Eurosport HD Heads to Virgin Media

LONDON: Virgin Media is to offer Eurosport HD to its 3.7 million customers starting in April as part of its growing stable of high-definition channels.

Eurosport HD is a simulcast version of Eurosport, and will feature a range of sports in high definition where available, including the forthcoming Tour de France, French Open tennis, all European rounds of World Superbikes, the World Touring Car Championships and Athletics European Championships as well as selected tournaments from the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and wintersports. The addition of Eurosport will bring Virgin’s HD offerings to a total of eight channels, with several more to be added in the coming months. All are available at no extra cost for customers of Virgin’s "XL" TV package.

Cindy Rose, the executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media, said: “We’re really excited about the spring launch of Eurosport HD and the wider rollout of several new HD channels for our customers in the coming months. With HD ready TVs now common in U.K. homes, the combination of HD channels as well as our pioneering TV on Demand service gives Virgin TV customers a huge range of HD programming with the unique flexibility to enjoy HD content whenever they want, at the touch of a button. With all the regular channels you’d expect, and a service ready for 3DTV too, Virgin TV is without doubt the most compelling TV offer on the market.”

Jean-Thierry Augustin, Eurosport’s general director of distribution and development, added: “We have received excellent feedback from viewers about the high quality of Eurosport’s HD output and so are delighted to complete our portfolio of world class events for Virgin Media’s customers. In a competitive sports market we are very pleased to have found a very positive on-going carriage arrangement with long-term partners Virgin Media which strengthens further the availability of our flagship channel British Eurosport and our ever more relevant content line on British Eurosport 2.”