Virgin Media Flex TV: What Channels Do You Get?

Virgin Media’s Flex TV gives you 150+ channels for an extra £5 per month. See the list of Flex TV channels from Virgin.

In the UK, Virgin Media now offers a Flex TV service that you can add to any of their broadband plans for an extra £5 per month (plus a one-off Flex activation fee of £10).

With Flex TV, you’ll get access to more than 150 free-to-air channels, all of which will be streamed directly onto your Flex TV box. You’ll also be able to access your favourite catch-up TV and on-demand services through the box. On top of this, there are additional channels that you can add, such as Sky’s Entertainment channels with the ‘Essential Entertainment’ plan.

In this article, we’ll look at Virgin Media’s Flex TV service and all of the channels that you’re able to watch on it. We’ll also look at the ‘Essential Entertainment’ channels (available for an extra £15 per month), as well as Virgin’s other entertainment subscriptions and the Flex TV box.

Plans From:	£28.50 per month (monthly cost will rise each April by £3.50)
What’s Included?	150+ channels including BBC, ITV & other free channels. Flex TV box with catch-up and on-demand TV apps. Get 10% cashback on subscriptions like Netflix & Disney+.
What’s Missing?	Sky TV and other premium TV channels will cost you extra. Recording, multi-room and Virgin TV Go and only available on bundles.
Also Known As:	Virgin Media Stream

Virgin Media Flex TV Channels

In the UK, it’s now possible to add Virgin Media’s Flex TV service to any of their broadband plans for an extra £5 per month (plus a one-off activation fee of £10).

With the Flex TV service, you’ll get Virgin Media’s Flex TV box (which was previously known as Virgin Media Stream). It’s very similar to Sky Stream in that it uses your broadband connection to deliver the channels into your home. It also gives you access to on-demand content through a range of apps.

As part of the Flex TV service, you’ll get access to the following channels included as standard:

It’s worth noting that most of these are free-to-air channels, so you may already be able to watch them through Freeview or other broadcast methods. It’s worth bearing this in mind, as most of the premium channels will require an upgrade to the ‘Essential Entertainment’ plan.

With Flex TV, you’ll also get a large number of +1 channel variants (such as ITV1+1, Channel 4+1, and more). These will allow you to watch the shows 1 hour after the live broadcast. For brevity, we have omitted these from the table above but if you’re interested, you can see a full list of them on the Virgin Media website.

Essential Entertainment Channels

For access to many premium TV channels such as Sky’s entertainment channels (excluding Sky Atlantic), Discovery, National Geographic and MTV, you can add Virgin Media’s Essential Entertainment plan for an extra £15 per month (effectively £13.50 per month when you take their cashback into account).

The Essential Entertainment plan gives you access to all of following channels (on top of the basic Flex TV channels that are already listed above):

Unfortunately, Sky Atlantic is not available on Virgin Media Flex.

Other Entertainment Subscriptions

As a Flex TV customer, you can add a range of other entertainment subscriptions to your Virgin Media bill. When you do this, you’ll get a 10% credit, which goes towards your Virgin Media bill.

To give an example, customers who pay for Netflix ‘Standard with Ads’ at £5.99 per month will get a 60p credit each month towards their Virgin Media bill.

At the time of writing, you can pay for the following subscriptions through your Virgin Media bill:

• Disney+ (from £4.99pm)
• Netflix (from £5.99pm)
• Sky Cinema HD (£21pm)
• Racing TV (£22pm)
• Sky Sports HD (£38.75pm)
• TNT Sports (£18pm)
• Premier Sports (£15.99pm)
• Asian Mela (£12pm)
• BabyTV (£5pm)
• Kids Pick (£5pm)
• Adult Collections (£16pm)

It’s worth noting that most customers wanting premium TV channels will be better off on one of Virgin Media’s TV bundles instead. With the TV bundles, you’ll normally pay less overall as you’ll be able to get channels like Sky Sports and Sky Cinema for less. You’ll also get the more powerful Virgin TV 360 box with features like recordings, optional multi-room, and the Virgin TV Go app.

Virgin Media Flex TV Deals

At present, you can get Virgin Media’s M125 Broadband + Flex from £28.50 per month (plus a one-off activation fee of £10 for Flex TV).

Service	Broadband & TV	Monthly Cost (will rise each April by £3.50)
M125 Broadband + Flex M125 Fibre Broadband Virgin Media Stream	132Mbps average download 100+ channels	£28.50 per month plus £10.00 upfront 18 month contract	See deal

Alternatively, if you’d looking for faster download speeds, you can add the Flex TV service to any of Virgin’s other broadband plans. Simply choose to ‘customise your package’ at the checkout and you’ll be given the option to add Flex TV to any of the following deals for an extra £5 per month:

Service	Broadband & TV	Monthly Cost (will rise each April by £3.50)
M350 fibre broadband only M350 Fibre Broadband	362Mbps average download	£27.00 per month No upfront fee 18 month contract	See deal
M250 fibre broadband only M250 Fibre Broadband	264Mbps average download	£28.99 per month No upfront fee 18 month contract	See deal
M500 fibre broadband only M500 Fibre Broadband	516Mbps average download	£33.00 per month No upfront fee 18 month contract	See deal
Gig1 fibre broadband only Gig1 Fibre Broadband	1130Mbps average download	£39.00 per month No upfront fee 18 month contract	See deal

Virgin Media Flex TV Box

With the Flex TV service, you’ll get a small box that you can plug in to the back of your TV using a HDMI cable.

The Flex TV box connects to your Virgin Media broadband connection using Wi-Fi, delivering all of your live TV channels and on-demand entertainment. The box supports Ultra HD (4K) video at 60 frames per second and with HDR support.

The following table shows the full technical specifications of the Flex TV box:

	Virgin Media Flex TV Box
Price:	£5 per month (additional subscriptions costs may apply)
Requirements:	Virgin Media broadband (M50+)
Channels:	150+ channels
Features
Picture Quality:	Ultra HD 4K 60fps with HDR10 & HLG
Sound Quality:	Supports Dolby Surround
Supports Wi-Fi:	Yes
Apps:	Yes
Recording:	No
Technology
Ports:	1x HDMI v2.0b port 1x Micro-USB (power & wired network pass-through)
Power Consumption:	<5W
Dimensions:	8.0 x 8.0 x 1.6 cm
Availability:	53% of UK homes Check availability →

If you’re looking for a more powerful box, we’d recommend getting a Virgin TV bundle instead. On these more fully-featured bundles, you’ll get the Virgin TV 360 box which has extra features like recording and optional multi-room functionality. There’s also the Virgin TV Go app, allowing you to watch your favourite channels wherever you are.

More Information

For more information on the Flex TV service, please see the official Virgin Media website.