Football fans, take note: ESPN have the rights to 46 Premier League matches and 30 Scottish Premiere league fixtures this season. Next season, ESPN will show 23 Premiere League matches. ESPN's service is free to Virgin subscribers on the premium "XL" package, but £8 p/month for customers on the "L" or "M" package (who pay for Sky Sports, too), or £10 p/month otherwise. To celebrate the deal, Virgin are making ESPN free to all 3.5 million customers in August...
Even better, this deal means Virgin have landed themselves another HD channel: ESPN HD. Standard-def ESPN and ESPN Classic will also join Virgin's suite of channels from 3 August, in a deal that effectively replaces the arrangement Virgin had with defunct sports channel Setanta. ESPN also have the rights to football matches from domestic matches in Germany, Portugal, Russia and the Netherlands, as well as the US Major Soccer League.
It's all great news for sports fans, but also worthy of mention if you're considering signing up for Virgin Media now that they appear to be aggressively battling for HD content. It certainly appears to be an attractive deal for footie fans, considering the extortionate prices Sky charge for their own sports channels. Competition is vital in this marketplace, so hopefully Sky will be forced to lower their prices if people in cable-ready areas start flocking to Virgin now.
Virgin also announced yesterday that Channel 4 HD is joining their line-up, free to all subscribers. It offers a HD-quality simulcast of regular Channel 4.
Mark Schweitzer, Virgin Media Chief Commercial Officer:
"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 lineup 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:
"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 Channel 4 HD 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."
With Channel 4 HD and ESPN HD now part of Virgin Media's HD purchases, subscribers will be pleased to know that three of the four previously announced HD channels have gone live today. Check out FX HD (channel 158), National Geographic HD (channel 232), and MTVN HD (channel 310). Living HD and Channel 4 HD are expected to begin very soon, too, while ESPN HD will launch on 3 August, as mentioned.
On a personal note, I enquired about upgrading to Virgin+ for the HD content a few days ago, and they told me that my current £30 p/month deal (10MB internet, phone, and TV with the "M" package) can be upgraded to "XL" for just £9 extra p/month. That's just shy of £40 p/month for phone/TV/internet -- plus a £100 initial outlay for the Virgin+ digibox if I want to access their HD channels. Not too bad, actually. This is enough of a step forward for me to seriously consider making that leap, finally.
Anyone else thinking of getting Virgin now, in light of this news? Any existing customers going to upgrade to "XL" for the HD stuff? Or perhaps some of you are thinking of ditching Sky for Virgin? Or perhaps campaigning to get cable where you live? Be great to hear your thoughts on Virgin Media's sudden pursuit of HD.
