Liberty Global said it has received final regulatory approval for the 50-50 joint venture to combine its Virgin Media unit with Telefonica’s O2 business from the U.K . Competition & Markets Authority, clearing the path for the June 1 completion of the deal.

CMA approval was the final regulatory hurdle for the deal to be completed. Liberty Global and Spain’s Telefonica first proposed the transaction, which would combine Virgin Media’s broadband internet business with Telefonica’s mobile operations, last May, creating an entity valued at about $38 billion. The combined companies are expected to create a stronger competitor in the U.K. fixed and mobile markets, supporting the expansion of Virgin Media’s giga-ready network and O2’s 5G mobile deployment. The joint venture is expected to deliver about £6.2 billion in synergies and have combined revenue of about £11 billion.

Also Read: Liberty Global Looking at Possible Mobile Deals in Ireland, Poland 

The two companies named Virgin Media CEO Lutz Schüler and O2 chief financial officer Patricia Cobian as CEO and CFO, respectively, of the combined company last month. 

In a joint statement, Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries and Telefonica CEO José Maria Alvarez-Pallete called the deal “a watershed moment in the history of telecommunications in the UK as we are now cleared to bring real choice where it hasn’t existed before, while investing in fiber and 5G that the UK needs to thrive. We thank the CMA for conducting a thorough and efficient review. Lutz and Patricia are now set to take the reins and launch a national connectivity champion that will connect more people, ignite more businesses back to growth and power more communities for the greater good.”

Liberty Global, the Denver-based international cable company controlled by industry legend John Malone, said that it is interested in pursuing deals with mobile carriers in Ireland and Poland and hopes to have agreements in hand by the end of the year.

On its Q4 earnings call with analysts, Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said pursuing such deals was “high on our list” of priorities.

Liberty already has about 1 million cable and 120,000 mobile subscribers in Ireland through its Virgin Media unit. In Poland, its UPC Poland operation has about 3.3 million video, internet and telephone customers and 62,700 mobile subscribers through an MVNO agreement.

Also Read: Cadent Teams with Liberty on Addressable in Europe

The Irish mobile market is dominated by three carriers -- Vodafone; Three Group, owned by international telecom conglomerate CK Hutchison; and Eir, owned by French billionaire Xavier Niel. In Poland, potential targets could include Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Play and Polkomtel. Liberty tried to expand its presence in Poland in 2018 with the purchase of Multimedia Polska for about $876 million, but abandoned that deal because of regulatory opposition and difficulties in coming to financial terms with the sellers. 

Fries added that Liberty Global has been aggressive in the M&A space, completing more than $80 billion worth of transactions in the past five years, that allowed the company to exit or enter markets, depending on its scale. Most recently, Liberty Global’s agreement to merge its Virgin Media business with Telefonica’s O2 in a joint venture valued at about $38 billion is scheduled to close in the summer pending regulatory approval. 

“I think the way we’ve done it depends on the market - we either exited, bought or merged, and we think in all cases we’ve done the right thing, so we now have the number one or two player in these markets and that gives the scale to be, I would say, opportunistic and creative," Fries said on the call. 

Ireland and Poland, where Fries said Liberty Global hasn’t had the same M&A activity, will be looked at closely, especially in the fixed mobile space. 

“The markets that we haven’t yet done anything in, Ireland and Poland for example, of course we’re going to continue to evaluate what the right long-term future for those markets is in terms of their strategic footprint and whether there’s a fixed mobile opportunity, so you should assume that that’s high on our list,” Fries said. “It would be surprising to me if we ended 2021 without continued transformation even in those two markets, whatever that might look like.”

In 2020, Liberty Global said revenue declined 1.5% to $12 billion and EBITDA fell 3.9% to $4.9 billion. In the UK and Ireland, where broadband customers increased by 100,000 for the year, revenue was flat at about $6.6 billion. 

Liberty Global said Tuesday that it has reached a deal with Amazon Prime Video to make the streaming service available to about 4 million Virgin Media television customers in the United Kingdom.

Virgin will be the first of Liberty Global’s European operations to integrate the Amazon Prime Video app with its Ultra HD V6 set-top box, beginning in the summer.

“This partnership with Amazon reinforces our track record of teaming with the best to give our customers unbeatable content,” Virgin Media chief operating officer Lutz Schüler said in a press release. “Virgin Media customers will soon be able to seamlessly search for and watch incredible Amazon Prime programming directly from their V6 box in the highest possible quality. With thousands of box sets, movies, exclusive and original content, as well as 20 live Premier League games airing later this year, Virgin Media customers will have even more of the TV they love in one place all powered by our ultrafast connectivity.”

With the launch, Virgin Media’s UK customers will get access to original programming like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, and The Grand Tour, Premier League football coverage from Prime Video as well as Virgin Media’s extensive offering of broadcast and on demand programming across its multi-device TV service. Virgin Media customers will also have access to a range of Ultra High Definition (UHD) and HDR TV shows and movies.

“We’re excited to partner with Amazon to deliver its highly-popular content, including Amazon Originals and Exclusives, directly to our consumers,” Liberty Global EVP and chief technology officer Enrique Rodriguez said in a press release. “We know our customers want to see their favorite shows and programming on their big screen at home, and our partnership with streaming services like Amazon continues to make that happen.”

Virgin Media’s long-standing relationship with TiVo appears to be in line for a bit of a change.

Speaking at this week’s Cable Congress event in Dublin, Tom Mockridge, Virgin Media’s CEO, reportedly dropped a hint that the operator has plans to transition over to the “Horizon” user interface used by parent company, Liberty Global, but stressed that TiVo’s technology will remain in the picture.

“It’s no secret that Liberty Global has its own Horizon UI at the moment and you can expect that we will transition to that on the V6 box and we’ll do that in co-operation with TiVo,” he said, according to Broadband TV News. “They are very understanding of our desire to do that and will help us do that.”

A Virgin Media official said the company had nothing to add beyond Mockridge’s comments about using the Horizon UI. “There’s no changes to announce at this time and all UK set-top boxes continue to use the TiVo platform today,” the official said in an email.

TiVo has also been asked for comment. Last fall, TiVo announced it had renewed and extended its products agreement with Liberty Global, which included a multi-year extension for the MSO’s use of TiVo’s intellectual property and patent portfolio that covers all Liberty global subsidiaries, including Virgin Media, which has been using TiVo’s software and interface for its recently launched V6 box.

RELATED: Virgin Media Rejuvenates Video Platform

Virgin Media reported last month that more than 1 million subs, or 27% of its U.K. video base, have taken the Arris-made V6 box (pictured) since its launch in December 2016, and that V6 subs have “meaningfully higher” Net Promoter Scores.

Questions about the longer-term relationship between Virgin Media and TiVo also comes up as TiVo looks to explore alternatives that could lead to M&A or taking the company private.

RELATED: TiVo ‘Exploring All Alternatives’ to Drive Shareholder Value

Former Virgin Media exec Dana Strong has been named president, consumer services, at Comcast Cable, where she will head up the go-to-market strategy for Comcast’s residential services.

In that role, Strong will oversee Comcast’s Xfinity brand and products, including video, broadband, voice, home and mobile products, as well as consumer sales and marketing, digital, Xfinity.com and the company’s data intelligence groups that support the strategy and growth of Comcast’s consumer business. Leaders in those respective business units will remain in their positions and report to Strong, Comcast said.  

For example, Matt Strauss, EVP of Xfinity Services at Comcast Cable; and Greg Butz, who heads up Xfinity Mobile, will remain in their roles, reporting to Strong.

Strong, who will report to Dave Watson, president and CEO of Comcast Cable, comes on board as Comcast’s pay TV business continues to face pressure from new OTT entrants, as the company looks to scale up Xfinity Mobile, a service that launched last May and ended 2017 with more than 380,000 customer lines, and as the company seeks growth opportunities in other areas, including home security and automation.

RELATED: Xfinity Mobile Starting to See ‘Real Momentum’

Strong most recently was president and COO of Virgin Media, the U.K.-based MSO that Liberty Global acquired in 2013.  She also served as SVP and chief transformation officer of Liberty Global, and was CEO of UPC Ireland (now Virgin Media Ireland) and as COO of Austar United Communications in Australia. 

Strong and her family are relocating from London and she will officially begin at Comcast in the first quarter of 2018, Comcast said. 

“Dana has an impressive career and great track record driving growth, digital transformation and improving the customer experience for some of the fastest growing companies in the industry,” Watson said in a statement. “I’m thrilled to welcome her to Comcast and can’t imagine a better leader to partner with me and our talented team as we continue to create the most innovative products available on the market, while driving growth and transforming the customer experience.” 

“I am delighted to join Comcast at such an exciting time for the company and our industry,” Strong added.  Comcast has built an extraordinary portfolio of products and it’s a privilege to join the team and lead this incredible business.”

Virgin Media, Liberty Global’s U.K.-based MSO, is hitting the gas on the V6, a new 4K-capable flagship video device introduced in November 2016 that is powered by TiVo’s software and services platform and built by Arris.

RELATED: Virgin Media Rejuvenates Video Platform 

Virgin Media said it installed 1 million V6s during its first year of avaialbity and will try to accelerate its reach by offering existing pay TV customers a free upgrade to the box. The catch is that they must also get broadband service from Virgin.

The operator, the U.K.’s largest MSO, said it expects to end 2018 with the majority of its TV subs on the V6 (pictured).

Virgin Media, which had about 4.11 million video subs at the end of Q3 2017, said it will contact eligible customers about how they can request the V6 upgrade, and expects the “vast majority” of them to use a self-install option, a move that will keep truck roll costs in check.

In addition to supporting 4K resolution, the V6 also integrates OTT services from sources such as Netflix and YouTube, which already support a small but growing library of content in the pixel-packed format.

The box also features a remote-finder button that, when pressed, causes the remote to make a trackable beeping sound. It has 1 terabyte of storage, and can record six shows at the same time, or 12 if the customer links two of them together.

In the first year of deployment, Virgin Media noted that compared with customers who use an earlier-generation TiVo device from the MSO, V6 customers spend, on average, two hours more watching TV each week, are twice as likely to watch a “Box Set,” and record twice as many shows.

Nuance Communications said Virgin Media is using its Dragon TV voice technology to help power the U.K.-based operator’s TV Anywhere App.

The integration lets app users search for TV shows and movies with their voice by clicking the microphone icon located in the app.

Virgin Media, part of Liberty Global, is using Nuance’s voice tech for the app initially in Ireland, with plans to roll it out to all Virgin Media customers with a Virgin TV package and an Android or iOS mobile device.

"We want our subscribers to have easy access to all of their favorite content - and it needs to be simple to find and use,” Mark Giesbers, VP of entertainment products at Liberty Global, said in a statement. “With all the content we offer across sources like live TV, replay TV and on demand, we need to ensure our subscribers can easily discover their next favorite show or movie.  By developing a voice interface in partnership with Nuance, we've created a new conversational interface that is intelligent and intuitive. We believe voice will grow to become an important means for our subscribers to interact with our entertainment products and services going forward, from apps to devices and smart home appliances.”

Nuance said its Dragon TV technology, part of its Smart Home portfolio, is used in more than 60 million homes.

Two competitors, Sky and Virgin Media, have struck a strategic partnership to deliver data-driven, targeted TV advertising across the platforms of both service providers.

The partnership, which clearly shoots for scale around targeted TV ads, will involve a potential audience of about 30 million TV viewers in the U.K. and Irelands, they said, holding that those numbers put them on par with leading social networks.”

The agreement covers both targeted linear and VOD advertising, and will involve technology developed by Liberty Global, Virgin Media’s parent company, as well as Sky’s AdSmart platform. They will develop a “one-stop buying point” via Sky Media for targeted ads, with impressions served across Virgin Media’s and Sky’s addressable set-top boxes.

Sky noted that there are currently more than 100 AdSmart-enabled channels, including its own channels as well as A+E Networks (History, Lifetime, Crime + Investigation) and Viacom (MTV, Comedy Central, Channel 5). NBC Universal, including its Universal Channel, is set to join that list.

In Ireland, Sky AdSmart is currently in the test phase and will enter the roll-out phase in the “coming months.”

Virgin Media’s Pat Kiely, managing director of TV3 in Irelands, and Jamie West, group director of advanced advertising at Sky Media, will head up development of the strategic partnership, the companies said.

“Quality programming deserves to be supported with quality advertising. In partnering with Sky we’re putting the UK and Ireland at the forefront of TV advertising innovation,” Virgin Media chief exec Tom Mockridge, said in a statement. “We’re giving consumers advertising that is more relevant to them and giving brands a trusted destination to deliver intelligent, tailored TV campaigns to a targeted audience.

Addressable TV is the high quality, brand safe and transparent medium that leading brands have already been adopting in their thousands,” added Sky Group’s COO Andrew Griffith. “Today’s partnership takes that to the next level with the extension of AdSmart to millions more homes meaning more relevant ads for Virgin customers and a larger platform for advertisers.”

Eyeing a future that delivers widespread gigabit speeds, Liberty Global plans to kick off field trials of DOCSIS 3.1 in “late 2017,” the cable giant noted in its Q4 results.

The company is also looking to expand the deployment of its cloud-powered, 4K-capable video platform, and a new WiFi Connect Box.

Those plans come into focus a few months after Virgin Media, the U.K.-based MSO owned by Liberty Global, introduced a TiVo-powered set-top called the V6 that supports 4K and High Dynamic Range video, and a bigger shift toward a new, cloud-based  “EOS” platform that’s poised to become Liberty Global’s video workhorse.

RELATED: Virgin Media Rejuvenates Video Platform

Liberty Global said it added 946,000 revenue-generating units in Europe last year, up 24%. The operator ended the year with more than 1.4 million new “gigabit-ready homes,” including nearly 500,000 at Virgin Media.

In Q4, Liberty Global also completed the rollout of its Horizon TV platform across its European operations, following launches in Australia and “Horizon-Lite” in Romania.

Liberty Global will use its updated video platforms to spur growth in that category. The MSO lost 24,400 video subs in Europe during Q4 2016, narrowed from a loss of 59,100 in the year-ago period, and shed 276,900 video subs for all of 2016, versus a loss of 400,300 in 2015.

The MSO also gained 230,600 data subs in Europe, alongside the addition of 117,500 voice subs in the period.

The company’s LiLAC Group, which contains its Latin American and Caribbean operations, shed 6,200 video subs in Q4, added 14,500 data customers, and lost 8,500 video subs.

Pushing ahead with a plan to integrate Netflix across the board on set-top boxes, Virgin Media has extended access to the OTT-VOD service on its Horizon TV platform in Ireland.

According to reports, customers can access Netflix and original series such as Stranger Things and House of Cards on channels 999 and 300.

The rollout in Ireland follows Ziggo’s deployment of Netflix on Horizon TV boxes in the Netherlands. Virgin Media also offers Netflix on TiVo-powered boxes.

RELATED: Liberty Global Starts to Roll Netflix on Horizon Platform

Virgin Media and Ziggo are both part of Liberty Global, which announced a plan in September to integrate access to Netflix on set-top boxes across more than 30 countries in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.

RELEATED: Liberty Global: Netflix for All

Liberty Global is also moving ahead with EOS, the code-name for an that will enable the operator to unify its set-top and gateway hardware.

Virgin Media, Liberty Global’s U.K.-based cable operator, unleashed a refreshed video platform Wednesday, led by a long-anticipated next-gen TiVo-powered device that supports 4K and High Dynamic Range.

Virgin Media, which has been dropping hints about the V6 for months amid heated competition coming way of Sky’s new video platform, said the new device features a revamped UI and cross-platform search feature while integrating OTT services from sources like Netflix, iPlayer and Vevo. It’s being paired with a new RF-based remote that does not require line-of-sight. The box also includes a remote-finder button that, when pressed, causes the remote to make a trackable beeping sound, and 1 terabyte  of storage – enough to hold 100 hours of HD recordings. The V6 can record six shows at the same time, or 12 if the customer links two of them together.

RELATED: Sky Meshes With Whole-Home Video

Virgin Media is offering the V6, which carries an upfront cost of £99.95 and is compatible with the MSO’s legacy TiVo-based boxes, to existing subs on its “Mix” bundle or higher starting before the end of 2017, while new subs will be able to order it with their bundles starting in January.

Liberty Global said it plans to launch the V6 box, which can use non-TiVo interfaces like its Horizon UI, to other markets in Europe next year. The box was developed under Liberty Global’s EOS program, which has been billed as the “workhorse” of a newly unified video hardware platform.

In addition to a revamped TV Everywhere app, Virgin Media also launched a new ad-free kids app.

Virgin Media also trotted out the “TellyTablet,” a mobile HD device outfitted with 14-inch screen, four built-in speakers, 32 GB of memory, and two USB ports, that is optimized to run the operator’s own apps and any offered via the Google Play store. Subs can get their mitts on it next month by paying £299 upfront or spreading the cost over 24 months.

With a nod to the electronic sell-through model, the operator is also gearing up for the launch of the Virgin Media Store, a service that lets subs buy movies and TV shows, including some titles before they arrive on DVD. For film purchases, Virgin Media will also send the buyer a DVD copy. Virgin Media Store will launch in February 2016.

Virgin Media, the largest MSO in the U.K., has issued a teaser to area press that it will present a “first look at something unmissable” on November 30.

The Liberty Global-owned operator didn’t divulge much else, but the speculation is that it will be unveiling the Virgin TV V6, a 4K-capable set-top/gateway powered by TiVo that, like the current-gen TiVo-powered boxes from the MSO, will mix traditional TV with OTT apps from sources like Netflix.

RELATED: Virgin Media Unleashes TiVo Update 

Virgin Media teased the V6 (sources tell us that Arris, which acquired U.K.-based set-top maker Pace Plc in January, is making the hardware) on Twitter in August. So, it could be playing a bit fast and loose with this “first look” talk. We’ve already seen it… we just don’t know yet everything it can do:  

Sneak Preview: Say hello to our new Virgin TV V6 box, powered by TiVo. More to come soon. #VirginV6pic.twitter.com/SBvpkRjvEz

— VirginMediaCorporate (@VirginMediaCorp) August 11, 2016

The new device, which will likely support whole-home capabilities and help Virgin Media offer a response to Sky and its new  Sky Q video platform, is one of the early examples of a  new, more powerful “EOS” platform from parent company Liberty Global that will become the MSO’s video workhorse.

Virgin Media, the U.K.’s largest cable operator, has launched an update for its TiVo-powered platform that enhances a customer’s ability to search for and save TV shows and movies.

Among the additions is Series Link+, which lets customers assemble TV shows they like in one place, including shows from live TV, available on VOD, or from OTT services like Netflix and BBC iPlayer.

The update also adds a “smart” search for VOD and catch-up services that requires only the first letter of a show title and the system auto-fills the rest, and some visual enhancements, such as image-based tiles for VOD titles and a shift from channel numbers to channel logos. The upgrade also adds a bookmarking feature for TV, VOD and Netflix content that’s placed in a “My Show” folder.

“This update gives our box an even more intuitive intelligence while, crucially, retaining many of the familiar features  we know our customers love,” David Bouchier, chief entertainment officer at Virgin Media, said in a statement.

The MSO noted that the update comes ahead of the coming launch of a new 4K-capable, TiVo-powered box called the V6. Virgin Media hasn’t announced a launch date for the V6, but offered a sneak peek at it earlier this week.

In Q2, Virgin Media added 66,000 TiVo subs, getting it past the 3 million sub mark, or about 82% of its U.K. video base.

TiVo is merging with Rovi in a $1.1 billion deal announced in late April. 

Virgin Media, the U.K.’s largest cable operator, used Twitter to present a sneak peek of a next-gen set-top box that will be powered by TiVo and support 4K and a selection of OTT apps.

“Sneak Preview: Say hello to our new Virgin TV V6 box, powered by TiVo. More to come soon. #VirginV6,” the MSO announced Thursday via Twitter, along with an image of the box and a remote control that looks similar to other peanut-shaped devices from TiVo.

Virgin Media has not announced an official launch date or pricing on the box, but offered a few more details in another tweet, in response to questions from leery consumers noting that it will be 4K UHD ready for Netflix and YouTube.

@DCVANS8 We have confirmed that the box will be called the Virgin TV V6 and it is of course powered by TiVo.  It ... https://t.co/2u3F8XgoDh

— Virgin Media (@virginmedia) August 11, 2016

Virgin Media’s new box is an example of a new, more powerful “EOS” platform from parent company Liberty Global that will become the MSO’s video workhorse.

The box and accompanying interface will represent a “very significant step up in our ability to [offer] on-demand programming across multiple forms and give our customers access to a wide range of over the top applications,” Virgin Media CEO Tom Mockridge said last week on Liberty Global’s Q2 earnings call.

Virgin Media is preparing to launch the V6 amid increased competition from Sky and its  Sky Q, the provider’s next-gen whole-home, multiscreen video platform.

Virgin Media has been offering a TiVo-powered experience on devices made by Samsung and Cisco (Technicolor acquired Cisco’s set-top unit last year).  But Arris (which acquired U.K.-based set-top maker Pace in January) announced in 2015 that it had won a 4K box deal with Liberty Global. An industry source confirmed that Arris is indeed the hardware partner for Virgin’s next-gen box paired with software from TiVo, which is in the process of merging with Rovi.

Liberty Global execs said the MSO is pushing ahead with EOS, a next-gen, cloud-powered box equipped with 4K capabilities that will bring more unity to its video platform.

EOS is “going to be the workhorse for our video platform. It’s powerful, inexpensive with great scale benefit,” Mike Fries, Liberty Global’s CEO, said last week on the company’s Q2 earnings call.

Fries said he expects EOS devices to cost “much less” than the MSO’s current Horizon boxes.

Liberty Global hasn’t pinpointed where EOS will show up first, but the box “will be rolled out all across Europe, and will benefit South America as well,” Balan Nair, Liberty Global’s CTO, added.

And, Nair added, it will be flexible enough to swap in apps and interfaces. “We’ll have a very easy way to move UIs on, so you could have TiVo one day on and you can have the Horizon UI in the same box, the next day. So, it’s a very fungible low cost high powered box.”

And the EOS rollout will have some impact on Liberty Global’s Virgin Media unit in the U.K., which has been leaning on a TiVo-powered platform.

The plan there is to “re-launch under the brand Virgin TV” with the new EOS box along with a new interface that will provide a “very significant step up in our ability to [offer] on-demand programming across multiple forms and give our customers access to a wide range of over the top applications,” Virgin Media CEO Tom Mockridge said.

Virgin Media will be shifting to the new box platform as it continues to face off with Sky and its launch of Sky Q, a new next-gen whole-home, multiscreen video platform.

Liberty Global announced plans for EOS in May, noting that it intends to start trials later this year.

Liberty Global ended Q2 with 53.9 million revenue generating units (22.5 million video, 17.1 million broadband, and 14.3 million telephony RGUs), up by 231,000, across its footprint of 49.8 million homes passed in Europe. However, Liberty Global shed 72,000 video subs in Q2, improving on the 111,000 video losses from the year-ago quarter. 

Virgin Media, the U.K.-based arm of cable conglomerate Liberty Global, said it has agreed to purchase UTV Ireland in an $11.1 million deal that also gives the cable company access to content from UTV Ireland's former parent, British broadcaster ITV.

The deal follows Virgin’s purchase of TV3 Group last year.

UTV Ireland, which launched in January 2015, is a free to air general entertainment channel available on Virgin Media, eir Vision, Vodafone, Sky and Saorview. Programming includes popular soap operas  Emmerdale and Coronation Street as well as live streaming and catch-up services and its UTV Player streaming service is available across a number of devices.

According to reports, UTV Ireland has had a rough go recently – it was bought by ITV last year as part of its overall purchase of UTV Media’s television assets for $149.5 million. But the Irish operation, once expected to break even in its first year under its new owners, instead is predicted to lose about $17.3 million. 

“Launching UTV Ireland last year represented a significant achievement by the teams in Dublin and Belfast in challenging circumstances,” said ITV director, broadcast and finance Christy Swords in a statement. “ITV took over the business a few months ago and we've concluded that bringing TV3 and UTV Ireland together under common ownership offers the best prospect of delivering a strong and sustainable Irish commercial broadcaster, underpinned by a long-term programming agreement with ITV.

“We recognise that this has been an uncertain period for the staff of UTV and UTV Ireland and we have been determined to reach a speedy resolution,” Swords continued. “We believe that the decision we have made represents an important step forward for the future of the channel.”

As part of the deal, Virgin Media will also take over a 10-year program supply agreement with ITV Global Entertainment. 

In a statement, Virgin Media chief digital entertainment  officer David Bouchier said the deal, and its combination with Irish broadcaster TV3, could give the combined entities an opportunity “to buy and make exclusive programs for our Virgin Media customers in both the Republic of Ireland and the U.K.”

The deal also will solidify Virgin media’s commitment to locally produced programming.

“This investment demonstrates our commitment to provide great entertainment for Irish viewers and adds Ireland newest TV channel to our existing portfolio which includes TV3 and 3e,” said Virgin Media Ireland CEO Tony Hanway in a statement. “This is a very positive development for Irish broadcasting and ensures Virgin Media’s continued investment in top quality programming and local production.”    

Virgin Media, the U.K.’s largest MSO, is adding a bit more fiber to its network diet.

The operator, now owned by Liberty Global, said it will deploy fiber-to-the-premises to at least a quarter of the 4 million additional homes and businesses tied to “Project Lightning,” an initiative introduced last year.

Virgin Media said it has already started to deploy FTTP in Cambridgeshire and Leicestershire, with work expected to start soon in  West Yorkshire, Devon and East Sussex. The MSO noted that its using “narrow trenching” and other engineering techniques to deploy FTTP in high-demand areas costs that are lower and at a pace that is more rapid than traditional fiber buildouts.

With the planned expansion, Virgin Media said it expects to have 17 million homes connected to its network by 2019. The MSO said it’s adding FTTP to the mix amid a recent finding from regulator Ofcom that the U.K. has the lowest proportion of fiber connections running directly to homes and businesses of any country that’s part of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).

The MSO said its updated plan “are a significant boost to the UK’s ambitions to become a ‘fibre nation’.”

Its HFC network, which represents most of its footprint, today offers downstream speeds of up to 200 Mbps for residential customers and up to 300 Mbps for businesses.

Virgin Media said Project Lightning has already connected 250,000 new premises, and has created 2,100 jobs in the UK. This year, it expects to connect 500,000 new premises, and create another 500 jobs.

“Our £3bn investment to bring ultrafast connectivity to more parts of the UK is not just about better broadband, it’s about future-proofing the country’s network infrastructure with the best and most modern technology,” Virgin Media CEO tom Mockridge said in a statement. 

Virgin Media, the U.K.-based MSO owned by Liberty Global, plans to cut 900 jobs over the next two years in order to streamline while also pushing ahead on growth strategies, according to media reports.

“Over the last three years Virgin Media has been transformed,” Tom Mockridge, Virgin Media’s CEO said in a statement to The Guardian and other media outlets. “We’re expanding, investing and growing our business. The proposed reorganisation will give us an even sharper focus on the customer, network expansion and business growth.”

Even as Virgin Media looks to cut back in redundant areas (it has not said which parts of the company will be affected the most by the reductions), it said its overall workforce of 23,000, including outsources and overseas staff, will rise from 23,000 to 25,000 this year. About 13,600 workers are directly employed by the company, The Telegraph noted.

A continuing focus at Virgin Media will be “Project Lightning,” a £3 billion plan that calls on the MSO to extend its broadband network to an addition 4 million premises over the next five years.

Last November, Liberty Global announced “Liberty 3.0,” an initiative that aims to make the company more efficient and “super charge” its growth rate.

“This is a massive transformation program designed to streamline our operating model, accelerate our growth and drive even greater efficiency through the business,” Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said at the time, stressing that the program “is not just a cost-cutting exercise,” but one that will tackle everything from revenue growth, customer engagement and churn.

The majority of TiVo’s sub base continues to come from outside the U.S., as the company announced Monday that it has surpassed 4 million international subscriptions for its “traditional” offering.

TiVoended its fiscal Q2 with 6.03 million total subs (941,000 TiVo-owned, and 5.09 million through MSO partners).

The bulk of TiVo’s international based comes way of Virgin Media (now part of Liberty Global), ONO/Vodafone in Spain and Com Hem in Sweden. Other international TiVo partners include QuickFlix (Australia and New Zealand); LiTV (Taiwan); Cogeco (Canada); and Cablevision (Mexico).

Update: TiVo said its latest international sub figure does not include Cogeco, as TiVo classifies all North American partners as part of its domestic subscriber count. 

TiVo is also looking to expand its international opportunities via its recent acquisition of Cubiware, a middleware vendor for cable, satellite and IPTV operators that will enable TiVo to bridge its platform to more low-cost devices. In May, when the deal was announced, Cubiware had its software  deployed on more than 4 million devices, and customers in Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East and Asia that represent about 12 million pay TV subs.

“Our recent acquisition of Cubiware has expanded our ability to service international markets allowing us to offer products to almost every television operator regardless of size or ARPU in a given market,” David Sandford, vice president and general manager, international, at TiVo said in a statement. “We now offer a portfolio of products to large, medium and small sized operators seeking a diverse array of products and features to serve a wide spectrum of subscribers.”

Factoring in 24 million households that use Cubiware and Digitalsmiths technology, TiVo said it now has relationships with operators  with a combined global footprint of nearly 90 million homes. 

Liberty Global is testing DOCSIS 3.1 in the labs and preparing for “live trials in certain markets in early 2016,” company vice chairman and CEO Mike Fries said Wednesday on the company’s second quarter earnings call.

“We're testing [DOCSIS 3.1] right now and should begin commercial deployments next year,” Fries said, referring to an emerging CableLabs-specified platform that will bring multi-gigabit speeds to HFC networks.

He said Liberty Global is already ordering cable modem termination systems (CMTSs) with DOCSIS 3.1 capability and putting them into the field.

The rollout is ambitious, as Fries said he expects 40% of Liberty Global’s network in the U.K. and Germany will be D3.1-ready by the end of 2015, and sees 80% of its full footprint outfitted for the new platform in about three years.

Fries also shed some light on the economics of DOCSIS 3.1, estimating that the MSO should be able to deliver 1-gig speeds for about €20 (US $21.89) per home. That cost, he said, excludes the consumer premises equipment/modem.

Other MSOs are also pushing ahead, as Comcast expects to start a market trial of DOCSIS 3.1 by the fourth quarter of this year. Based on a survey of a dozen top service providers from around the globe, IHS predicts that, on average, those MSOs will pass about a third of their residential subscribers with DOCSIS 3.1-enabled headends by April 2017.

As Liberty Global preps for D3.1, it’s using DOCSIS 3.0 to deliver downstream burst up to 200 Mbps or more in 11 of its 12 European market, and has launched a 500-Meg offering in Switzerland and “the vast majority of our footprint,” the exec said.

Fries also offered an update on “Project Lightning,” a £3 billion (US$4.7 billion) Virgin Media initiative that will enable the U.K.-based operator to extend its broadband network to an addition 4 million premises over the next five years.

He said Virgin Media released 80,000 homes in the first half while laying the foundation for accelerated new build in big markets such as Manchester, where the operator is targeting 150,000 new homes, and in Leeds, where the initiative will reach another 80,000.

“This is just the beginning,” Fries said. “Lightning will launch in 10 more towns and cities in the second half and will ramp materially in 2016.” 

Virgin Media, the largest cable operator in the U.K., said Manchester will be the first city to be wired for “Project Lightning,” a £3 billion (US$4.7 billion) plan that calls on the MSO to extend its broadband network to an addition 4 million premises over the next five years.

Virgin Media, a unit of Liberty Global, said it will start by shelling out £75 million (US $118.6 million) to connect to 150,000 extra premises in the Manchester (up from about 300,000 today), and is breaking ground on the first 20,000 of them this week. Those locations will get access to a DOCSIS-powered network that currently supports downstream speeds of up to 152 Mbps, outpacing competitors such as BT, TalkTalk and Sky, the MSO said. Virgin Media estimates that the expansion in Manchester will result in about 500 new jobs.

Taking a page from the Google Fiber playbook, Virgin Media said it will prioritize expansion in Manchester and other neighboring areas and cities based on demand from consumers and communities, which can register their interest at virginmedia.com/cablemystreet.

“Our message is simple:  help us to cable your street,” Tom Mockridge, Virgin Media’s CEO, said in a statement. “If you want to switch to broadband speeds twice as fast as you can get today, simply register with Virgin Media to ‘cablemystreet’.”

"This is wonderful news for Manchester residents and businesses,” added Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey. “We are in the midst of a remarkable transformation of the UK's digital landscape, and Virgin Media's £3bn investment will play an important role in ensuring our cities are fully equipped to meet the challenges of the digital age in which we live."

Virgin Media announced Project Lightning in February, revealing a plan to expand its HFC network to a total of 17 million premises.

Virgin Media’s current, fastest residential DOCSIS 3.0 broadband tier tops out at 152 Mbps downstream, but noted in February that parent company Liberty Global was preparing to trial DOCSIS 3.1, a next-gen access platform designed to handle multi-gigabit speeds, “across Europe later this year.” 

As the FCC gets ready to vote on new rules that could shape the future of the Internet in the U.S., Ofcom, the U.K.’s communications regulator, released a new broadband report Thursday finding that Virgin Media continues to deliver the fastest average Internet speeds, at least in the downstream direction. 

According to Ofcom’s latest annual report, which tabulated data from ISPs that represent 90% of the total market, Virgin Media’s “up to” 152 Mbps service averaged 135 Mbps over a 24-hour period, outpacing the top tiers from ISPs such as Plusnet, BT, Sky, EE, and TalkTalk.

“This is the 12th consecutive time Virgin Media has been proven to be the UK's fastest broadband provider,” Virgin Media CEO Tom Mockridge said in a statement that also mentioned the MSO’s plan to spend £3 billion (US$4.6 billion) in the coming years to expand the reach of its broadband network to millions of additional homes and businesses.

Plusnet, meanwhile, provided the quickest upstream, averaging 17 Mbps on average with its fastest tier.

Sky’s 38 Mbps tier was impacted the least by congestion during peak times, with 96% of Ofcom’s research panelists getting 90% or more of their advertises max speeds from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays. On the other side of that spectrum was EE – just 7% of panelists receive 90% or more of their max speeds during peak times, Ofcom said.  Among Virgin Media consumers who were part of the study, achieving advertised max speeds during peak times got progressively worse at higher service tiers. While those on the 50Mbit/s broadband achieved it 100% of the time, it dropped to 59% for the MSO's 100 Mbps service, and to 33% for the 152Mbit/s service, according to Ofcom.

The overall broadband picture is improving. Ofcom said adoption of “superfast” broadband services (30 Mbps and above) helped to drive the average U.K. broadband speed to 22.8 Mbps, up from 18 Mbps in May 2014, making it the largest rise (4.1 Mbps) in broadband speeds recorded by the agency over that span.

The report also found that 32% of U.K. broadband connections offer speeds up to 30 Mbps or more, up from 24% in November 2013.

Cable broadband saw a 26% increase in average speeds, to 54.4 Mbps, while fiber services (excluding cable connections) averaged 41.6 Mbps, relatively flat from the six months prior to November 2014. Average ADSL speeds were also flat, averaging 7.3 Mbps.

Liberty Global used its fourth quarter earnings call on Friday (Feb. 13) to provide an overview of its strategic priorities, including some additional detail on its rollout of WiFi, Horizon (its next-gen TV platform), and its anticipated deployment of DOCSIS 3.1.

On the WiFi side, Liberty Global, which already offers mobile service via MVNO deals, has deployed about 5 million WiFi hotspots so far, and expects to double that to 10 million by the end of 2015, company CEO Mike Fries noted during the call.

In addition to providing more wireless broadband access to Liberty Global customers, that coming expansion will  also benefit Comcast subs in the wake of a a WiFi roaming/peering deal announced by the cable ops last fall.

Fries also said Horizon, the MSO’s next-gen, IP-capable video platform, has surpassed the 1 million subscriber mark, adding that the Horizon Go App is currently offered in eight countries. That work complements Virgin Media’s use of a TiVo-powered platform in the U.K.

Via Horizon and TiVo, one in four of Liberty Global’s digital TV subs now have access to an “advanced TV platform, and that number is ramping up fast,” Fries said, adding that the average Horizon sub generates 20% more ARPU.

On the broadband front, Fries also reiterated that Liberty Global will be trialing DOCSIS 3.1, putting into play a new CableLabs-specified IP platform that is targeting multi-gigabit speeds – up to 10 Gbps down and at least 1 Gbps in the upstream.

Fries also downplayed BT’s work in the U.K. around G.fast, an emerging technology that brings 1-Gig capabilities to DSL networks with short loop lengths. “We don’t think there is any G.fast or any other copper-based technology that is going to put us at a material disadvantage on broadband speeds at all,” he said. 

That D3.1 rollout, Fries added, will be “relatively inexpensive [and a] largely variable cost exercise as it was with [DOCSIS] 2.0 to [DOCSIS] 3.0.”

In Europe, Liberty Global’s average broadband customer is getting 70 Mbps (down) and consuming 70 gigabytes per month, figures that are growing 40% to 50% per year, Fries said, noting that all of the MSO’s systems offer 150 Mbps to 250 Mbps products now, and that the operator has begun to sell 500-meg products in three countries.

At the end of 2014, Liberty Global had 24.5 million unique customers – 21.8 million video subs, 14 million broadband subs, and 12.1 million phone subs.

During the fourth quarter, Liberty Global lost 50,000 video subs, added a record 270,000 broadband customers ,and tacked on 192,000 phone customers.

Liberty Global posted a fourth quarter loss of $121 million (31 cents per share)  on revenues of $4.62 billion, up 72% versus the year-ago quarter, driven primarily by the inclusion of Virgin Media, which was acquired by Liberty Global last June.

Taking more aggressive aim at incumbent telco BT, Virgin Media, the U.K.’s largest cable operator, said it will shell out £3 billion (US$4.6 billion) in the coming years on a plan to expand the reach of its broadband network to millions of additional homes and small businesses.

The initiative, called “Project Lightening,” calls for Virgin Media to extend its broadband network to an additional 4 million premises over the next five years, a move that will extend that total to nearly 17 million premises and, in the MSO’s estimate, create the foundation for 6,000 new jobs and 1,000 new apprenticeships. Virgin Media has set up a web site where consumers and small businesses can register to stay apprised of the MSO’s expansion plans.

Virgin Media believes that Project Lightning will pump £8 billion (US$12.3 billion) of value into the U.K. economy, citing an analysis by Oxera, an economic consultancy. Virgin Media, which is working on the initiative in tandem with parent company Liberty Global, is billing the project as the “single largest investment in broadband digital infrastructure in the country for more than a decade.

Virgin Media’s current, fastest residential DOCSIS 3.0 broadband tier tops out at 152 Mbps downstream.  The number of virgin Media subs taking speeds of 100 Mbps or higher grew by a million during 2014, to 1.3 million, and now represents 28% of Virgin Media’s broadband sub base.

BT’s top tier, meanwhile, offers maximum downstream bursts of about 76 Mbps. The telco downplayed the increased threat by Virgin Media, telling Light Reading that its network already covers 22 million premises, and that the MSO’s expansion plan “doesn’t seem to cover rural areas or huge swathes of the UK.” 

But Virgin Media and its parent company are already thinking ahead. In the announcement about Project Lightening, Liberty Global noted that it is preparing to trial DOCSIS 3.1, a next-gen access platform designed to handle multi-gigabit speeds, “across Europe later this year.” With Virgin Media’s systems factored in, Liberty Global serve a combined footprint of 27 million homes across 14 countries.

Liberty Global is pushing in that direction amid pressure from fiber-to-the-home competition as well as a batch of telcos, including BT, that are placing bets on G.fast, an emerging platform that will bring 1-Gig capabilities to DSL networks.

“Millions of homes and businesses will soon be able to benefit for the first time from broadband speeds at least twice as fast as those available from the other major providers,” Virgin Media CEO Tom Mockingridge said, in a statement. “Consumers and business owners who want to make the switch to better broadband speeds now have an alternative; you can call on Virgin Media to ‘Cable My Street’.”   

The project also garnered a call-out from U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron: “I welcome this substantial investment from Virgin Media which is a vote of confidence in our long-term economic plan to support business and create jobs by building a superfast nation backed by world-class infrastructure. These 6,000 new jobs and apprenticeships will mean financial security and economic peace of mind for thousands more hardworking families across the country,” he said.

Virgin Media ended 2014 with 12.62 million homes passed, 3.76 million TV subs, 4.53 million Internet customers, and 4.21 million phone customers.

On the video front, Virgin Media said it added 585,000 TiVo subs in 2014, including 143,000 in the fourth quarter. By the end of 2014, 68% of Virgin Media’s TV subs, or 2.5 million of them, were on the TiVo platform

As the Consumer Electronic Show approaches, it’s abundantly clear that the Internet of Things will be a big, big thing. My inbox is bulging with invites to come see the latest in Internet-connected wearables.

For cable operators, the discussion on IoT has typically centered on how it will impact the network, keeping a close eye on IoT standards (subscription required), and what role MSOs will play in this emerging market. 

Virgin Media, the U.K.’s largest cable operator, is already taking things a step further with the launch of the “KipstR,” a connected wristband that “controls TV as you sleep,” and has already been integrated with the MSO’s TiVo-powered platform.

The 3D-printed wristband, Virgin Media explains, uses a pulse-oximeter to measures the heart rate to detect if the wearer is awake or asleep, “and then mimics the user’s TiVo remote control to pause, record or resume a show appropriately.”  

One example: if the device realizes that the wearer is sleeping, it will tell TiVo to pause and record the current program being viewed. When the heart rate level of the user returns to an awake state, the wristband then triggers the box to resume the show.

And Virgin Media thinks this sort of thing (the Fear Of Missing Out, or F.O.M.O., as the MSO calls it) could come in handy during the holidays, pointing to research showing that one in five of us (18%) are expected to fall asleep on the couch on Christmas day , after we’ve had more than our fair share of turkey and wine.

Virgin Media said it’s exploring how the KipstR can extend sleep-control to other connected home devices, including the powering up and down of devices and controlling things like central heating.

Virgin Media developed the prototype in partnership with two tech-savvy students at Manchester Creative Studio – Ryan Oliver, 15, and Johnathan Kingsley, 14.

The MSO is testing the KipstR over the holidays and has set up this registration page for customers who are interested in taking part.

BlackArrow has hit its first European target -- Virgin Media, the U.K.’s largest cable operator.

The advanced ad firm and the MSO have struck a partnership to insert ads into video-on-demand content that's made available on Virgin Media’s QAM-based set-top boxes, including its new TiVo-powered hybrid QAM/IP platform, as well as mobile devices that support the operator’s authenticated TV Anywhere service.   

The win is BlackArrow’s first in Europe, and comes about three months after the company announced it had  expanded into the region and opened an office in London.

The agreement with Virgin Media, an MSO acquired last year by Liberty Global, will give BlackArrow the potential to reach about 5.3 million more set-tops/TV screens, and a broader range of IP-connected devices that are outfitted with the cable operator’s app.

With the addition of Virgin Media, BlackArrow estimates that its platform will have a reach of more than 37 million homes, a figure that also factors in deployments with Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, and Rogers Communications.

The win with Virgin Media “solidifies our expansion strategy in Europe…it’s a true multiscreen deployment,” said BlackArrow president Nick Troiano, who is also assuming the duties of CEO following the recent resignation of Dean Denhart.

Troiano said BlackArrow and Virgin Media expect to reach commercial deployment of the new dynamic advertising insertion platform during the first quarter of 2015, starting at the set-top box, followed by an expansion to Virgin Media’s TV Anywhere service.

“We are excited to be partnering with BlackArrow. Working with them will allow us to offer more efficient and flexible ad models to better support the changing needs of our advertisers and broadcast partners,” Scott Kewley, Virgin Media’s director of digital entertainment, said in a statement. “We look forward to exploring these advanced initiatives in 2015.”

BT Group has inked a partnership with Netflix that will enable the U.K.-based provider to integrate the  subscription video streaming service with the hybrid broadband/over-the-air YouView platform, which features a mix of more than 70 live TV channels, a VOD library, and a seven-day catch-up TV service.

YouView -- backed by BT, BBC, ITV, Channel 4, TalkTalk, Arquiva, and Channel 5 -- is powered by a video publishing system from Comcast-owned thePlatform. 

BT, which added 38,000 TV customers in the third quarter, announced the Netflix dea Thursday in its second quarter earnings announcement.  “We continue to focus on strengthening our TV proposition and are excited to announce we have entered into a partnership with Netflix that will allow our customers to sign up for Netflix alongside our other products and services, with the added convenience of paying on one bill directly through BT,” the company said.

“Rather than simply getting access to it as an app […] this is integrated into our proposition,” BT CEO Gavin Patterson said, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Virgin Media, the U.K.’s largest cable operator, provides access to Netflix on its TiVo-powered platform, with Netflix maintaining the direct billing relationship with the consumer.

Several other TiVo MVPD partners have also integrated Netflix with their leased boxes, including Com Hem of Sweden, Cable One, Suddenlink Communications, Grande Communications, RCN, Midcontinent Communications, GCI, and Atlantic Broadband. The Google Fiber TV service also bakes in the Netflix player, according to this customer support page. 

Danish triple-play service operator Waoo! offers the Netflix app on leased set-top boxes made by AirTies that are powered by middleware from Nordija.

The average broadband speed delivered by cable operators in the U.K. have, for the first time, surpassed those being pumped out by fiber connections, according to a new analysis of fixed-line broadband services conducted by Ofcom, the U.K.’s communications regulator.

According to a study that tabulated data from November 2013 to May 2014, the average speed delivered by cable broadband reached 43.3 Mbps, taking a slight lead over fiber’s 42 Mbps. Cable’s average speed rose by 3.1 Mbps (8%), thanks in large part to customers upgrading to fastre speeds, while fiber connection speeds dipped 0.9 Mbps (2%), Ofcom said.

Average speeds for ADSL connections, which Ofcom said is the most common type of broadband in the U.K., increased by 0.7 Mbps (10%) to 7.4 Mbps during the studied timeframe.

Ofcom, which conducted the study to help consumers understand performance levels of differences of broadband services and make more informed purchasing decisions, said the average actual U.K. broadband speeds during this period rose by 5% (0.9 Mbps) to 18.7 Mbps.

Among other findings, Ofcom said the take-up of “superfast” services (those touting speeds of 30 Mbps or more) jumped from 24% to 28% of connections, while average superfast speeds remained stable, at 47 Mbps.

Among individual providers, the 152 Mbps (downstream) tier from Virgin Media (now part of Liberty Global) launched in February achieved the fastest download speed over a 24-hour period, averaging 141.9 Mbps. BT’s 76 Mbps fiber service followed with an average download speed of 62 Mbps.  Plusnet’s 76 Mbps package delivered the fastest uploads, with an average of 17.1 Mbps.

Ofcom also measured broadband during peak periods (8 p.m. to 10 p.m.) and found that performance  varied significantly between ISPs.

EE’s 38 Mbps package experienced the greatest degradation in speeds during peak periods – 27.2 Mbps, or 76% of the advertised max speed, with only 5% of subs on this tier getting an average peak-time speed that exceeded 90% of the max.

Sky’s 38 Mbps saw the least degradation during broadband primetime -- speeds during evening peak-time (34.5  Mbps) were 96% of the average maximum speed (35.9 Mbps).

Belgacom has notched a deal to offer Netflix on set-tops that power the pay-TV provider’s newly-branded Proximus TV service, marking another MVPD win for Netflix in the European region.

Netflix launched service in Belgium on September 19, and will be made available to Proximus TV subs by the end of this year, according to the operator. In Belgium, Proximus customers can subscribe to Netflix on one device for €7.99 per month (US$10.15) or €8.99 per month (US$11.42) in HD on two devices.

Belgacom announced the Netflix tie-in soon after making Proximus its primary commercial brand.

Belgacom added 30,000 TV subscribers in the second quarter, extending its total to 1.52 million.

Belgacom/Proximus joins a small-yet-growing list of European MVPDs that have integrated Netflix. Overseas, Virgin Media of the U.K. and Com Hem of Sweden have integrated Netflix on TiVo-powered devices. Danish triple-play service operator Waoo! has also completed an integration that provides access to the Netflix app on leased set-top boxes made by AirTies that run middleware from Nordija.

In the U.S., several MSOs have integrated Netflix on TiVo-powered boxes, including Midcontinent Communications, GCI, Suddenlink Communications, Atlantic Broadband, Grande Communications and RCN. Google Fiber also allows its subscribers to link their Netflix accounts to the Google Fiber TV box.

Netflix ended the second quarter with 50.05 million global subs, including 13.8 million international streaming customers. Netflix expects to add 3.69 million subs worldwide in the third quarter, including 2.36 million in its international markets.

Virgin Media, the largest cable operator in the U.K., is tossing its hat into the 1-Gig ring via a small trial that will try out a new trenching technique that, it claims, can reduce deployment costs by 33%.

Virgin Media, a unit of Liberty Global, said it will use the technique – called “narrow-trenching” -- to bring 1-Gig speeds to about 100 households in the Cambridgeshire village of Papworth. According to the MSO, narrow-trenching reduces the width of the trench used to lay fiber from 40 centimeters to about 10 centimeters, enabling engineers to cover up to 100 meters per day, about twice as fast as current methods.

John Henry Group, a construction services company based in Cambridge, is teaming with the operator on the narrow-trenching project in Papworth.

The area being targeted by the trial is not an overbuild of Virgin Media’s existing cable plant, but will instead touch homes that are close to the MSO’s network, a spokeswoman said via email. ‘

“The narrow-trenching trial is underway and we’ll start connecting homes over the coming weeks,” she added, noting that Virgin Media will disclose more details about the trial, including pricing, at a later date. Virgin Media said it will contact homes directly that are eligible for the 1-Gig trial.

Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport, applauded Virgin Media’s trial. The MSO “is to be commended for their continued exploration and development of new technologies which are helping transform the UK’s digital landscape," Javid said, in a statement. "Virgin Media’s continued investment in the expansion of their network, together with Government’s own rollout of superfast broadband to rural areas, is already playing a significant role in driving the UK’s economic growth.”

Virgin Media today uses its DOCSIS 3.0 platform to deliver a high-speed Internet tier that tops out at 152 Mbps.

Just months after it acquired a 6.4% interest in British public broadcaster ITV, Liberty Global said at an industry conference that it has no desire to beef up that stake at the moment.

Liberty Global purchased its interest in ITV, Britain’s largest free-to-air commercial broadcaster, in July for $822.4 million.  At the time the company CEO Mike Fries said the purchase was “an opportunistic and attractive investment in our largest cable market.”

But at Tuesday’s RTS London Conference, Liberty Global senior vice president and chief strategy officer Jim Ryan said the international cable powerhouse had no current plans to expand its stake.

According to a Reuters report, Ryan said LGI is looking to “enhance” its Virgin Media asset – it purchased the U.K.’s largest cable company in 2013 for $24 billion  – with additional programming and that the ITV stake gives it “a seat at the table at any UK content discussions.”

That could mean dipping its toes into sports programming.  Back in June speculation was high that Liberty Global – and its chairman, legendary dealmaker John Malone –paired with Discovery Communications to make a possible bid for racing icon Formula One. At the conference, Ryan said LGI would like to get into the sports rights game, but declined to be specific. Regarding Formula One, he said it was an attractive asset that LGI would look at, adding that he assumed others would do the same, according to the Reuters report.

British broadcaster ITV called for major U.K. TV platforms like BSkyB and Virgin Media to pay for transmission of free over-the-air content after a recent report said that so-called retransmission consent helped fuel the current “Golden Age of Television” in the United States.

According to the report, Delivering for Television Viewers: Retransmission Consent and the US Market for Video Content, and conducted by NERA Economic Consulting, retrans has “contributed significantly to the overall health of the U.S. broadcasting industry.”

According to the report, commissioned by ITV in partnership with Germany’s VPRT and Free TV Australia, free-to-air broadcasters received about $3.3 billion in retrans payments in 2013, accounting for less than 3% of cable operator revenue – but about 15% of total broadcast revenue – and “having little or no impact on pay TV prices.”

ITV estimates that UK commercial Public Service Broadcasters invest around $4.8 billion on programming – and that it alone spends almost $1.6 billion annually – most of which is pumped back into original content. Under the current regime, no payment is made by the pay TV platforms to PSBs who fund this programming.

In a statement, ITV chief executive Adam Crozier said that introducing retransmission fees would have clear benefits to the UK creative industries and the wider economy by enabling PSBs to continue to invest in original programming.

“The majority of viewing on these pay TV platforms is PSB programming yet ITV, whether as producer or broadcaster investing in creating that content, doesn’t receive any payment – despite the fact that pay TV platforms pay commercial terms for other channels,” Crozier said in a statement. The impact of this wholly outdated regime is that UK Public Service Broadcasters are forced to subsidise major pay TV platforms. In today’s highly competitive media marketplace that is simply wrong – and to the detriment not just of the PSBs, but the consumer and the wider UK creative economy.”

“It is in the interests of all broadcasters that we encourage the regulator and government to look again at this issue for the benefit of the industry and viewers,” he concluded.

Calling it the largest, single expansion of its network since the company launched in 2007, Virgin Media said it has begun to extend its network to 100,000 additional homes in East London.

The extension is being matched with the MSO’s TiVo-powered video service and its top-end broadband tier, which delivers 152 Mbps in the downstream, claiming it more than doubles BT’s 76 Mbps offering in the area.

Virgin Media, now part of Liberty Global, said it selected the new expansion locations because they are adjacent to its existing network, which currently covers more than half of all London homes and provides WiFi connectivity for the city’s Underground commuter service . The MSO said it has begun to connect properties in these new areas, which initially include Bethnal Green, Isle of Dogs, Newham and West Ham, and will later include Stratford, Poplar, Stepney, Bow and East Ham.

“This is a significant investment for Virgin Media and our largest, single network expansion project to date. We are very proud to be supercharging East London, helping thousands of people make the most of the UK’s exciting digital future,” said Virgin Media CEO Tom Mockridge, in a statement.

“London is earning a reputation for being the Tech capital of Europe and that is why we need to ensure every Londoner is able to access superfast broadband services. It has become a utility that every Londoner expects and this latest expansion is a further welcome step towards making that aim a reality. Improving the connectivity of this great city will be a key part of the Infrastructure Plan for London that my team will be consulting on over the remainder of this summer,” added London Mayor Boris Johnson.

Liberty Global’s U.K. division ended the second quarter with 3.73 million video subs (including 2.3 million that are taking Virgin Media’s TiVo-powered service), 4.41 million Internet subs, and 4.14 million telephone customers.

Virgin Media, the largest cable operator in the U.K., has extended its authenticated multiscreen app to Amazon Kindle Fire tablets, including the Kindle Fire second generation and Kindle Fire HD 8.9, HDX 7 and HDX 8.9.

The app, called Virgin TV Anywhere, delivers up to 75 channels of live TV and more than 2,500 hours of video-on-demand, while also doubling as a fancy remote that controls the MSO’s TiVo-powered set-tops and lets customers remotely manage their DVRs.

“We’re delighted that TV Anywhere is the first service of its kind available to Kindle Fire users. With more live channels available than anywhere else we want Virgin Media homes to have the best digital entertainment services out there,” Scott Kewley, Virgin Media’s digital entertainment product director, said in a statement

Virgin Media, now part of Liberty Global, has also offers access to the app on Web browsers and iOS- and Android-powered smartphones and tablets.

The Virgin TV Anywhere app is free to all Virgin Media TiVo customers.