Virgin TV Packages

Virgin TV packages offer customers the chance to bundle premium TV content with ultrafast broadband on the Virgin Media network.

It's one of the cheapest ways to watch TNT Sports, and customers get the channels in HD and Ultra HD included as standard.

Virgin TV is a strong contender to Sky TV, although the Stream box supports slightly fewer on-demand apps, and availability is generally more limited.

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At a glance

Special offers

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Who is Virgin TV best suited for?

Virgin TV packages are best suited for a range of households with varying content and home entertainment needs.

The pre-made bundles on offer cater for both sport and movie fans, with low-cost budget options available that offer exceptional value for money in comparison to equivalent broadband-only plans from Virgin.

Virgin TV packages are best suited to people who:

• Want a low-cost way to watch a range of streaming apps on a big screen, as Flex costs just £5 per month with any broadband plan
• Alternatively, customers who want more content, such as Sky Entertainment, Sky Sports and Sky Cinema, can find excellent value for money in larger plans like the Bigger Bundle and Mega Volt Bundle
• Want TNT Sports (was BT Sport) - as Virgin offer one of the cheapest ways to watch and include the channels in HD as well as TNT Sports Ultimate in 4K
• Are O2 mobile customers as all Volt bundles offer double data on all household plans, plus an additional 30GB or Unlimited O2 SIM plan
• Live in a Virgin Media enabled area, as customers will need to take a Virgin Media broadband plan to get the TV packages

For those who can get it, Virgin TV packages are a fairly straightforward choice as a service add-on to Virgin broadband.

Here's a quick overview of the main Virgin TV packages:

While there is plenty to choose from with Virgin's pre-made bundles, households on a really tight budget who want the most flexibility can also look to Virgin's newer Flex TV service. It's not a full pay TV plan, but customers can add premium TV packs at competitive prices and on rolling monthly contracts.

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What do Virgin TV packages offer?

Virgin Media offers a comprehensive TV service that rivals closest competitor Sky on both content and price.

Customers can choose from a number of pre-made bundles based on the Mega TV package.

Mega TV is a premium plan with over 200 channels, including Sky entertainment channels like Sky Max and Sky Showcase, and National Geographic and Discovery.

It also offers a wide-range of free-to-air content, including from recent partnerships with Pluto TV, Rakuten, a number of themed and free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels, and of course, Freeview.

Mega TV can be customised with the addition of premium TV packs like Sky Sports, Sky Cinema, TNT Sports, and a kids pack. However, these options have the best value for money in pre-made bundles.

The main Virgin TV bundles are:

• Bigger Bundle - 200+ TV channels, including Sky Entertainment & documentaries
• Biggest Bundle - 210+ TV channels, including Sky Cinema HD, Sky Sports in HD and Netflix
• Mega Volt Bundle - 230+ TV channels, including Sky Cinema HD, Sky Sports HD, Kids, and Netflix

Virgin Media has recently updated the names of some bundles, with the Ultimate Volt Bundle becoming the Mega Volt Bundle, and the Bigger Bundle renamed as the Bigger Combo Bundle.

While names have changed, the bundles themselves have largely remained the same, although they did drop TNT Sports from these bundles, with customers now having to add the pack separately.

However, to add to the mix, there are also a range of variations on these bundles too, with extra content or boosted broadband speeds and mobile plans available with Volt.

The latest pricing on the most popular Virgin TV bundles is:

There are a few note-worthy points about Virgin Media TV and broadband bundles:

• All bundles now come with the Stream box, while the TV 360 box may be a requested option for an additional £49.99 fee
• Multiroom can be added as an optional extra at £10 per month for the first extra Stream box, then £5 per month for each additional box, up to five in total
• Each bundle has a Volt option as well, which includes free calls to UK landlines at the weekend, and an O2 mobile SIM with 30GB data and unlimited minutes
• Prices increase at the end of the minimum term, but Virgin will let customers know when their contracts are coming to an end
• Virgin moved to pounds and pence based annual price rises in January 2025, so prices will go up by £3.50 per month each year, with an additional £1.80 per month increase on Volt bundles

While out of contract prices for Virgin Media TV are high, Ofcom research found Virgin Media customers paid an average of £7.74 less each month for their packages after re-contracting.

So, customers taking Virgin TV packages should always check at the end of their contract and negotiate a cheaper price with Virgin, or consider switching away.

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Virgin TV packages

Virgin Media has created a range of pre-made bundles that combine Freeview content with different tiers of pay TV options - depending on what customers want to watch and pay for.

Here's a closer look at the packages on offer.

Bigger Bundle

The Bigger Bundle is Virgin Media's entry-level TV plan after the Big Bundle was replaced by Flex in October 2024.

The Bigger Bundle offers over 200 channels, including premium entertainment from Sky and Discovery, with the option to bundle Sky Cinema or Sky Sports as well.

It includes:

• Mega TV with over 200 channels
• Virgin Stream box, with options to add multiroom boxes
• M350 broadband with 362Mbps average download speeds

In terms of TV content, Mega TV includes access to all of the channels they would generally find on Freeview such as the BBC and ITV suites and more specialised free channels such as Dave HD, Really, and Inside Crime.

A deal with Pluto TV, as well as other free ad-supported TV channels, has seen the Virgin Media TV guide updated to include new dedicated channels such as Great British Menu, Tastemade, The Chat Show Channel, Fear Factor, and Wipeout Xtra.

Virgin Media also recently added the Rakuten app to their TV box sets, which brings 8,000 titles on-demand as well as an additional 150 live streaming channels to the platform.

The Bigger Bundle itself also includes some extra, more premium, options covering entertainment, documentaries, lifestyle and sport such as:

• Sky entertainment channels, including Sky Max, Sky Showcase, Sky Sci-Fi, Sky Witness, and Sky Comedy, as well as documentary channels like National Geographic and the suite of Discovery channels
• Sky Sports Mix and Sky Sports News - Shows a selection of Sky Sports content including the occasional Premier League match
• TLC - Lifestyle and reality content such as Say Yes to the Dress, The Bad Skin Clinic and Cake Boss
• U&Alibi and Movies 24, plus other drama and film channels including Great! Movies, Film4, and Talking Pictures TV

These additional channels mean the Bigger Bundle is a more comprehensive TV package that covers drama, documentaries, lifestyle and sport.

It'll be most suitable for households that want a wider range of content, even though it doesn't include the premium Sky sport and movies channels - for those, customers will need to upgrade or opt for one of the following bundles:

• Bigger Bundle + Movies - Adds Sky Cinema channels in HD
• Bigger Bundle + Sports - Adds Sky Sports channels in HD

The Movies and Sports options allow customers to add one of the major draws of pay TV - access to the latest blockbusters and live sporting events. They're ideal for households that want one or the other rather than both.

Sky Cinema includes all the current Sky movie channels in HD including specific drama, animation, action channels and other specialised channels. There are also over 1000 on-demand titles to watch too.

Meanwhile, Sky Sports includes all Sky Sports channels including Sky Sports Premier League, other dedicated channels for golf, F1, cricket and tennis, and the new Sky Sports+ service, with additional access via the Sky Sports mobile app.

The Bigger Bundle + Sports now includes all of the Sky Sports channels in full 1080p HD as standard. Customers can also choose to add the TNT Sports pack in HD and UHD as well for an extra £18 per month.

Here are those Bigger Bundle packages:

The Bigger Bundle can also be taken with Volt, with the following options available:

• Bigger Volt Bundle - Adds an O2 SIM with 30GB of data and unlimited minutes/texts, and includes the WiFi Max guarantee with up to 3 WiFi boosters
• Bigger Volt Bundle + Movies - Volt benefits above plus boosted M500 broadband
• Bigger Volt Bundle + Sports - Volt benefits above plus boosted M500 broadband

The pricing for these bundles is currently:

Read our full review of the Virgin Media Bigger Bundle for more details.

Biggest Bundle

The Biggest Bundle is the latest bundle from Virgin, first unveiled in March 2022. The package has undergone changes since then however, with the latest incarnation finally offering Sky Sports in HD, as well as a decent broadband plan, starting with M500 Fibre Broadband.

This bundle includes:

• Mega TV with over 210 channels including Sky Sports in HD and Sky Cinema in HD
• Netflix Standard with Ads
• Virgin Stream box
• M500 broadband with 516Mb average download speeds

As well as the rest of the content we've discussed above such as Sky Sports and Sky Cinema, the Biggest Bundle offers Netflix Standard with Ads, which allows Netflix to be watched on two screens at once in HD.

As with the other Virgin TV packages, it's also possible to take the Biggest Bundle with Volt (which we've listed in the table above):

• Biggest TV Volt Bundle - Boosts the broadband to Gig1 and adds an O2 SIM with 30GB of data and unlimited minutes/texts

This bundle now sits somewhere between the Bigger Bundle + Sport and the Mega Volt Bundle, with the main difference between the addition of Sky Cinema HD, and then the Mega Volt Bundle boosting the O2 SIM to unlimited data and bundling the kids TV pack.

Mega Volt Bundle

The Mega Volt Bundle was initially launched as the Ultimate Oomph bundle in April 2019 and later rebranded to Ultimate Volt following the merger of Virgin Media and O2 services.

In September 2023 the Ultimate Volt was renamed again to the Mega Volt Bundle, although the services included largely remain the same.

Mega Volt includes:

• Mega TV with over 230 channels including Sky entertainment
• Sky Sports in HD
• Sky Cinema in HD
• Kids pack
• Netflix Standard with Ads
• Virgin Stream box
• Gig1 broadband with 1130Mb average download speeds
• O2 mobile SIM, with unlimited data, minutes and texts

In terms of TV content, Mega Volt includes all there is available on Virgin Media including entertainment, drama, documentaries and lifestyle channels as well as Sky Cinema and Sky Sports - all in full 1080p HD.

It also brings Kids channels in a Virgin bundle for the first time, with 11 children's channels included such as Nickelodeon, Nicktoons, Cartoon Network, Cartoonito and Boomerang (although there are a few +1 channels included here too).

So, Mega Volt is designed as the most comprehensive bundle for customers and offers all the premium channels that Virgin can provide.

Here's how much it costs:

As well as the comprehensive TV content, a major attraction of Mega Volt is the 1.13Gbps broadband found in Gig1.

Gig1 is now available nationwide wherever there is a Virgin Media connection, so customers who can get Virgin TV and broadband will be able to receive this fastest broadband speed.

We've got a full review of Mega Volt (was Ultimate Volt) for anyone interested in this package.

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Virgin TV box

Virgin TV's latest set-top box is the Virgin Stream box, which first launched as part of the Stream (now Flex) service in April 2022.

It has now replaced the Virgin TV 360 box for new customers, although it still seems possible to request the recordable box by paying a £49.99 fee.

The Stream box works across both Virgin Media's new full fibre network, and the older DOCSIS 3.1 cable network, while the TV 360 box isn't supported by full fibre broadband.

Stream offers a comparable TV platform to TV 360, and it has some pluses going for it, including a wireless installation, making multiroom a much easier affair.

It does however, miss out on having a built-in hard disk, so customers can't record programmes to the box, only save them in the cloud. This factor may well lead some who've yet to be boosted to full fibre to seek out an upgrade to the TV 360 box.

The TV 360 box has the same technical specifications as the previous V6 box, but it is designed to be a home entertainment hub that allows customers to:

• Record on the 1TB hard disk recorder
• Pause and rewind live content
• Access on-demand content through integrated apps
• Watch catch-up apps
• Manage their TV using the voice activated remote
• Create Personal Profiles for personalised viewing

The Virgin TV 360 box is a modern set-top box that doesn't just focus on linear TV but also ensures customers can access all the streaming apps they're interested in.

Even if customers don't take Netflix in one of the bundles we've discussed above, there are free catch-up apps like ITV Hub and UKTV Play and other paid services like Amazon Prime Video and Disney+.

So, it works as effectively alongside the Bigger Bundle as it does alongside the Mega Volt bundle with the maximum amount of premium content available.

We've got a full review of Virgin TV 360 exploring the capabilities of Virgin's latest set-top box and some of the quirks it has too.

Multiroom

Virgin offer UHD multiroom delivered via additional Stream boxes.

All customers can add up to five extra boxes to their contract. The cost of the first extra Stream Box will be £10 per month while additional boxes costs an additional £5 per month each.

Learn more about multiroom services on different platforms.

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Virgin TV Go app

Virgin revamped their Virgin TV Go app to coincide with the launch of Virgin TV 360.

TV Go allows live access to up to more than 100 live channels (if a customer is subscribed to them), along with:

• The ability to watch box sets while on the move
• The ability to download some shows to watch offline (Bigger Bundle or Ultimate Oomph customers only)
• The ability to create a watchlist of on-demand shows

Five devices can be registered on a household's Virgin TV Go account, although only two of them can be watched at once.

Virgin TV Go can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play.

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Virgin TV Flex

There's another option that suits customers who don't want the full Virgin TV experience: Virgin TV Flex.

Stream was unveiled in April 2022 as a way for Virgin Media customers to watch their subscription services through a smaller TV box. It's now been renamed to Flex, but the service is largely the same.

The Stream box costs £10 upfront and there is a £5 monthly charge for the Flex plan.

Flex offers:

• 150+ TV channels, including Freeview
• Options for premium content on a rolling monthly contract, including Sky Entertainment, Sky Sports, Sky Cinema, TNT Sports, and Kids TV
• Integrated billing on some streaming apps like Netflix and Disney+
• 10% bill credit on all channel packs and apps paid for via the Virgin bill
• Access to other free and paid streaming apps and catch-up services
• Voice Search and Control

Flex is an alternative to the full Virgin TV packages we've discussed above as it doesn't require a long-term commitment and is provided on a 30-day rolling contract with any Virgin Media broadband deal.

It's a useful alternative for customers who like streaming services and want a central set-top box with voice control and a slick interface to navigate from.

Read more in our review of Virgin Flex TV.

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Can I get Virgin Media TV?

Before getting too excited by this Virgin Media TV review, check to see if Virgin Media is available in the local area. At present around 60% of UK premises are covered by the network, almost all of which are in urban areas. Use our postcode checker below to find out if your area is covered:

Virgin Media's current "Project Lightning" expansion means more streets are being added every week - but those who don't live in or near a major urban centre either need to register their interest and hope for the best or look elsewhere for TV services in their area.

Unfortunately, Virgin no longer give customers the option of registering interest for services to come to their area, but they do allow them to sign up for email alerts if/when it's going to happen. To be fair, most customers would notice the Virgin engineers digging up their street anyway!

These are the kinds of gaps in the network that Project Lightning, as the broader expansion plan is known, was originally launched to address - so it's worth getting together with similarly afflicted neighbours and taking action to request service.

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Verdict: Are Virgin TV packages any good?

While Virgin Media offer fewer premium channels than Sky, they do offer a broad selection that caters to all preferences - families, movie lovers and sports fans.

The Virgin TV platform brings together all Virgin's TV content alongside catch-up services and apps, allowing customers to access them all in one place. It's also benefitted from recent upgrades, including adding support for Disney+, Paramount+, and Rakuten.

The service is definitely tempting for potential Virgin Media customers, with bundles costing from just £8 extra per month on top of a broadband plan.

Different bundles offer different things, but Virgin TV more generally offers:

• Tiers of bundles that will appeal to most households
• Premium bundles with cinema and sports channels
• A quality set-top box that puts catch-up and streaming at the heart of the TV experience

On the downside, the cost of the most expensive Mega Volt bundle may be off-putting to some customers, despite including a lot of content, and customers must be prepared to recontract to avoid hefty out of contract charges.

The deciding factor - for those who can get it - may be the ultrafast broadband. Virgin Media's download speeds are way beyond the competition, and far more reasonably priced than BT's offerings.

After reading this Virgin TV review, anyone who is still undecided might want to take a look at the pros and cons of Virgin versus their competitors Sky.