Cable TV and Broadband provider Virgin Media today announced that it will be trialling a new Video On Demand player for the web and mobile devices. The service provider announced that 'hundreds of hour's of on demand content will be avaialble for the beta trail period including ITV, LIVING, Disney, Cartoon Network, National Geographic, Discovery, MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.

Cindy Rose, executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media said: "MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon already offer some hugely popular shows on our TV on demand platform so we’re delighted to be expanding our line-up across all three screens. We continue to explore innovative new ways to bring our customers’ favourite content to them and, with Virgin Media Player, we’re making sure they’re spoilt for choice."

Virgin Media customers who subscribe to their XL TV package and who also have broadband with them will be able to try the new VOD player out from today by going to www.virginmedia.com/player and registering their details. The press release did not make it clear as to which mobile platforms will be supported but a logical guess would be iPhone and Android devices first followed by Symbian devices later on. Virgin Media plans to fully release the service later this year after the beta period.

There have been lots of happenings and announcements from Sky over the last couple of days. Firstly TechRadar.co.uk is reporting that the satellite broadcaster is to begin phasing out it's standard definition digi-boxes. Meaning all new subscribers to Sky will be offered the Sky+HD box as standard.

Sky has obviously invested millions, if not billions of pounds in HD and 3D technologies and it wants to ensure that it's customer base has access to these technologies. Providing a HD/3D capable box as standard is probably an attempt by Sky to coax more people into paying for the HD channels on offer or to make it more convenient for them to upgrade when the time is right for them.

New customers who don't want the HD channelling will have to pay £49 for the HD box plus £30 for installation according to TechRadar. Existing customers however will be subjected to the double standards syndrome that many operators seem to subject them to and will have to shell out more to get the box; £99 plus £60 for installation, ouch. New customers wanting to subscribe straight off the bat for HD channels will get the box and installation for free.

Staying with Sky the company has also announced that from today (January 28th 10) a new Sky+HD box will be available to purchase that will come fitted with a 1TB hard drive. The new box offers around four times the storage capacity of it's predecessor. The previous model was often criticised for not having enough capacity to record lots of content in HD. The price of the new box is a not so unreasonable £249.

The push of HD boxes for Sky comes as they announce Sky3D, Europe's first channel dedicated to broadcasting 3D content. The new channel will literally kick off this weekend when Sky plan preview the service in a select few pubs around the UK and Ireland when Arsenal and Man Utd meet in the Premiership. It will be the worlds first public 3D broadcast of a sporting event.

In all nine privileged pubs have been kitted out especially for the 3D broadcast and are among the first to offer 3D Ready TVs. Pubs located in London, Manchester, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Dublin will be able to offer a glimpse of the new service to their punters. Sky will then roll the 3D service out to more pubs across the country starting in April. Following this Sky will then start to roll the service out to Sky+HD customers, allowing millions to watch a "wide range of content in 3D".

Sky say their 3D service will work with all existing Sky+HD boxes and 3D ready TVs coming to market this year. Initially the new channel will come at no extra cost to those customers who subscribe to Sky's top TV and HD packages. However you will need to invest in a new 3D Ready TV, which is something the mainstream viewer may not be prepared to do after only just becoming accustomed to seeing and probably buying a 'HD Ready TV'. It could irate them somewhat.

Source: TechRadar.com

Virgin Media have announced that they have entered into a strategic partnership with TiVo that will see TiVo developing the next generation Virgin Media TV platform. Virgin Media expect their the new platform to be released in 2010.

The mutually exclusive agreement will see TiVo undertaking the development of a combined television and broadband interface that will power the next generation of Virgin Media HD set-top-boxes (STBs). This will more than likely mean that Virgin Media TV subscribers will get access to TV content via the Internet. The deal will see the company becoming the sole provider of middleware and interface software for Virgin Media's STBs. Virgin Media meanwhile, will in turn become the sole provider of TiVo services and technology in the UK.

Virgin Media say that their next generation platform will provide a superior television experience that will allow users to search and discover content via on-demand and Internet based services. There calling their next platform the "ultimate one-stop-shop for in-home entertainment".

Virgin Media CEO, Neil Berkett greeted the partnership with open arms and 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."

TiVo's CEO Tom Rogers echoed the sentiment by saying "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.

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."

In other Virgin Media news, the company has said that it has begun rolling out a new advertising platform to 300,000 homes that will see 30 seconds worth of ads being played before and after certain on-demand content.  Specifically programming from LIVING, Virgin1 and Bravo will be subject to the new system. The new ad platform is proved by SeaChange International’s AdPulse system. In time the new system will be rolled out to every one it would seem and to more programming.

This has come about after close to 55 percent of the 100,000 guinea pig homes across North London that the new adversing platform was tested on,  gave positive feedback for the service. Adverts from L'Oreal (oh the joys of Pro-Tensium and Pro-Retinol A), Microsoft, Sony Ericsson and Kelloggs will appear on the new platform and will be specific to the program being played. So you won't see America's Next Top Model sandwiched between Microsoft adverts, but rather you will see it between L'Oreal ones instead.

Reading between press releases lines, it's a good bet that additional and future adverts will likely come from Cadbury's, COI, Coty, Electronic Arts, John Frieda, LG, Nestle and Unilever.

YouTube has launched a new section of it's site called 'Shows' that will stream some of Channel 4's most successful programmes for free. Thanks to a partnership between the two companies UK YouTube users will be able to access and view for free, full length episodes of hit shows such as The Inbetweeners, Peep Show, Farther Ted and The IT Crowd to name but a few.

At launch there are approximately 5000 videos on YouTube Shows, of which around 4000 are full length episodes from around 60 partners according to The Guardian. Some other partners who have struck a deal to show their content on YouTube are reported as being the BBC, ITN, Turner Broadcasting, Classic Media and North One.

YouTube says that with its partner's, the number of shows available will increase significantly over the coming months. Channel 4 hopes to have it's full line-up of programming available on YouTube by early 2010. All the shows will be available for viewing free of charge in the UK, however some shows will carry advertising if the owner requires it.

Patrick Walker, YouTube's video partnerships director, said "The shows section of the site will make it easier for users to discover videos from the biggest names in British broadcasting, and help our content partners reach new audiences and generate new revenues,".

After buying YouTube out for over $1.5 billion three years ago Google has not made a penny out of the video sharing site. Google wants the new partnerships to bring a new audience and business model to YouTube and hopes it can provide new avenues of interest for its partners.  By incorporating adverts into videos on YouTube, Google through revenue sharing deals might finally turn YouTube into a profitable business for it's self and provide another method of revenue for it's partners.

Sources: The Guardian, TechRadar

Freeview, the UK's free-to-air digital TV service has revealed it's roll-out plans for Freeview HD. Freeeview HD will provide up to five times the picture detail over current standard definition broadcasts whilst only requiring the expense of buying a set-top-box. There is no monthly subscription or other charge involved. Initially the main channels available on Freeview HD will be BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and S4C in Wales. Five plan to release their HD channel in late 2010.

Freeview say that up to 50% of the UK will be able to watch the 2010 world cup in glorious HD and by the end of 2010 98% of the UK will have Freeview HD coverage. The switch to Freeview HD can now go ahead as each of the UK's transmitters convert to a purely digital transmission. The extra transmission space created with analogue signals being put to rest means that existing digital transmissions can be enhanced and expanded upon, thus Freeview HD. As such the conversion to Freeview HD won't start in your area until the analogue signals have been turned off. If that has already happened for you then you will have access to Freeview HD by the end of November 2010, Freeview say.

The rollout will begin in London and Manchester respectively. If you receive your TV signal from the Crystal Palace transmitter in London or Winter Hill in Manchester then you will be the first places to get Freeview HD on December 2nd 2009. Despite this, the hardware required to view Freeview HD channels won't be available until early 2010. This means buying new set-top-boxes with a DVB-T2 tuner or buying a TV with the tuner installed into it. Don't fret though, as if you aren't ready to jump to Freeview HD the old boxes will still work. You just won't be able to receive the HD broadcasts.

Freeview say that by the end of March 2010 London, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Bradford and Birmingham will be fully switched over to Freeview HD. Manchester, Cardiff and Swansea meanwhile will receive Freeview HD also in March 2010, but not until the regions have fully converted to a digital transmission. If you want to check when your area will receive Freeview HD you can check out the official Freeview HD page which includes a link to the switch over plans and a post code checker to see when Freeview HD will be coming to your area.

From lunchtime today up to 18 million households and 25 million free-to-air digital tuners, within the UK are thought to be affected by a reshuffle and upgrade that has been rolled out to the Freeview service. The service is being upgraded to give more people access to Five (channel 5) and to put in place the foundations that will enable Freeview to offer more channels and HD content to it's consumers. Freestat, the free-to-air satellite service already offers HD channels to it's consumers.

Anyone who uses a Freeview box, TopUP TV, BT Vision, DVR or has a Freeview tuner built into their TV's will need to retune their boxes.

According to the BBC over 450,000 households will loose access to ITV3 and 4. Further to this the update is expect to render around 20,000 older Freeview boxes inoperable. Most old boxes that are affected are Daewoo, Bush, Labgear and Triax boxes. Those that loose channels will need to retune their Freeview boxes and after the retune you might find that some of the channels have been moved around to different channel numbers. If you aren't sure of how to retune your box you will need to consult your Freeview box's manual or on screen installation guides.

For those that are concerned that their box may not work after the update, the BBC are offering a list of potientially troublesome boxes that you can download in pdf format from here. If your box is not on the list and it doesn't work after the update you might need to update the firmware on your box via an  over-the-air download or via a DVD with the firmware burned onto the disk, according to bit-tech.net.