[Keith Collantine]

I’m not a subscriber to Virgin Media myself but I’ve had queries from people who are, wondering how the Sky/BBC F1 deal will affect them. This announcement today may be of interest:

Virgin Media has struck a deal with the BBC to give viewers access to hundreds of hours of extra coverage of major sports events next year, including live video streams from the London 2012 Olympics, through its TiVo service.

[…] the deal also covers the “red button” content of events including Formula One, Wimbledon and Euro 2012.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/19/virgin-media-sports-deal

[Chalky]

For existing customers:
Free activation for a 500GB machine
or £49.95 for a 1TB machine

Plus £49.95 installation fee! (Surely I can plug it in?)

and then it’s £3 per month extra on your bill.

I’ll have to work out if I need this for any ‘Live’ F1 races before I commit to adding £3 per month onto my seemingly ever increasing VirginMedia bill.

Mind you changing my current Virgin box for a TiVo would at least allow me to delete the hours of Royal Wedding footage still clogging it all up. :D

[ed24f1]

It isn’t great for UK fans, as there were previously rumours that Virgin would add the Sky F1 channel to their package.

[Lord Stig]

I think that is a separate issue. This deal does not mean Virgin won’t be carrying the Sky F1 channel.

[pluk]

Surely the installation fee is for new customers only?

The Virgin Media TVOD (interactive) services and TiVo boxes are truly amazing already, this sounds like it is getting better and better. I miss the TVOD so much now I’ve moved to a non cabled area and have to put up with Sky.

This is clearly separate to any issues with Virgin carrying the F1 channel, but can’t imagine this news releasing now will do their negotiations any favours!

[ed24f1]

Lord Stig, it doesn’t completely rule it out, but I don’t know how much budget they have to be making deals with both the BBC and Sky.

[Author]

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