Virgin One

Richard Branson's Virgin Media are perceived to several disadvantages in comparison to their rivals in UK pay TV, Robert Murdoch's Sky. Not least of these are Sky's own channels - Sky One, Sky Two, Sky Buckle My Shoe, etc;

Now, though, Virgin are to launch a direct rival, a channel that will only be available through their service. As well as mixing shows that are also screened on other pay channels (these include Living who are the only folk to show Veronica Mars in the UK), the big idea with Virgin 1 is that it will include user generated content.

Imagine a YouTube that streamed all day, that you couldn't surf, that you couldn't send to friends as a link, or embed in your own site. That's a YouTube that shouldn't make it out of the delivery room with breath still in its lungs. Sadly, that's what Virgin seem to be offering for a big chunk of their lead channel programming.

Ooops. They need to put this right. They need to spend - secure some solid exclusives and run them first. It wouldn't have been hard to outbid Sci-Fi for the UK first run of Heroes, I'm sure.