Virgin plans Yorkshire smart card swap

Virgin Media has confirmed plans to start sending out new smart cards to its cable TV customers in parts of Yorkshire.

Letters have been sent out today by the firm to Virgin Media households in Leeds, Bradford, Harrogate and York informing them about planned upgrades to their service.

Over the next few weeks, these customers will receive new smart cards which must be installed in their set top boxes to receive the latest updates on the TV platform.

Last week, Virgin launched a short instructional video about how to change smart cards, which led to rumours of a national card swap. However, the exchange is purely localised to parts of Yorkshire.

Virgin Media executive director of customer service Mark Davidson said: "All of our customers in these areas should soon receive their new TV smart cards, as well as straightforward step-by-step instructions on what they need to do. It's as simple as replacing their existing card with a new one.

"What this means though is that we can begin to bring even more fantastic content and different ways of experiencing it to our customers. We are uniquely well positioned to shape the way in which we watch TV and we want our customers to join us as we develop the TV of tomorrow."

The cable operator also claimed that the current disruption to Royal Mail postal service will not impact on the smart card delivery process.