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Virgin Media takes its HD channel count up to five

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Sky has held the HD monopoly for all too long now but, as of this month, Virgin Media is hitting back. Today, Branson TV has announced four more channels in high definition in the shape of FX, National Geographic, Living and MTV Networks to sit alongside BBC HD and all their HD on demand viewing.

Now, on the surface, these don’t sound like the most scintillating additions but it means Grey’s Anatomy, Dexter, the Wire, CSI, True Blood and Family Guy in HD as well as the intriguing prospect of Next Top Model. I’m not sure exactly how many of these programmes were shot in HD in the first place and I doubt you’ll get much out of a hi-def version of Family Guy but I’m sure the nature broadcasts on Nat. Geo. will look great.

If you’re a Virgin XL customer, then it’s all available at no extra cost from the end of July and there’s also a very good chance that they’ll be adding Good Food HD shortly too.

Still a long way to go before they catch up with Sky but not a bad offering all things considered.

Virgin XL

National Geographic to start making games

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In yet another sign that games are rapidly taking over from movies as the #1 entertainment medium, veteran nature documentary producer National Geographic has decided that it fancies a shot at making the next “Hunting Unlimited 2009”.

Curiously, though, the company has decided that it’s only going to develop for a very limited set of platforms – naming Mac and iPhone specifically. Is there an Apple-National Geographic deal that I don’t know about?

The first title, “Herod’s Lost Tomb”, is already available on Mac, iPhone and Windows. It’s about the biblical King Herod, who reportedly wasn’t too fond of baby boys. More titles are on the way, including “Sudoku Traveler: China”, “National Geographic: Africa”, and the intriguingly titled “From the Bottom Up”.

National Geographic Channel (via Macworld)

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