Entertainment magazine Heat is set to launch a new music TV channel on the 3rd of July 2012 The new channel is set to appear on both Sky and Virgin’s digital TV platform , giving Heat a magazine, website, radio station and TV channel. The channel will carry a mixture of rolling celebrity news and [...]

Happy New Year from the team at Radio and Telly. This is our first news posting of the year, and it includes a couple of news snippets that we included in our newsletter sent out earlier today. 2012 holds some interesting things in store: The long-awaited launch of YouView, NetFlix coming to the UK, and [...]

We’re just a few days away from one of the year’s hot events for horseracing fans – the 100th Cheltenham Festival. For those not able to make it, here’s details of how to watch the action. The Cheltenham Festival takes place from Tuesday the 15th to Friday the 18th of March 2011. The first day, [...]

This coming weekend, sports channel ESPN will be subscription-free on some digital TV services. From 6am Friday 4th March to 6am on Monday the 7th 2011, sporting channel ESPN will be going free-to air on the Sky Digital, Virgin Media and TalkTalk TV services. Customers of those services will be able to watch the Barclays [...]

Sky’s non-subscription channel Sky3 is set to become Pick TV on the 28th of February 2011 We understand that the mix of programmes on the new channel will remain generally the same, but the Sky name will vanish from the channel as part of a number of channel changes planned by Sky for February. Pick [...]

ITV1 + 1 launches today, the 11th of January 2011. This timeshifted service of the main ITV channel becomes available from 8pm this evening, on the following channel numbers: Freeview  – Channel 33 Sky Digital – Channel 131 Freesat – Channel 112 Virgin Media – Channel 114 Freeview users will need to rescan to get [...]

TV channel Bravo has today ceased broadcasting, after being on-air for over 25 years. The station, aimed at men in their 20s, 30s and 40s, was sold to BSkyB in 2010, and Sky took the decision to turn off the service to concentrate on other channels. The TV channel Channel One (formerly Virgin 1) is [...]

BBC One HD launches this week – From Wednesday the 3rd of November 2010, it’ll be possible to watch BBC One’s output in HD. BBC One HD will be available on Freeview, Freesat, Sky Digital and Virgin Media. No subscription is required. The channel will simulcast shows such as EastEnders, Holby City, The One Show, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Three new HD channels are now available to Virgin Media customers. In addition to the BBC HD channel, Virgin subscribers can now get FX HD (Channel 158), National Geographic HD (Channel 232) and music channel MTVN HD (Channel 310). Channel 4 HD and Living HD are expected to join the Virgin Media line-up very soon. [...]

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. [...]

Up until now, Virgin’s lineup of HD channels has looked pretty poor, certainly when compared to the 30 or so HD channels offered by Sky. Now, it seems Virgin are keen to catch up by offering 4 new HD channels: Living HD   FX HD (from Fox TV)   National Geographic HD   MTVN HD [...]