Watch Virgin Media TV: the complete package guide

Virgin Media is the UK’s only cable TV provider. For more than a decade it has provided TV packages to complement its broadband and phone deals. On this page, we’ll be taking a look at what these Virgin Media TV packages have to offer.

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Since its early days, Virgin Media has established itself as the country’s second-biggest pay-TV service behind Sky. It retains this status to this day, but does Virgin Media TV have an offer to really challenge Sky and hold off competition from emerging BT?

To begin with, let’s focus on the most important features of a TV package - what you can watch on them and how much they cost:

Compare TV Packages

Virgin Media TV is available only as a part of one of its bundles, which include other Virgin services. Here’s how much TV you get with each bundle:

As you can see, how many channels you receive will depend on how many more Virgin Media services you want to subscribe to, with all its channels only available to Ultimate Oomph customers - who also subscribe to Virgin Broadband, home phone and mobile in the same deal.

Most important in considering Virgin Media TV packages is what specific channels you’re going to have access to with your deal:

TV Channels

As we’ve seen above, the number of channels available to Virgin Media TV customers depends on how comprehensive their bundle is. We’re now going to take you through the channels available with each bundle so you can decide which is best suited to your needs.

1. Big

The 116 channels that come as part of the Big bundle include all the usual suspects that you’d expect to find in a basic TV package. The channels you’ll get are:

• BBC channels, including HD channels
• ITV channels, including +1 channels (doesn’t include ITV Be)
• Channel 4 and several affiliate channels (doesn’t include E4)
• Channel 5 and several affiliate channels
• International news channels, including CNN, Euronews and Al Jazeera
• Film channels like Sony Movies, Sony Movies Classics and Film4
• Other channels like VICE, The Food Network, Challenge and much more

Several HD channels are also available within the Big bundle, so if you have an HD-ready TV you’ll be able to watch your favourite shows in high definition.

2. Big + Drama

If you need a bit more than the Big Bundle has to offer, you can add more than 30 channels to the ones available above by choosing Big + Drama. The channels this will add to your Virgin Media TV package include:

• Sky One, Sky Two and Sky Witness
• Comedy channels like Gold, Comedy Central, Fox. E4 and Dave HD
• Film channels like TCM, TCM HD, Film4 HD, Movies24 and Movies 24 +1
• Other channels like Alibi, W, Syfy and much more

The Big + Drama bundle also comes with more HD and +1 channels that aren’t included in the Big Bundle.

3. Bigger

The Bigger Bundle adds more than 70 channels to the Big + Drama Bundle, with a total of 222 channels available to watch. Those that aren’t available in the Big bundles are:

• Sports channels like Sky Sports News, Sky Sports Mix, BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2, BT Sport 3, BT Sport ESPN, BT Sport Ultimate, Eurosport 1, Eurosport 2, plus their equivalent HD channels
• Sky News, Sky Arts, Sky Crime, Sky History, Sky Comedy, plus their HD and +1 equivalents
• Nature and documentary channels like National Geographic, Nat Geo Wild, History, H2, Animal Planet, Discovery, plus their equivalent HD channels
• Music channels such as MTV channels, Kerrang, Kiss, among others
• More channels like Eden, E!, Comedy Central Extra, and other channels, plus HD and +1 channels that aren’t available in previously mentioned bundles

4. Bigger + Movies

As its name suggests, Bigger + Movies takes the Bigger Bundle and adds 23 movie channels into the mix. Namely, they are Sky Cinema channels, and they include:

• Sky Cinema Premiere (and +1)
• Sky Cinema Hits
• Sky Cinema Greats
• Sky Cinema Disney
• Sky Cinema Family
• Sky Cinema Action & Adventure
• Sky Cinema Comedy
• Sky Cinema Drama & Romance
• Sky Cinema Sci-Fi & Horror
• Sky Cinema Select

Bigger + Movies also includes all these channels in HD for those whose TV is HD-ready.

5. Ultimate Oomph

Ultimate Oomph customers, apart from signing up for all the extra Virgin services, get 16 extra channels on top of those that Bigger + Movies customers get, and all of them are kids’ channels. This Virgin Media TV package is obviously aimed at families with little ones, when you sign up to Ultimate Oomph you’ll get all of the above, plus:

• Nickelodeon, Nick Jr, Nicktoons, as well as HD and +1 channels
• Cartoon Network, Cartoonito and its HD and +1 channels
• Boomerang and Boomerang +1
• Disney Channel, Disney Channel +1, Disney Jr and Disney XD

It’s safe to say that unless you really want the extra services that come with Ultimate Oomph or you have lots of little ones running around that you want to distract, we don’t see that there’s a reason to sign up to Ultimate Oomph for more TV!

TV V6 Box

The Virgin Media TV box, or the TV V6 Box, as they call it, comes with all Virgin TV packages, so whichever bundle you sign up for you’ll get it. According to Virgin, there are three reasons that it’s their best TV box yet.

• It’s 4K-ready*, allowing for Ultra HD TV viewing - up to 4x better definition than normal HD.
• It’s super-fast, allowing you to search for what to watch at the touch of a button and start-up apps in a flash.
• It lets you stream your TV anywhere in the UK as long as you can access the internet via WiFi, 3G or 4G.

*Note that in order to watch 4K Ultra HD shows you’ll need a compatible TV.

TV Guide

The Virgin Media TV Guide is an online tool available with all packages that allows users to see what’s showing on live TV across all the channels included in their package. Customers can also explore all the on-demand options available to them, as well as record shows to watch later as they please.

You can manage your recordings in the Saved section, which you’ll need to sign in to access with your username (usually the email address you signed up with) and password.

Virgin Media TV apps

Here are the Virgin Media TV apps available with your package to help you get the most out of your viewing experience.

1. TV Go

The Virgin Media TV Go app lets customers watch live and on-demand TV from their tablet or smartphone. It will let you do this from anywhere in the UK, even on-the-go, as long as you can get access to the internet via WiFi, 3G or 4G.

The app lets Virgin Media TV customers:

• Check what’s on using its live TV guide.
• Watch up to 100 live TV channels - including BT Sport, Sky 1 and Comedy Central, depending on your package.
• Watch on-demand TV at home or on-the-go.
• Download shows to watch offline.
• Watch TV content on up to two devices (as long as they’re compatible), or four if you have Maxit or Full House TV.
• Make a list of your favourite shows so you can watch them later.
• Personalise your TV guide so that your favourite shows appear at the top.
• Keep your kids from watching what they shouldn’t with parental controls.

The TV Go app is only available to Virgin Media TV customers and can be downloaded in the App Store, Windows Store, or on Google Play. You can find out if your device is compatible with each download on the respective page. Find out more about My Virgin Media, including how to recover login details, on our dedicated page.

2. TV Control

Virgin TV Control is a second, complementary app which customers can use, as its name suggests, to control their TiVo or Virgin TV V6 box from anywhere in the world. All they need to operate it is a smartphone with an internet connection with WiFi, 3G or 4G. If you’re a Virgin TV customer, you can use the app to:

• Manage recordings - you can set up a Series Link+ from anywhere in the world as long as you’re connected to the internet.
• Control your TV - you can turn your smartphone or tablet into a remote control if your device and your TiVo box are connected to the same network.
• Search and browse programmes more easily - you can use your smartphone or tablet’s QWERTY keyboard to search instead of your remote.
• Stream selected recordings to your smartphone or tablet if you have a Virgin TV V6 box powered by TiVo.
• Check for recording clashes or low storage space by connecting your device to your TiVo or Virgin TV V6 box.

The app is also only available to Virgin Media TV customers, who will find it available for download in the App Store, on Google Play and on Amazon. As with all Virgin Media apps, you’ll need your My Virgin Media username and password to sign in. You’ll also find login help on our My Virgin Media page.

TV Store

The Virgin Media TV Store is available to both Virgin customers and non-customers. In the store, you’ll find the latest movie releases and box-sets, which you can either rent or buy and keep.

Just how much do items cost in the store?New movie releases can be bought for around £13 on the site, though prices vary, and you can buy the whole of Game of Thrones to binge on in Digital HD for about £17 at the time of writing.

Your purchases are saved to your Virgin Media Store account, which you can access via your TV V6 Box, the Virgin Media Store app, or the Virgin Media Store website. This allows users to watch on-the-go in whichever way they fancy as long as they have access to the internet.