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88-513: Two people on dirt bikes are riding on the beach, but are then attacked by a predator in the sand. Meanwhile, Jimmy Green (Corin Nemic) the son of the Mayor (Edgar Allan Poe IV) of the small island town of White Sands returns home to throw a party. At the same time the local sheriff John Stone (Eric Scott Woods) is investigating the deaths of the men from earlier believing it to be a murder. Years prior to

176-508: A VDSL2 line to a roadside cabinet. The cabinets were linked to Virgin Media backhaul via new fibre laid by Vtesse Networks through BT's local exchange, 5 km away. As well as broadband, Virgin Media offered its full range of TV services, including high definition and on demand, over the new infrastructure. On 11 March 2010, Virgin Media announced a six-month trial using telephone poles to deliver 50 Mbit/s broadband and TV services to

264-551: A change-of-ownership clause written into the agreement for UKTV , a joint venture with Telewest's Flextech content division. To prevent this, Telewest instead acquired NTL. In December 2005 NTL:Telewest and mobile virtual network operator ( MVNO ) Virgin Mobile UK announced that talks had taken place regarding a merger. Virgin Mobile's independent directors rejected the original bid of £817 million ($ 1.4 billion), taking

352-546: A cost of £110m. Since the announcement, Virgin Media has confirmed that it now plans to also upgrade 50 Mbit/s customers to 120 Mbit/s at no extra cost, in effect cutting the monthly fee for existing 100 Mbit/s customers. On 11 November 2013, Virgin Media announced its 152 Mbit/s downstream broadband service, featuring 12 Mbit/s upstream rates, which started rolling out to customers from 28 February 2014. The company also upgraded existing customers, from 30 Mbit/s to 50 Mbit/s, 60 Mbit/s to 100 Mbit/s, and 120 Mbit/s to

440-434: A direct-to-video movie may get a limited theatrical screening in order to build excitement for the actual release of the video such as was done for 2010's Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths , and Planet Hulk , 2016's Batman: The Killing Joke or 2013's Sharknado . In some cases, other direct-to-video films can also be theatrically released in other countries. As DVDs gradually replaced VHS videocassettes ,

528-472: A form of bandwidth throttling whereby customer bandwidth was reduced temporarily after a threshold was reached during peak periods. The company experimented with and revised all parameters involved in the throttling, such as threshold size, peak period definitions, throttling percentage and duration. Separate thresholds were applied to upstream and downstream, and thresholds varied between packages. In 2013, Virgin Media changed their traffic management policy to

616-549: A free speed boost from their M500 package to their new M600 package, replacing 516 Mbit/s download and 36 Mbit/s upload with 636 Mbit/s download and 41 Mbit/s upload. The free upgrades were completed for all customers by 31 March 2021. M600 is only available through the Ultimate Oomph package bundle. Virgin Media maintain on their consumer website that they do not throttle users' download or upload bandwidth. However, Virgin Media did originally employ

704-503: A further 40 stations by the end of 2012. The service, which gives access to mobile internet via a TfL portal offering travel, news and entertainment bulletins, will remain free for Virgin Media customers, along with customers of partnered companies, such as Vodafone and EE , after the 2012 Summer Olympics . Other users will only be able to access a limited amount of free content on the TfL portal, with full mobile internet services offered on

792-481: A high-profile star) can generate well in excess of $ 50 million revenue worldwide. A production studio may decide not to generally release a TV show or film for several possible reasons: a low budget, a lack of support from a TV network, negative reviews, its controversial nature, that it may appeal to a small niche market , or a simple lack of general public interest. Studios, limited in the annual number of films to which they grant cinematic releases, may choose to pull

880-495: A minimum payment guarantee included in the contract meant that the actual amount due would exceed twice the payment. The EPG name for Sky News was replaced with Old Sky Snooze . On 2 March 2007, the National Consumer Council accused Sky and Virgin of "behaving like children" and stated that it would consider whether or not to raise a super-complaint against them "that will help to knock heads together" by

968-594: A non-cable telephone line). Virgin Broadband in cabled areas is marketed as "fibre optic broadband". It is a Hybrid fibre-coaxial network, where fibre optic trunk lines are used to connect the area's headend to cabinets on the street. In July 2009 and 2010, Virgin Media Broadband came first in an Ofcom broadband speed test in the UK. Ofcom tested typical speeds of broadband services provided by most ISPs in

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1056-737: A pay-as-you-go basis. On 11 February 2010, ntl:Telewest Business was rebranded as Virgin Media Business , marking the end of the NTL and Telewest brand being used by the company. The company provides dedicated internet and telecommunications services to businesses. Virgin Phone offers landline telephone services; it ranks as the number two service behind the former UK state monopoly, BT Group . On 1 April 2010, Virgin Media began to offer free home phone to mobile calls. Virgin Phone customers are able to call Virgin Mobile customers at no charge, within

1144-496: A result of this, 30 Mbit/s or higher packages were only throttled on the upstream, where as 20 Mbit/s or below packages were throttled on both the upstream and the downstream. Sometime after this Virgin Media changed their policy again due to further feedback from customers, and they now state on their website that no matter what broadband package users have taken, they will not be subject to any bandwidth throttling. Virgin Media customers may use Usenet servers ( NNTP ) with

1232-581: A similar package called NTL Freedom . Telewest and NTL began discussions about a merger in late 2003. Thanks to their geographically distinct areas, NTL and Telewest had co-operated previously, as in redirecting potential customers living outside their respective areas. On 3 October 2005, NTL announced a US$ 16 billion purchase of Telewest, to form one of the largest media companies in the UK. The merger agreement as structured would have required NTL to negotiate with BBC Worldwide (the BBC 's commercial arm) due to

1320-467: A stigma of lower technical or artistic quality than theatrical releases. Some films released direct-to-video are films which have been completed but were never released in movie theaters. This delay often occurs when a studio doubts a film's commercial prospects to justify a full cinema release or because its release window has closed. In film industry slang, such films are referred to as having been "vaulted". Like B-movies shown in drive-in theaters in

1408-460: A successful live action film straight to DVD, due to a lack of budget in comparison to the original. During the Golden Age of Porn in the 1970s, many pornographic films were released in theatres, some of which became some of the highest-grossing films in their release years, and in the pornography industry altogether. Toward the 1980s, porn began to shift to video release, because video allowed

1496-469: A third of the average cost of a Hollywood release. According to Variety , American Pie Presents: Band Camp sold more than one million copies in a week. Some direct-to-DVD releases recently have tended to feature actors who were formerly bankable stars. In 2005, salaries for some of these direct-to-DVD actors in the multimillion-dollar range from $ 2 to $ 4 million ( Jean-Claude Van Damme ) and $ 4.5 to $ 10 million ( Steven Seagal ), in some cases exceeding

1584-555: A trend in China; these films are called "Online Big Movies" ("OBM"; 网络大电影 in Chinese, or simply 网大). The word "Big" in the name was meant to be sardonic , as most of these films are often made on a very low budget and featuring mostly unknown cast members and sometimes nonprofessional actors. However, increasingly, the budget for these films have been slowly climbing up, due to the success of these films on digital distribution platforms;

1672-656: Is a telecommunications company from Britain, founded in 2007, which provides telephone , television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading , England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2 , a 50:50 joint venture between Liberty Global and Telefónica . Virgin Media owns and operates its own Hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) and Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) networks in

1760-480: Is confronted by John and Brenda (the latter had a previous fling with Jimmy and is not happy to see him). Just then, a couple having fun on the beach are both attacked by a sand shark causing panic. At a town meeting, the locals can't afford to have the beaches closed as the town is already in a financial crisis. A man named Angus McSorely (Robert Pike Daniel) tells them they are dealing with actual sand sharks that can swim through sand and offers to take care of them for

1848-402: Is only a baby tooth and Sandy believes the dead shark's mother is out there looking for its baby. With the party underway it is revealed there are more sand sharks as both Amanda and Willie are killed by one. More sand sharks appear and start killing the party goers and Brenda is also killed trying to get people off the beach. John and Sandy are stuck on rocks where the sharks can't get to them and

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1936-608: Is the main cable provider in the UK, with the exception of WightFibre on the Isle of Wight , and covers 51% of UK households. Virgin Media competes primarily in broadband with Sky , BT ( EE ) and TalkTalk . The company's origins lie in both Telewest and NTL , which merged in March 2006. Telewest began in 1984 in Croydon under the name "Croydon Cable", and was acquired by United Cable of Denver in 1988. The company expanded during

2024-653: The Advertising Standards Authority upheld claims made by Virgin Media in its marketing, despite a complaint from Sky. Until 2013, the company was listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market and the London Stock Exchange . On 5 February 2013, Liberty Global announced that they had agreed to buy Virgin Media for approximately US$ 23.3 billion (£15 billion) in a stock and cash merger. On 15 April, EU regulatory approval for

2112-568: The Berkshire village of Woolhampton . Virgin Media identified more than one million homes in parts of the UK that could benefit from deployment over telephone poles, without the need for government subsidy. During July the trial was extended to existing commercial infrastructure in the Welsh village of Crumlin , Caerphilly. On 7 October 2010, Ofcom ordered BT to open up its fibre-optic network to competing broadband providers to help drive forward

2200-581: The Office of Fair Trading about BSkyB's move, and would withdraw its attempt to buy ITV plc, stating it did not believe it could make a deal on favourable terms. In November 2006, the company signed a deal with Sir Richard Branson to license the Virgin brand for the combined business. NTL Group's services – previously marketed under the NTL , Telewest and Virgin.net brands were merged with Virgin Mobile under

2288-458: The Sky1 , Sky2 , Sky Travel , Sky Travel Extra , Sky Sports News and Sky News channel content with a standard message. Sky attributed part of the rate rise to the fact that the new deal would also include Sky3 , Sky Arts and undisclosed high definition and video on demand content. Sky said the deal would cost only 3p per customer per day (roughly £35,000,000 per year), but Virgin said that

2376-529: The Tribeca Film Festival in April, where it was reviewed positively, but only received modest distribution offers. At the time, it was not very common for consumers to make digital movie purchases. As part of a push by the service towards original content, the subscription video on demand service Netflix began to acquire feature films for distribution on its service in the 2010s, including

2464-693: The privatised UK Independent Broadcasting Authority transmission network. In 1998 CableTel adopted "NTL" as its new name. NTL purchased the ISP Virgin.net in 2004, having originally operated it as a joint venture with Virgin Group since it launched in November 1996. It sold ADSL broadband services through BT landlines to those living outside areas served by NTL's cable network and also offered subscription-based and subscription-free dial-up Internet access. Prior to acquiring Virgin.net, NTL offered

2552-607: The "Virgin Media" brand on 8 February 2007, referred to by Virgin as V Day . Virgin.net was integrated into the new brand as Virgin Media Beyond Cable (later Virgin Media National). In February 2007, Virgin Central, an on-demand service, gained the rights to begin showing episodes of the television show Lost (already shown on Sky 1), and other shows including Alias and The OC . This service extended

2640-521: The 1990s and adopted the Telewest name in 1992 following the merger of its then-parent TCI and US West . It expanded into cable television access in 1999 by purchasing the remaining 50% stake in Cable London, one of the first cable TV companies in the UK, from NTL, adding 400,000 homes in north London. In April 2000 Telewest merged with Flextech , and in November extended its cable network with

2728-475: The 2013 documentary The Square , and its first feature film in 2015 — Beasts of No Nation . Netflix pursued a simultaneous release strategy for its films, partnering with a distributor for a limited theatrical release (in order to maintain eligibility for awards requiring theatrical release, such as the Academy Awards ) simultaneous with their availability to subscribers. As this practice violates

Sand Sharks - Misplaced Pages Continue

2816-579: The 2014 film The Interview was released simultaneously on digital and at selected cinemas, after major chains dropped the film due to terrorist threats by a hacking group believed to have ties to North Korea (whose regime is satirized in the film). The group had also leaked confidential data from the internal servers of the film's distributor, Sony Pictures . The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in worldwide closures of cinemas due to economic restrictions and guidance against public gatherings, which prompted direct-to-digital releases for several major films;

2904-714: The Chinese film Lost in Russia was acquired by ByteDance for 630 million yuan (almost 100 million in US dollars) and streamed on its platforms (including TikTok ) for free in lieu of a theatrical release, as part of a larger relationship with the company and the film's distributor Huanxi Media. A number of U.S. films were shifted directly to video-on-demand rentals in lieu of a theatrical release, while some have been sold directly to subscription services, including Disney+ , Max , Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video . OV ("original video") are movies made for direct-to-video release in

2992-487: The Japanese market. OVA (" original video animation ") is distinguished from OVM ("original video movies") or V-Cinema, which usually refer to non-animated works. Different production studios may use other labels like "V drama". The OVA market developed in the mid-1980s. The lax restrictions and censorship in comparison to broadcast television appealed to filmmakers, allowing them to include more controversial content, as

3080-577: The Talk Plan specified periods. Virgin TV , the digital cable television service from Virgin Media, currently ranks as the UK's second largest pay TV service, having 3.6m subscribers, compared to BSkyB's 8.2m as of Q3 2007. Currently 55% of UK households potentially have access to Virgin's network, while anyone in the UK with a line-of-sight view of the Astra & Eurobird satellites at 28.2° east has

3168-427: The UK including Manchester , Leeds , Edinburgh and Glasgow . This is being provided through upgrades to downstream to DOCSIS 3.1, with upload speeds still limited to DOCSIS 3.0 upstream infrastructure. They aim to finish the rollout across the entire Virgin Media network by the end of 2021. On 29 June 2020, Virgin Media announced that customers on their "Ultimate Oomph" broadband, TV and phone package would receive

3256-459: The UK's 26m homes. On 27 October 2010, Virgin Media announced its 100 Mbit/s downstream broadband service, featuring 10 Mbit/s upstream rates, which went on sale on 8 December 2010. Early service areas were parts of London, the South East and Yorkshire. With the faster upstream rates specifically, it expects the uptake in cloud computing services will also see an increase. The roll-out

3344-468: The UK's first ' quadruple play ' media company, offering television, internet, mobile phone and fixed-line telephone services. The deal included a 30-year exclusive branding agreement that saw NTL adopt the "Virgin" name after it completed its merger with Telewest. NTL:Telewest announced on 8 November 2006 it would change its name to "Virgin Media Inc". On 9 November 2006, NTL announced it had approached

3432-447: The UK, including BSkyB, BT, Tiscali, AOL, TalkTalk, Plusnet, O2 and Orange. Since most broadband connections in the UK are provided by ADSL, and the quality of individual phone lines varies according to distance from exchange, most landline broadband services are marketed as being the maximum speed that the individual's phone line will support, "up to 8 mb". As a result, actual speeds obtained vary greatly, but are always constrained by

3520-487: The UKTV channels on their service with other networks. This led to a backlash by customers with some threatening to leave. The dispute finally ended after three weeks on 11 August 2018 after Virgin Media and UKTV reached an agreement. Virgin Media gradually restored all 10 UKTV channels with their +1 and HD Simulcast channels along with now added simulcast GOLD HD and the reinstalled UKTV Play app. The app now features five times

3608-646: The United Kingdom on January 9, 2012. Reviewing the film, Vicky Renee Johnson of HorrorNews.net felt the ending, acting and CGI effects were poor, but despite this enjoyed the film, giving it 3 out of 5 overall. Becky Bartlett of the London FrightFest Film Festival was more negative, describing the acting as "wooden to histrionic" and noting that "While it fails on almost every level regarding directing, budget, screen-writing, plot, acting, cinematography and effects, it manages to be surprisingly entertaining". S. Cockwell of eatmybrains.com found

Sand Sharks - Misplaced Pages Continue

3696-477: The United Kingdom. Although most of the network is urban focused, the new joint venture, Nexfibre (a 50:50 joint venture between Virgin Media O2 and Infravia Capital Partners ) is expanding the network to more areas which never had access to the Virgin Media network before. As of Q2 2023, it had a total of approximately 5.8 million customers. Since the acquisition of Smallworld Cable in 2014, Virgin Media

3784-463: The United States was Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation in 1992. The practice of creating and releasing regular fiction specifically for video did not really take off until 1994, with Disney 's The Return of Jafar and Universal 's The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure , neither of which was intended to hit theaters at any point in its production. Several of

3872-466: The acquisition of Eurobell , taking the total number of homes past 4.9 million. NTL was established by Barclay Knapp and George Blumenthal in 1993 as "International CableTel", taking advantage of the deregulation of the UK cable market. Initially, Cabletel acquired local cable franchises covering Guildford , Northern Ireland and parts of Central Scotland and South Wales . In 1996, CableTel acquired National Transcommunications Limited (NTL),

3960-408: The actors' theatrical rates. With the increasing prominence of digital distribution platforms in the 2000s and 2010s, direct-to-digital releases began to emerge alongside, or in lieu of home video. In November 2007, Ed Burns ' Purple Violets became the first film to "premiere" exclusively for sale on iTunes Store , being exclusive to the platform for a month exclusively. It had premiered at

4048-692: The address "news.virginmedia.com". These servers are outsourced to the Highwinds Network Group and are physically based in Amsterdam , Netherlands. Virgin Media also hosts another operational Usenet server previously known as "text.news.ntlworld.com", now "text.news.virginmedia.com", which again has certain restrictions and limits article size to 50 kb. In March 2012, Virgin Media won an exclusive contract to provide Wi-Fi access to London Underground platforms until 2017. The company announced mobile internet at 80 stations by July 2012 and

4136-487: The amount of more on-demand content now available. All UKTV Channels and UKTV app were all completely restored to Virgin Media platforms by 15 August 2018. On 7 May 2020, Liberty Global reached an agreement with Telefónica to merge their UK businesses, Virgin Media and O2 , in a deal worth £31bn, subject to regulatory approval by the Competition and Markets Authority . The CMA approved the merger on 19 May 2021, and

4224-479: The animated sequels, like MGM 's The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue from 1998, have sparked criticism due to the deliberate neglect of the original source material by creative content limits as these franchises will abruptly discontinue. Several other film series will be continuous if they become more successful, like Scooby-Doo for instance (their video debut Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island became one of

4312-472: The best-selling DTV films of all time ). By 1994, an average of six new direct-to-video films appeared each week. Erotic thrillers and R-rated action films were the two most successful genres. Family films became more important than such genres later in the 1990s, as retailers stocked more copies of blockbuster films instead of more titles. According to the Los Angeles Times : Often,

4400-540: The budget for these films can now range from less than 1 million yuan to upwards of 10 or 20 million yuan. Although these "Online Big Movies" rarely feature well-known actors, in recent years, many "Online Big Movies" have hired veteran actors from Hong Kong action cinema and Taiwanese cinema to join its cast. These movies are also to be differentiated from films that are made for theatrical release but were later acquired by digital streaming services, in that these "Online Big Movies" are produced by internet companies with

4488-484: The combined company. NTL and Telewest formally completed their merger on 3 March 2006, making the merged company the UK's largest cable provider, with more than 90% of the market. The combined company renamed itself NTL Incorporated, with ex-NTL shareholders controlling 75% of the stock and ex-Telewest shareholders 25%. Nine of the 11 directors of the new board came from NTL, with two from Telewest. NTL:Telewest's takeover of Virgin Mobile completed on 4 July 2006, creating

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4576-465: The commercial television broadcaster ITV plc about a proposed merger, after a similar announcement by ITV. BSkyB effectively blocked the merger on 17 November 2006 by controversially buying a 17.9% stake in ITV plc, a move that attracted anger from NTL shareholder Richard Branson , and an investigation from media and telecoms regulator Ofcom . On 6 December 2006 NTL announced that it had complained to

4664-563: The completed film from the theaters, or never exhibit it in theaters at all. Studios then generate revenue through video sales and rentals. Direct-to-video films are marketed mostly through colorful box covers, instead of advertising, and are not covered by publications like Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide . The first direct-to-video release to go into production was E. Nick: A Legend in His Own Mind in 1984 produced by CineTel Films . Direct-to-video releases have historically carried

4752-744: The deal was granted, the final hurdle in the acquisition. On 4 June, shareholders approved the acquisition and the deal was completed on 7 June. On 3 February 2014, Virgin Media acquired Smallworld Fibre , a cable provider based in North West England and Western Scotland, for an undisclosed fee. Smallworld's network was merged into Virgin Media's during 2014. In November 2014, Virgin Media reached an agreement to sell its ADSL business to TalkTalk Group , allowing Virgin to focus on its cable broadband offering. Virgin began transferring customers to TalkTalk in February 2015. On 20 July 2018, it

4840-632: The detriment of their customers. The policy stated a maximum throttling amount of 40% on most services, however users reported being throttled by as much as 54%. Virgin Media's advertisements regarding their "unlimited" broadband services, and their controversial traffic management were investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority, after having previous advertisements banned. From 28 February 2014, Virgin Media announced that they were scrapping traffic management for downstream traffic on 30 Mbit/s or higher packages. As

4928-498: The downfall of live-action family films at the box office is their strength on video. Their appeal is to families with young children, who may go to only a couple of movies per year but who will watch many videos multiple times. The teens and young adults who drive blockbuster box office statistics stay away from family movies. Some horror films that are unsuccessful in theaters, like Witchcraft , begin successful direct-to-video series. Studios may also release sequels or spin-offs to

5016-773: The end of 2015. On 22 March 2017, Virgin Media made ultrafast speeds standard with new bundles. 100 Mbit/s entry level rising to top speed of 300 Mbit/s. On 29 April 2019, Virgin Media unveiled a new bundle with a download speed of 500 Mbit/s; due to Virgin Media's practice of over-provisioning, this bundle can expect average speeds of 516 Mbit/s and a max of 575 Mbit/s. On 30 September 2019, Virgin Media announced their new Gig1 package rollout, providing download speeds up to 1,140 Mbit/s (over 1 Gbit/s) and upload speeds up to 52 Mbit/s, starting in Southampton , which has subsequently rolled out to selected major cities and their surrounding areas across

5104-590: The end of that month. Then on 5 March 2007, Virgin Media threatened to take legal action against BSkyB if the matter remained unresolved in 30   days. On 12 April 2007, Virgin Media filed a legal case in the High Court against BSkyB under the UK Competition Act 1998 and Article 82 of the EC Treaty . BSkyB claimed that Virgin Media made little effort to further arbitration. On 9 May 2008, it

5192-462: The events John's wife and child along with 13 other people were murdered in a shark fling at a party Jimmy threw and doesn't believe they are dealing with it again. John's sister, Deputy Brenda Stone (Vanessa Evigan), contacts a shark expert against her brother's wishes. A couple is devoured by a sand shark and on the other side of the beach as Jimmy is preparing for a layout with Willie (Delpaneaux Wills), Erin (Hilary Cruz) and Amanda Gore (Gina Holden)

5280-534: The explosion in quantity and variety of such movies established and cemented genres like J-horror and yakuza films . The success of OVAs and V-Cinema has resulted in less stigma regarding direct-to-video releases in Japan than in western markets. While there are still OVA and V-Cinema releases, the market is considerably smaller than it was in the 1980s and 1990s. In the mid-to-late 2010s, low-budget B-movies that are made exclusively for digital streaming became

5368-461: The films did not need to rely on sponsored advertisements for financial support. The result was animated films with greater sexual, violent, or political content. The market continued to expand during the Japanese asset price bubble and began to decline with the collapse of the bubble in the late 1980s and early 1990s. With the rise of VHS home video and the decline of the Japanese economy in

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5456-402: The hut, the flamethrower explodes, destroying the shark and the hut at the same time. Back at the trailer where Erin was hiding after a shark killed Willie in front of her, she is talking to someone who wants to throw a beach party, but is killed by the same shark that ate Willie as it was waiting for her the entire time, hinting that the threat is not over. Sand Sharks was released on DVD in

5544-447: The individual phone line – the quality of which is out of the control of the broadband provider. Cable broadband has no such speed variability caused by connection quality as the network is fully owned and controlled by the cable company providing the broadband – any slowdowns are wholly as a result of traffic shaping, or local capacity being over-sold or over-subscribed. For this reason, the results showed that Virgin Media's broadband speed

5632-502: The last minute due to the success of another film with a similar subject matter or an ultimate studio decision. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is an example of this. However, despite the movie's critically acclaimed success, its box-office performance was very poor, which has been attributed to the last minute nature of its theatrical release. The film had much better commercial success in its subsequent home video releases. Other times,

5720-515: The late 1980s, film studios struggled to recoup investments on big-budget films. Inspired by the success of OVAs, Toei released its first V-Cinema, Crime Hunter , in March 1989. Following Toei's success, other studios began to release a slew of direct-to-video movies. Relaxed censorship in V-Cinema gave way to the premier and rise of expressive auteur directors such as Takashi Miike , Hideo Nakata , Shinji Aoyama , and Kiyoshi Kurosawa . As

5808-473: The merger was completed on 1 June 2021. This created one of the UK's largest entertainment and telecommunications companies, to rival BT Group . The resulting company is called VMED O2 UK Limited, operating as Virgin Media O2 . The broadband division combines NTL's cable-broadband operations ( broadband Internet access connections through cable ), Blueyonder (Telewest's cable-broadband operations) and Virgin.net ( ADSL , broadband Internet access through

5896-495: The mid-20th century, direct-to-video films employ both former stars and young actors who may become stars later. Direct-to-video releases can be done for films which cannot be shown theatrically due to controversial content, or because the cost involved in a theatrical release is beyond the releasing company. Animated sequels and feature-length episodes of animated series are also often released in this fashion. The first feature length animated film to be released direct-to-video in

5984-662: The new 152 Mbit/s service. The rollout completed in early 2015. In February 2015, Virgin Media announced its biggest investment in broadband infrastructure in over a decade. Set to invest £3bn in improving its fibre optic broadband network, Virgin Media will be increasing the network's reach from 13 million to 17 million homes. On 29 September 2015, Virgin Media announced its broadband packages would be rebranded as Vivid. The company will upgrade existing customers from 50 Mbit/s to 70 Mbit/s, 100 Mbit/s to 150 Mbit/s and 152 Mbit/s to 200 Mbit/s. The speed upgrade will be rolled out to 90% of customers by

6072-401: The old man was right. Sparky (Jack Kennedy) who brought the fake shark does not hear the others telling him to get off the sand as he was trying to get the power back on and is killed by the shark who ultimately dies after chomping on the electrical cable causing it to explode and turn to glass. With the threat gone the beaches are reopen and the party is back on. However the tooth found earlier

6160-629: The on-demand service previously known as Teleport TV . Teleport TV was renamed TV Choice offering recently broadcast shows and other shows and series. A channel agreement for Virgin Media to keep non-premium Sky channels ended on 1 March 2007. Virgin Media and Sky failed to reach agreement on the issue, and Sky reacted by posting a letter to the public in major UK newspapers on 28 February 2007. Despite Sky's letter, Virgin Media blamed Sky for tyrannizing them and inciting consumers to switch. The companies failed to resolve their differences, and subsequently after midnight on 1 March 2007, Virgin Media replaced

6248-503: The overuse of puns and one-liners irritating but noted that the "wilfully, cheerfully dumb" film was enjoyable in places. Sand Sharks was rated one of the ten most ridiculous shark films by Virgin Media . Direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film , television series , short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere . This distribution strategy

6336-476: The producers to work on extremely low budgets and dispense with some film production elements, like scripts, and the increased privacy and convenience of the format change were preferred by the target market. During the late 1990s and onward, pornographers began releasing content on the Internet. Occasionally, a studio that makes a movie that was prepared as a direct-to-video film will release it theatrically at

6424-462: The release of these titles were outside of usual distribution, studios and directors worked quickly to capitalize on niche markets or upcoming and current trends to increase financial returns. This period of history in Japanese cinema has been described by film journalist Tom Mes as "a far more diverse and vibrant film scene [than previous eras]". By 1995, the V-cinema industry was in decline, but

6512-460: The rollout of high-speed internet services in the UK. Ofcom further ordered BT to free up access to network infrastructure – including all telephone poles and underground ducts – for the rollout of broadband to areas BT does not plan to reach. Virgin Media confirmed plans to expand its broadband network in the UK by using the infrastructure owned by BT. By using the approach, the company hoped to expand its network to reach as many as 16 million of

6600-438: The same period. The agreements include fixed annual carriage fees of £30   million for the channels with both channel suppliers able to secure additional capped payments if their channels meet certain performance-related targets. As part of the agreements, both Sky and Virgin Media agreed to terminate all High Court proceedings against each other relating to the carriage of their respective basic channels. On 26 August 2009,

6688-429: The sharks attack the docks with few casualties as Angus shows up to get the people out of there. With the ferry not showing up for another day, Jimmy, John, Angus and Sandy take one final stand against the sand sharks using Jimmy's speakers, napalm and Angus' homemade flamethrower. Unfortunately, the music stops and Jimmy goes to fix the speakers but the wire is torn and the sand sharks swarm Jimmy, who sacrifices himself so

6776-481: The sharks stay in one place as Angus encases them all in glass. With the sand sharks now encased in glass, the threat appears to be gone, but a large dorsal fin is seen moving in the sand in the cliff above. The mother of the sand sharks bursts through the side and eats Angus. Trapped in Angus' hut John and Sandy make one last effort to kill the mother by tossing a flamethrower full of napalm into her mouth. As they escape

6864-552: The sole intent of digital release. In additional to the digital distribution of these films in China, many of the "Online Big Movies" have also been released on digital platforms outside of China, such as on YouTube . Several YouTube channels, such as Q1Q2 Movie Channel Official and YOUKU MOVIE are popular channels that distributes these "Online Big Movies". Virgin Media Virgin Media Limited/Virgin Media O2 Limited

6952-409: The term "direct-to-DVD" replaced "direct-to-video" in some instances. However, the word "video" does not necessarily refer to videocassettes. Many publications continue to use the term "direct-to-video" for DVDs or Blu-rays . Both disc-based release types may also be referred to as "direct-to-disc". A new term sometimes used is "DVD premiere" (DVDP). Such films can cost as little as $ 20 million, about

7040-403: The tooth found does not match the dead shark, the beach must stay closed. After a power outage caused by the shark, Brenda arrests Jimmy and we learn of their relationship from before the film's events. They spot John on the beach with three guys at gun point as one of them brought a fake shark to fool him into keeping the beaches open. After seeing a dorsal fin moving in the sand they all realize

7128-431: The town, but is written off as crazy. Sandy Powers (Brooke Hogan), the shark expert Brenda called, was watching the meeting and has a talk with John while examining a shark tooth. At night two men are being stalked by a sand shark while on their raft in the water. They try to escape but the shark moves on land and devours them. Fearing his party may be cancelled, Jimmy calls someone to bring an already dead shark but because

7216-462: The traditional release windows mandated by the cinema industry, major chains have typically declined to screen the films. Since 2018, Netflix has partially backpedaled from this strategy, giving its films a one-month theatrical run before their premiere on the Netflix service. Unique circumstances have also resulted in direct-to-digital releases, sometimes alongside a limited theatrical release;

7304-474: The view that NTL's bid "undervalued the business". Sir Richard Branson reportedly expressed confidence that a restructured deal could go ahead, and in January 2006 NTL increased its offer to £961 million (372p per share). On 4 April 2006, NTL announced a £962.4 million recommended offer for Virgin Mobile. According to reports, Branson accepted a mix of shares and cash, making him a 10.7% shareholder of

7392-415: Was announced that Virgin Media would stop broadcasting all of the UKTV channels from 22 July 2018 over fees and an issue with Virgin's on-demand broadcasting rights. The companies were not able to agree terms to allow the ten channels and their +1 and HD offshoots to continue to be available on the platform and the channels stopped being available at just after midnight on 22 July 2018 with Virgin replacing

7480-441: Was closer to (although still not 100% of) the "up to" figures it advertised, compared to the other providers tested. While landline broadband providers offered rates of "up to" 24  Mbit/s , the launch of a Virgin's 50 Mbit/s service on 15 December 2008 was advertised as "the UK's Fastest Broadband." On 8 October 2009, Virgin Media began trials to deliver its TV and broadband services at up to 50 Mbit/s downstream via

7568-420: Was expected to be complete by mid-2012. On 11 January 2012, Virgin Media announced plans to double the speeds of selected broadband packages; its 10 Mbit/s package increased to 20 Mbit/s, 20 Mbit/s and 30Mbit/s to 60 Mbit/s, 50 Mbit/s to 100 Mbit/s, and its 100 Mbit/s package to 120 Mbit/s. The roll-out is expected to begin in February 2012 and be completed by mid-2013, at

7656-411: Was prevalent before streaming platforms came to dominate the TV and movie distribution markets. Because inferior sequels or prequels of larger-budget films may be released direct-to-video, review references to direct-to-video releases are often pejorative . Direct-to-video release has also become profitable for independent filmmakers and smaller companies. Some direct-to-video genre films (with

7744-620: Was reported that Virgin Media and Sky had held talks to resolve the dispute. On 4 November 2008, it was announced that an agreement had been struck for Sky's Basic channels – including Sky1, Sky2, Sky3, Sky News, Sky Sports News, Sky Arts 1 , Sky Arts 2 , Sky Real Lives and Sky Real Lives 2 to return to Virgin Media from 13 November 2008 until 12 June 2011. In exchange, Sky would provide continued carriage of Virgin Media Television 's channels – Living , Livingit , Bravo , Bravo +1, Challenge , Challenge Jackpot and Virgin1 for

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