Virgin Media is to launch what it is describing as a TV channel with a difference. In reality Virgin Central is a free video on demand service that will be available to subscribers of the rebranded cable operator.
Included on Virgin Central will be episodes from The OC, Nip/Tuck, West Wing, Little Britain; Grey’s Anatomy, Alias, Criminal Minds, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: Miami.
In addition to Virgin Central, subscribers will also be able to access an on demand library of over 500 movies, music video and replays of primetime programming.
Sadly my experiences today show that this may be another Virgin Trains – flashy new logo and Richard Branson doing some stunts, but same old product and service.
You’d have thought that especially given NTL’s poor track record they’d have got all their ducks in a row for launch day, but no.
I ordered a V+ box last week and it was due for installation between 1-6pm today (in itself a five hour window isn’t great).
The guys in the van turned up at 1:30…and asked what it is we wanted. A V+ box? No, sorry, the ones for our area (South London) still had all the old logos on them and were sent back to be rebranded. I mean, perish the thought, that the nice new black box under the telly wouldn’t have the shiny red logo on it. That really wouldn’t do now would it.
I rang up customer services and was assured that they’d be back with a V+ box in tow. 6pm came and went. I called up again and got a 15 minute wait message on the line. At this point it was sounding very much like the NTL millions of us are very familiar with.
When I finally got through, the guy in the call centre did some checking and even though it showed that the stuff was available in our area on the system, the installation guys claimed not to have it.
I was dying to ask Branson about this during his ‘ask Richard a question’ session in his Covent Garden glass box but unfortunately he’d already logged out.