Customers of UK ISP Virgin Media’s (O2) and certain pay TV, broadband, phone and or mobile bundles, primarily those that usually add their ‘Stream’ box, may have noticed that the provider renamed this from ‘Stream‘ to ‘Flex‘ this week. The change is partly cosmetic, but for new customers there’s now an extra £5 monthly charge.
Until now if a customer wanted to add Virgin Media’s Stream TV box to their package then there was just a single one-off £35 activation fee to pay and no additional monthly cost, unless you chose to add a premium TV subscription. Otherwise, Stream is just a streaming TV box that gives customers access to lots of UK Freeview TV channels, the usual apps (iPlayer, YouTube etc.) and the ability to add Virgin’s own premium TV content.
However, since Monday, the name has changed to ‘Flex’ (oddly the box is still called a ‘Stream Box‘) and the one-off activation fee has been reduced from £35 to £10. So far so good, but Virgin Media has also introduced a monthly £5 charge for new customers, which for those expecting to keep using the device for a while may seem like poor value for money.
The good news is that existing ‘Stream’ customers will not have to pay the new charge (Virgin Community Forum), although it remains unclear why Virgin Media has opted to take this approach. But it’s entirely possible that the name change may have been intended to avoid a conflict with other pay TV brands, such as Sky Stream, although ‘Flex’ seems like an oddly non-descriptive choice as a replacement.
Stream from Virgin Media customers may have noticed a message in recent bills advising of an upcoming name change to their service. We can confirm that from today it will be called Flex. There is nothing to worry about, and this won’t affect your service in any way – you will still be able to enjoy your favourite entertainment in exactly the same way as you do today, and any subscriptions you have added will be unaffected. Your equipment (TV box) will still be known as the Stream Box. As a result of this change, you will now see Flex on your bills, and areas of your account view within My Virgin Media will be renamed too (E.g. “My Flex Plan”).
Sadly, Flex isn’t the only change, with some of Virgin Media’s premium TV subscription add-ons having also experienced a price increase this week.