Four million customers lose access to television channels after digital dispute

VIRGIN MEDIA customers have been left outraged after UKTV channels including Dave and Gold were wiped from “around four million” boxes due to a business dispute.

Some viewers declared they were cancelling their subscriptions, while others threatened to abandon the digital cable TV provider if the popular channels were not restored.

Talks between the firms failed to solve an impasse over fees and 10 channels, including five which are free to air, disappeared from subscribers’ televisions at midnight on Saturday.

Viewers were also left unable to access UKTV on-demand services via their Virgin Media sets.

One Twitter user said: “@virginmedia @UKTV Will be cancelling TV, broadband & all phones as soon as we can get through to someone at Virgin!! Think they might be busy with a lot of angry customers.”

Another said: “@virginmedia So this looks like the end, 15 years a customer and you’ve messed up big time. Sky shop Wednesday unless you fix it #SaveDave”.

Free-to-air channels Dave, Drama, Home, Really and Yesterday, along with paid-for channels Gold, Alibi, Eden, Good Food and W, were stopped on Sunday morning.

According to UKTV, “around four million households” were no longer able to access the channels after the midnight deadline passed. The 10 channels are still available on other TV platforms.