This article was published on May 12, 2014

BSkyB channels will be on Virgin Media for at least five more years, coming to mobile-users too


BSkyB channels will be on Virgin Media for at least five more years, coming to mobile-users too

BSkyB (‘Sky’) has extended its distribution agreement with Virgin Media, meaning Virgin subscribers will have access to Sky’s content slate for at least five more years.

The deal includes Sky 1, Sky Living, Sky Arts, Sky News, Sky Movies and, important for many, Sky Sports. With the new agreement in place, however, this also now includes Sky Sports 3 HD, Sky Sports 4 HD and  Sky Sports F1 HD, with the HD incarnations of Sky Sports News and Sky News to follow.

Virgin TV Anywhere launched back in November 2012 to rival BSkyB’s Sky Go online/mobile service. Sky entertainment channels will be available on Virgin TV Anywhere as before, but now it’s being added to “selected tablets and mobiles too”, which presumably means iPhone, iPad and a handful of the higher-specced Android devices. Perhaps more notable, however, is that Sky now says that Virgin TV subscribers with access to Sky Movies and Sky Sports will soon be able to access these channels directly through the Sky Sports and Sky Movies mobile apps too, while Virgin Media has said in a separate statement that its customers will soon “be able to watch every Sky Sports and Movies channel on the move through two new dedicated apps”, with more details to be revealed soon.

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