Editing Telewest (section)

=== Television ===
The majority of Telewest's television was digital. There were, however, areas that received an analogue service (Slough, Windsor and some areas in west London). Late in its independent existence, Telewest was in the process of converting the remaining analogue areas to digital, and it was expected that the analogue service would cease in 2007.

The digital television service offered a number of different products including true [[video on demand]], a PVR, and HDTV.
* '''On Demand''' (formerly known as Teleport) was the brand name for Telewest's video on demand (VOD) service. The on Demand service launched in 2005. In contrast to [[Sky (United Kingdom)|Sky Digital]] which, due to technical limitations, is only able to provide near VOD services, Teleport is a true VOD system. Users could search through a large library of programmes and watch them when they want to as part of their subscription.

This library included a free seven day watch again feature for television programmes produced by the [[BBC]], [[Channel 4]] and [[Living TV Group|Virgin Media Television]] (formerly known as Flextech). On Demand also offered movies that could be purchased and watched as many times as desired within a twenty four hour period. On Demand also offered HD content that worked in conjunction with the Telewest PVR (now renamed the V+).
* '''HDTV''' Telewest was the first United Kingdom broadcaster to offer [[HDTV]]. Telewest's HDTV service launched several months earlier than that of their chief competitor, Sky Digital.<ref>{{cite magazine | url=https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/telewest-beats-sky-to-hd-launch/1032894.article | title=Telewest beats Sky to HD launch | magazine=Broadcast Now|access-date=8 June 2022 }}</ref>

Telewest's HD service initially comprised around 10–30&nbsp;hours per week of video on demand content, with no linear high definition television channels available, although the early trial services of BBC HD and ITV HD were carried for a brief time. In January 2006, Telewest started to broadcast HD documentaries such as ''[[The Blue Planet]]'', ''Planet Earth'' and ''Pride'' through their Teleport service, and later broadcast some movies in HD.

Telewest had an agreement with both [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] and the [[BBC]], and claimed to be the only provider in the United Kingdom to offer all the [[2006 FIFA World Cup]] matches in HD. In reality, however, half of the final group stage matches were not available in HD. Telewest's HD service was provided exclusively through their TV Drive box. Sky launched their HD service in May 2006, initially charging a £300 setup fee and an additional £10/month for several subscription HD channels, including HD versions of Sky One, Sky Movies and Sky Sports. Telewest charged a £75 setup fee and £10/month, although no subscription HD channels were offered. Telewest's fees however included the TV Drive recording service, equivalent to the recording features of the Sky+ service.
* '''[[V+|TV Drive]]''' was the name of Telewest's [[Digital video recorder]] (PVR) service. The product incorporated a 160&nbsp;[[gigabyte]] [[hard drive]] as standard, meaning it was able to store around 80&nbsp;hours of recorded programmes. This was in contrast to BSkyB's [[Sky+]] service which offered only 80&nbsp;gigabytes (40&nbsp;hours). Similarly, Telewest's product incorporated three tuners while Sky's incorporated only two, meaning that Telewest's service could record two channels at the same time while watching a third. A few days ahead of the rebranding to [[Virgin Media]], TV Drive was renamed ''[[V+]]''.