HD line-up. 4HD was the first full-schedule HD channel to be launched by a UK terrestrial broadcaster and offers ground-breaking programmes including Skins, Shameless and Desperate Housewives in glorious High Definition.

4HD will be available to Virgin Media’s 3.5 million digital TV customers and joins the BBC HD channel, ESPN HD, LIVING HD, FX HD, MTV Networks International’s HD channel, MTVNHD, and National Geographic HD in Virgin Media’s linear HD line-up.

FX HD, MTVNHD and National Geographic HD are launching on Virgin Media’s TV platform tomorrow. ESPN HD will launch on 3rd August, with 4HD and LIVING HD coming soon.

Mark Schweitzer, chief commercial officer at Virgin Media, said: “Channel 4 is home to some of the UK’s most talked about and innovative TV programmes with a great mix of fantastic home grown shows and top imports, and we’re delighted to be bringing them in HD to our customers. We continue to evolve our TV service, across linear TV channels and on demand content, and our growing HD line-up offers a great choice from some of the best UK and US TV series, documentaries, comedy, sport and music.”

Sarah Rose, Head of Channel Development at Channel 4, said: “We want our viewers to be able to watch their favourite Channel 4 programmes in the format they want and across multiple platforms so we’re delighted to be launching 4HD on Virgin Media.  Our catch-up service, 4oD, has been a great success on Virgin Media’s TV platform and, as we continue to invest in HD production, we’re bringing more Channel 4 programmes to more viewers in HD.”

4HD is a simulcast of the core Channel 4 schedule with a proportion of programmes produced and transmitted in the HD format.  Programmes currently broadcast in HD include Ugly Betty, Come Dine With Me and Shameless as well as the best documentaries, current affairs, music and film.  Channel 4 is committed to increasing its investment in HD production and the proportion of its schedule transmitted in high definition over time.

4HD will be available to all of Virgin Media’s TV customers at no extra cost, alongside the BBC HD channel. Virgin Media will make its full range of HD channels available at no extra cost to its XL TV customers.

Virgin Media customers will be able to watch FX HD on Channel 158, MTVNHD on Channel 310 and National Geographic HD on Channel 232.  

Virgin Media is also currently in active talks with UKTV about Good Food HD. The company also offers around 300 hours of HD content on its on demand TV platform, including BBC iPlayer in HD, around 60 HD films to choose from at any one time and a range of HD programming such as The Sopranos and Band of Brothers.

Virgin Media’s digital TV platform was recently named the top pay TV service for customer support and value for money and the joint best for overall customer satisfaction in the uSwitch Digital TV Customer Satisfaction Awards 2009.

Sports fans can now get ESPN channels as part of Virgin Media’s XL pack for no extra cost

Virgin Media and ESPN today announced that the new ESPN channel will be available in both standard and High Definition (HD) to Virgin Media’s 3.5 million digital TV customers from 3rd August.  The ESPN channel will offer live Barclays Premier League and Clydesdale Bank Premier League football as well a wide range of international football and top quality sports.

Customers who subscribe to Virgin Media’s XL TV pack will be able to watch ESPN and ESPN HD at no additional cost.  As part of the deal, these subscribers will also receive ESPN Classic, featuring the greatest moments of UK and European sport.

Dedicated sports fans who are on Virgin Media’s M or L pack will be able to subscribe to ESPN and ESPN HD for a great value price of £8 a month if they already subscribe to any combination of the Sky Sports channels, or £10 a month if not. 

As a special introduction to the new ESPN and ESPN HD channels, Virgin Media will make these ESPN channels available to all of its digital TV customers, for no additional cost, during August. 

Mark Schweitzer, chief commercial officer of Virgin Media, said: “This agreement solidifies Virgin Media’s place as the home of TV entertainment and is unquestionably the best value TV deal for sports fanatics.  We’ve got all the sports content you’d expect and adding the new ESPN channels to our line-up will mean our customers can watch all the football action they want.”

Mr Schweitzer added: “We’re always looking for ways to go the extra mile for our customers and we think this market beating offer does this in spades as well as providing a sweetener for the start of the football season.  We are extremely proud to have partnered with ESPN, which is the world’s leading multimedia sports entertainment company.”

Lynne Frank, managing director for ESPN in Europe, Middle East and Africa said: “We are delighted to add Virgin Media as a new distribution partner and to offer millions more sports fans ESPN’s compelling mix of Barclays Premier League and Clydesdale Bank Premier League football, as well as the best of international football and top quality sports.  The plan to make the channels available to Virgin Media’s XL customers will help ESPN better serve sports fans in the UK.  It’s an exciting season ahead and we look forward to bringing our new channels, ESPN and ESPN HD as well as ESPN Classic, to as many sports fans as possible.”   

ESPN’s new channel ‘ESPN’ will launch on 3rd August in both standard definition and HD.  It will showcase 46 live Premier League football games during the 2009/10 season and 23 matches for each of the following three seasons.  ESPN will also show 30 live and exclusive Clydesdale Bank Premier League games each season across the UK and Ireland, starting with the 2009/10 campaign this August.  The channel will also broadcast other top international sporting events, which will be announced shortly.

The first live Barclays Premier League game on ESPN will be Everton versus Arsenal with a 5:30pm kick off on Saturday 15th August.

LIVING, FX, MTV Networks International and National Geographic HD channels to launch

Virgin Media (NASDAQ: VMED) today named four new High Definition (HD) channels which will soon be available on its award winning TV platform. For the first time, LIVING will be broadcast in spectacular HD and will be joined by HD channels from FX, MTV Networks International and National Geographic. All four channels will be available to Virgin Media's 3.6 million TV customers, with the first channel due to launch at the end of July.

The new channels offer a raft of HD content, from critically acclaimed programmes such as Grey's Anatomy, Dexter and Generation Kill, to visually stunning documentaries and some of the world';s favourite live music events in crystal clear Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound.

LIVING, home to the Next Top Model franchise and cult phenomenon Most Haunted, is one of the UK's most watched digital TV channels and will be available to viewers in HD for the first time. LIVING HD will show some of the channel's high-profile acquisitions to maximum effect, including Criminal Minds, Ghost Whisperer, Private Practice and CSI. LIVING's HD launch is significant step forward in Virgin Media Television's brands' cross-platform entertainment strategy.

Neil Berkett, chief executive officer of Virgin Media, said: "As more homes become HD-ready, the launch of four new HD channels marks the next stage in the evolution of our pioneering TV service. Our line-up of HD channels and hugely popular on demand content is a unique and winning combination and we'll continue to bring more sport, films, entertainment and documentaries to our customers."

FX HD offers a mixture of top American programming and first run drama, comedy and crime shows such as The Wire, Family Guy and the forthcoming series True Blood from the creator of Six Feet Under.

MTV Networks International's HD channel, MTVNHD, which is dedicated to music and kids, broadcasts original music-based shows including iconic series such as MTV Unplugged and high profile live music events such as the MTV Europe Music Awards. Each Saturday and Sunday morning the channel also broadcasts a selection of Nickelodeon's hit children's shows such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.

National Geographic HD is home to some of the most engrossing documentaries available, such as Extreme Ice and Ancient Megastructures, documenting science and technology, and unravelling history and the wonders of the natural world.

Virgin Media will make its full range of HD channels available at no extra cost to its XL TV customers.

Virgin Media is also currently in active talks with UKTV about Good Food HD. The company already offers the BBC HD channel and around 300 hours of HD content on its on demand TV platform, including BBC iPlayer in HD, around 60 HD films to choose from at any one time and a range of HD programming such as The Sopranos and Band of Brothers.

Virgin Media's digital TV platform was recently named the top pay TV service for customer support and value for money and the joint best for overall customer satisfaction in the uSwitch Digital TV Customer Satisfaction Awards 2009.

• Deal Adds Hundreds of Films to Virgin Media’s TV Platform
• First UK Platform to Offer PictureBox Films in HD

Virgin Media and Universal Pictures today announce the launch of PictureBox, the leading movies-on-demand TV subscription service, on Virgin Media’s TV platform. 

From July, the PictureBox service will be available to Virgin Media’s 3.6 million TV subscribers for £5 per month and provide a broad selection of recent and library feature films. Subscribers will be able to view films whenever they like from a selection of 28 films at any given time, with seven new titles being added to the line-up each Friday.  Most of the PictureBox films will be available in HD and many will not yet have been seen on free-to-air television in the UK.

Highlights of films that will be featured on PictureBox in the coming months include such hits as Hot Fuzz, The Bourne Ultimatum, Children of Men and The Holiday, as well as classic blockbusters such as Scarface, Total Recall, The Nutty Professor and E.T – The Extra Terrestrial.  PictureBox is wholly owned by Universal Pictures Ltd.

Katharine Burns, executive director of content acquisition at Virgin Media, said “Our customers love movies on demand and they’re watching millions of films every year. The addition of PictureBox means Virgin Media is the perfect choice for film fans, with a fantastic HD line-up and even more films to choose from, all at great value for money.”

The agreement continues the expansion of the PictureBox service, which also operates on other platforms in the UK, Poland and Singapore, and marks the service’s first UK platform to present films in HD.

“This agreement is a significant step in the growth of the PictureBox brand, which will now be available to Virgin Media’s 3.6 million TV customers in the UK,” added Belinda Menendez, president, NBC Universal International TV Distribution.  “Our reach in the UK has now increased more than fivefold and the service has expanded internationally since initial launch less than three years ago.”

Virgin Media has pioneered on demand television in the UK with over half a billion views in 2008. More than half of its 3.6 million TV customers are now regularly watching on demand content.  Virgin Media offers a vast library of thousands of hours of TV shows, movies, music and kids programming, all of which can be watched when viewers want, at the touch of a button.

BBC HD channel content now available via BBC iPlayer on Virgin Media’s TV platform.

The BBC and Virgin Media today announced the launch of High Definition (HD) content on BBC iPlayer on Virgin Media.

Virgin Media’s TV customers are now able to watch some of their favourite BBC programmes, including Robin Hood, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and Later…with Jools Holland, in HD and on demand.. (To watch television in HD, Virgin Media customers need a HD V+ set-top box and a HD ready television with a HDMI socket.)

Virgin Media is the first TV platform to make BBC iPlayer available in full screen picture quality, directly to its TV customers. Demand for the service has been strong with over 100 million views since BBC iPlayer launched on Virgin Media in May 2008 and almost 15 million views in March alone.

Katharine Burns Rivington, executive director of content acquisition at Virgin Media, said:

‘As more households become HD Ready, we're keen to ensure that Virgin Media customers benefit from the most advanced digital TV service possible. BBC iPlayer has been a huge success on our TV platform and we're thrilled to be expanding the service with HD content. We’re looking forward to increasing our line-up of broadcast HD channels over the next few months and combining the very best of HD and on demand TV.’

Rahul Chakkara, BBC Controller TV Platforms, said:

‘There’s a real appetite for BBC iPlayer on TV screens and the addition of the BBC HD programmes further adds to its appeal. HD lets viewers enjoy their favourite programmes in exceptionally vivid colours and crisp pictures, perfect for the TV screen.’

Upcoming highlights from the BBC HD channel, now available for catch-up on BBC iPlayer on Virgin Media, include the two remaining Doctor Who specials, the new series of Dragons' Den and children's show Kerwhizz.

• One of the largest ever Google Mail deployments
• Over 7GB of storage and @virginmedia.com email addresses for customers

Virgin Media is to start offering enhanced email services to its four million home broadband customers in partnership with Google. With over 7000MB (7GB) of storage and @virginmedia.com email addresses available for customers for the first time, Virgin Media’s new email service will be one of the largest deployments of Google Partner Edition Apps*, which allows businesses as well as individuals to use Google’s communication and collaboration applications under their own domain names.

As well as greater storage, Virgin Media’s broadband customers will benefit from advanced email search, the ability to stay up to date with emails via their mobiles, anti-virus, spam and phishing filters and up to 10 @virginmedia.com email addresses for each broadband household. Customers accessing their email through the web-based interface will also be able to take advantage of instant messaging features and organise emails into threaded conversations.

Available to all of Virgin Media’s home broadband customers, the enhanced services will be piloted by the first 20,000 new customers to sign up from today, with full launch to all new customers shortly after. Existing customers will then be migrated across to the new service at no extra cost and will be able to keep their existing @blueyonder.co.uk, @ntlworld.com or @virgin.net email addresses or choose to sign up for new @virginmedia.com email addresses.

The agreement complements the existing and successful search partnership between Virgin Media and Google, as the two companies continue to work together to explore a range of additional services and applications.

Alex Green, Executive Director of Online for Virgin Media, said: “As the UK’s largest home broadband provider, we’re committed to providing the very best online experience to our customers. With email so important in everyday life, we’re delighted to be working with Google and launching a brand new, feature-rich and easy to use email service. We look forward to exploring future services with Google and continuing to deliver market-leading communications and entertainment to our customers.”

Doug Lucas, Strategic Partner Development Director for Google said: "Virgin Media is one of the UK’s leading ISPs and this is a great partnership between two companies focused on innovation. We look forward to rolling out new features for the benefit of all Virgin Media’s customers."

To find out more about Virgin Media’s products and services visit www.virginmedia.com or call 0800 052 2525.