A joint statement issued by the two companies says the channel “will offer a daily line-up of fantastic movies. The channel will showcase the very best of British film-making, including Slumdog Millionaire, Mike Leigh’s Happy Go Lucky and Ken Loach’s Looking for Eric, as well as US independent films, Hollywood blockbusters, mainstream drama and comedy, foreign films and cult cinema alongside special features, in-depth interviews and exclusive programming”.
From April Virgin Media viewers will also be able to watch the E4 HD channel which offers High Definition episodes of popular E4 shows such as Glee, Skins and Hollyoaks.
Sarah Rose, Head of VoD and Channel Development at, Channel 4, said, “We’re really excited to be launching Film4 HD and showcasing some fantastic British films to millions of viewers in High Definition. There’s a growing appetite for HD and our line up of C4HD, E4HD and, now, Film4HD provides a great choice of HD content for viewers.”
The two we channels join existing HD offerings including C4HD, BBC HD, ESPN HD, FX HD, MTVN HD, National Geographic HD and, exclusive to Virgin Media, LIVING HD. The company says it will announce further HD channel launches “in the coming months.”
Cindy Rose, executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media, said: “Channel 4 has a great track record in delivering innovative and compelling content and we’re delighted to bring some of their very best films and most popular programmes to our customers in stunning HD. As more and more households become HD-ready, we’re lining up content that makes the most of High Definition and are making HD available to all our of customers for no extra fee.”
Although Virgin offers HD channels at no additional cost, customers wanting to receive them must upgrade to the V+ PVR.