On the 3rd of September, free-to-view channel Virgin 1 gets a new name… Channel One.

The reason for the name change is that Sky recently acquired a number of Virgin Media-owned TV channels, including Living, Bravo and Virgin 1. Obviously, they have to lose their Virginity, and just as Virgin Radio became “Absolute Radio” when it was sold, Sky’s had to find a new name.

Channel One, under Sky’s ownership, will continue to run a similar mix of mostly US shows. One new addition to the programme lineup, is the recent re-make of the classic hamster-eating alien saga that was “V”. It’s already been shown on the subscription service SyFy, but will soon be free-to-air on Channel One too.

Customers of the Virgin Media TV service will soon be offered Sky Sports 1 HD, Sky Sports 2 HD and Sky Movies  HD.

Virgin’s HD channel lineup needs a boost, and the addition of Sky’s premium sport and movies channels is something that Virgin’s customers have been calling for, for a while.

The deal between Sky and Virgin for the HD content forms part of a deal that sees Virgin selling off their TV channels Bravo, Virgin 1, Living and Challenge to Sky.

No news as yet on when these channels will be coming to Virgin customers, of how much extra Virgin customers will have to pay for Sky’s HD content. Sky customers currently pay a £10 a month premium to watch the 40 Sky HD channels.

We’ll update you here, and on our digital TV podcast when we have more.

In order to allow Virgin Media to concentrate on its cable broadband operation, it has sold off its TV channels to Sky.

In a deal worth £160 million, Virgin has sold the following channels to satellite operator BSkyB:

• Virgin 1
• Bravo and Bravo 2
• LIVING and LIVINGit
• Challenge and Challenge Jackpot

Sky’s announced that Virgin 1 will change to a Sky brand in due course.

The deal also brings good news for Virgin Media customers, as Sky will be offering Sky Sports HD and Sky Movies HD, which have preiously only been available to satellite customers.

The Chief Exec of BSkyB, Jeremy Darroch,  said: “We are pleased that, through commercial negotiation, we have been able to ensure wide distribution of our channels to a growing pay TV universe.”

The deal is still subject to regulator approval.

ITV’s HD channel, ITV 1 HD, is finally available on Sky Digital and Virgin Media.

ITV HD launched in June 2008 as an exclusive to Freesat, but now is available to a wider audience.

The ITV 1 HD  channel has recently become available on Freeview HD, and as of the 2nd of April 2010, ITV 1 HD is available on Channel 178 of Sky, and on channel 113 on Virgin Media.

ITV 1 HD also gets its own channel on Freesat, channel 119, after previously only being available via the Freesat red button.

The channel Men and Motors will cease to broadcast, to free up resources for the ITV1 HD channel.

ITV 1 HD in Scotland and Northern Ireland: ITV does not have a licence to broadcast in Scotland or Northern Ireland -The companies STV and UTV hold the Channel 3 licences for those regions (respectively). STV will apparently be launching their own HD channel in the future. As a result, ITV 1 HD is not available on Freesat Channel 118 in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The workaround appears to be to put in an English postcode into your Freesat receiver (postcodes decide which regions you’ll be assigned). You’ll lose regional programmes, but gain ITV 1 HD.

Manly channel Men and Motors has closed today.

The channel which originally launched in 1996, has closed to make way for ITV1 HD on Sky and Virgin.

The station was on Freeview for a while, but was pulled in April 2006. At the time, this site, and our podcast FrequencyCast, were inundated with complaints about the station’s demise, and petitions were set up to keep Men and Motors station alive. No complaints as yet – maybe no-one’s noticed…

Miss the mix of cars, girls and lad content? Add a comment below…

Until today, Men & Motors, owned by ITV, was available on Sky Digital Channel 178, Virgin Media Channel 280 and Freesat channel 450.

With Sky planning to have 50 channels of HD onstream by the end of the year, we’ve seen some recent activity from the Virgin Media cable TV service to advance their HD offering.

Firstly, from today, you can now get the Virgin Media V+ HD box for just £49 (or free if you’re prepared to sign up to the Virgin Media XL TV package. More on Virgin’s V+ Box.

Secondly, there’s been a bunch of announcements from Virgin of new HD channels on the way. In the next few months, Virgin customers will be able to watch the following new channels on their V+ box:

• ITV 1 HD
• E4 HD
• Film 4 HD
• Discovery HD
• Sy-Fi / Sci Fi HD
• Eurosport HD

These are in addition to the existing HD channels from BBC, Channel 4, FX, Living, MTV and National Geographic. You can also get ESPN in HD on Virgin for an extra subscription

The other strong selling point is that, unlike Sky, there’s no premium to watch the HD service – With Sky, it’s £10 a month for HD – but there’s no extra fee with Virgin

In a cable TV area? Time to consider the Virgin Media HD offering – Details at allyours.virginmedia.com

Good news for Sky and Virgin HD customers – ITV appears to have bowed to pressure and agreed to let their HD service be shown on the pay platforms.

ITV 1 HD is currently available on Freesat (via the red button), and to the lucky few who can get Freeview HD, but from the 2nd of April, ITV 1 HD will be available as a dedicated channel on Sky and Virgin. It also looks likely that ITV 1 will be come its own channel on Freesat, and not hidden behind the red button.

The move means that ITV’s HD coverage of the World Cup will now be available to a greater HD audience.

Film4 and E4, two of Channel 4′s digital services, will shortly be going “HD” – but only for Virgin Media customers.

The two channelsd will be launching exclusively on the Virgin cable TV platform – doubtless a disappointment to Sky HD customers and those hoping for some much needed HD content on Freesat.

E4 HD is set to launch in April at no extra cost to Virgin Media TV users, with Film4′s HD service set to start in the Summer.

More on Virgin Media at virginmedia.com

From 3rd August 2009, Virgin Media will be carrying the ESPN channel, which will show the 2009/10 Premier League matches originally intended to be shown by Setanta.

Earlier this month, ESPN came to an agreement with Sky to carry the Premier League matches on a new ESPN channel – now Virgin has signed up too. Both Virgin and Sky will also offer HD coverage of Premier League matches.

ESPN will be free to those on the Virgin Media TV XL package. It’s also available to ‘M’ and ‘L’ package customers for £10 (or £8 if you also subscribe to Sky Sports).

More information on our ESPN UK page

Show 26 of FrequencyCast, our online radio show, has just been released.

In this show, we cover the BBC iPlayer, Virgin Media, new Freeview channels and news of FreeSat. We also take a look at the Eee PC, try a new Wii game, and talk surge protectors, iPhones and much, much more.

Download Show 26 direct to your MP3 player, or listen online at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html

Got iTunes? Play, download or subscribe: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=142899029

Share and Enjoy!

Confirmed – as of midnight on 1st March 2007, the Sky channels, Sky One, Sky Two, Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky Travel vanished from Virgin Media’s Cable TV lineup.

This happened after Virgin Media failed to agree to Sky’s terms for ongoing broadcast of the Sky channels on Virgin’s Cable platform.

We covered this story on Show 12 of FrequencyCast, our podcast, which was released just after Virgin’s Sky channels went dark.

If you want to continue to watch Sky One, for shows like 24 and Lost, you’ll need to sign up to Sky – £26 a month gets you Broadband, Home phone, and more channels than are available to Virgin Media customers. See www.sky.com/skycom for more on this package.