Virgin Media in no hurry to adopt 4K "Ultra-HD"

Virgin Media is in no hurry to make ultra-high-definition TV available on its network, according to owner Liberty Global.

But Mike Fries, Liberty Global’s chief executive, insists that the cable networks owned by his company, which include Virgin Media in the UK, are more than up to the challenge, if and when customers demand it.

“We’ve got the spectrum if we need it – as do most cable operators – but I think it’s too soon to tell. People are just now getting used to their big screens. They’ve just spent hundreds, thousands of dollars on these big screens,” Fries told an audience at Cable Congress in Amsterdam.

At present, he said, consumers are not demanding it and content providers are not providing it, “But we’re prepared. Our networks are the most robust in the marketplace. So if 4K becomes something that consumers have to have, we’ll certainly be able to do it. We’ll be in a wait-and-see mode,” he added.