Virgin Media is closing its digital film shop. From November 1, you won’t be able to buy films or TV box sets through the Virgin Media Store – and anything you’ve already bought will only be watchable once you’ve moved it over to Rakuten TV, a film-focused streaming service that already has an app on Virgin’s TV boxes.
The good news is that your purchases aren’t being switched off. Virgin has arranged for customers’ libraries to be transferred to Rakuten TV for free, and the transfer is already open – so there’s no reason to wait.
There is, however, some fine print. Virgin’s migration terms admit that not every title is guaranteed to make the move, and some customers may end up with two separate Rakuten accounts – so here’s everything you need to know.
What Is The Virgin Media Store?
If you’ve never used it, the Virgin Media Store is Virgin’s digital shop for buying films and TV box sets to keep, rather than rent.
Purchases sit in your online library, and you can watch them through the Virgin Media Store app on the Virgin TV 360, V6 and Stream boxes, on a computer via the Store’s website, or on phones and tablets through its app (which also lets you download titles to watch offline).
But “keep” comes with an asterisk. Your films don’t live on your box or your shelf – they live on Virgin’s servers, inside Virgin’s shop. Which is why the shop closing matters.
Since September 1, new customers haven’t been able to open a Virgin Media Store account at all. They’re pointed straight to Rakuten TV instead. Existing account holders can keep buying from the Store until November 1.
What Is Rakuten TV?
Rakuten TV is one of Europe’s bigger streaming platforms, and it’s been on Virgin’s TV boxes since September 2024, when the Rakuten TV app arrived on TV 360 and Stream.
It’s a mix of three things: a digital store for buying and renting films, a library of free ad-supported films and shows, and a large selection of free (ad-supported) live channels.
Virgin has also given Rakuten a place in its TV guide. Five Rakuten channels now sit on channels 460 to 464 on the 360 and Stream boxes: Rakuten TV Top Movies, Action, Drama, Comedy and Sci Fi. The last three arrived in February.
In other words, Rakuten was already the obvious partner on Virgin’s platform.
Rakuten’s announcement stresses that “Rather than representing a service closure, the transition is a tangible example of partnership deepening.”
Richard Vivian, Director of Programming at Virgin Media O2, said that the expanded partnership “means Virgin Media Store customers can continue to enjoy their movie purchases in one, easy and convenient place while unlocking access to even more amazing entertainment.”
Virgin hasn’t said why it’s closing the Store. But much of what the Store sells can also be bought from Amazon, Apple or Rakuten itself, so it’s no great surprise that Virgin would rather hand the job to a specialist that already sits on its boxes.
What’s Changing On November 1
Transfers to Rakuten TV opened on September 1, and Virgin Media Store stops selling films and TV box sets on November 1, 2026. From that date, you’ll need to have moved your library to Rakuten TV to keep watching anything you’ve bought.
Virgin’s FAQ says that if you don’t transfer by November 1, “you won’t be able to access your purchases until you do.”
If you’re reading this after November 1, you’re not out of luck just yet. Virgin says transfers will stay open until July 31, 2027 – after that, your Virgin Media Store account closes and your purchases can no longer be moved.
But personally, I wouldn’t wait anywhere near that long. Things happen, devices break. The transfer is open now, and doing it early gives you time to spot and chase any films that don’t come across.
A few other points from Virgin’s FAQs:
TV box sets are included, not just films. Everything you’ve bought is covered by the transfer.
Rentals aren’t changing, according to Virgin, which says you can “continue renting movies on Virgin Media Store just as you do today”. Virgin hasn’t explained how that fits with the Store closing, but if you only ever rent films on your Virgin box, you don’t need to do anything.
Never bought anything? You don’t need to act. Virgin says accounts without purchases will be closed automatically after November 1.
Buying new films: From November, new purchases on your Virgin box happen through the Rakuten TV app instead.
It’s free. There’s no charge for transferring your library.
How To Transfer Your Films To Rakuten TV
Before you start, check which email address is linked to your Virgin Media Store account – it decides where your films end up.
If you already have a Rakuten TV account using the same email address, Rakuten says your Virgin purchases will simply be added to your existing library, and your password and watchlists stay as they are.
If your Rakuten TV account uses a different email address, we have some bad news for you: the two can’t be merged.
Instead, the transfer creates a second, separate Rakuten TV account under your Virgin Media Store email, with your Virgin library inside it – and Rakuten emails you a generated password, which you can then change.
In other words, you could end up juggling two Rakuten TV accounts: one for anything you’ve bought on Rakuten, and one for your old Virgin purchases.
If you’ve forgotten which email you used, and you’re still signed in on your Virgin TV box, open the Virgin Media Store app and go to My Account to check. If you’re not sure which account to use, Rakuten’s help team is at help@rakuten.tv.
Then:
- Go to the Virgin Media Store website (virginmediastore.com) and sign in with your existing Store details. If you start in the mobile app, Virgin says it will send you to the website to finish the process.
- Select “Transfer to Rakuten TV” (on the Store’s homepage it currently appears as “Move to Rakuten TV”).
- Accept the migration terms. This includes agreeing to Virgin sharing the details Rakuten needs to move your library – your email address and the list of titles on your account.
- Sign in to Rakuten TV, or create an account. If you already have a Rakuten TV account under the same email, you just sign in. If you don’t (or yours uses a different email), a new account is set up as part of the process.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the transfer.
Virgin says the transfer usually takes a few minutes, and you don’t need to stay on the transfer screen while it happens. You’ll get an email when everything has moved across – but you won’t be able to watch your purchases while the transfer is in progress.
If your session expires before it finishes, just restart the transfer.
If it doesn’t work: Try again. If you’re scanning a QR code, check that your phone is connected to the internet and scan it again. If that fails, start the transfer from the Store’s website rather than your TV.
And if you’re still stuck, Virgin Media Store’s helpline is 0800 027 0801 (open Sunday to Thursday 9am-midnight, and Friday to Saturday 9am-3am).
Watching Your Films After The Transfer
Once the transfer is done, your films and box sets appear in the My Library section of the Rakuten TV app.
On a Virgin TV 360 or Stream box, the app is under Apps > Rakuten TV. On the older V6 box, it’s under Apps and Games > All Apps > Rakuten TV.
If you have an older Virgin box that doesn’t support Rakuten TV, you can still transfer your library – you just won’t be able to watch it on your TV through that box.
Virgin says you can upgrade to a newer box at no extra cost.
And if you’ve already left Virgin Media? You can still transfer your purchases from a computer, tablet or phone, and keep watching them there.
There’s an upside here, too. Under Virgin’s migration terms, once your library is on Rakuten TV, you can watch it through Rakuten’s website, apps and supported devices – so your collection is no longer tied to a Virgin box or the Virgin Media Store app.
What If A Film Doesn’t Come Across?
Before you start, it’s worth knowing what Virgin’s migration terms say: “Whilst every effort has been made to ensure all of your Titles will be available for you to access on Rakuten TV, in some cases this may not be possible.”
If any of your titles haven’t appeared a week after your transfer, you’re told to contact Rakuten at help@rakuten.tv. From the moment you migrate, any questions about your titles go to Rakuten, and Virgin says it accepts no responsibility for Rakuten’s service after that point.
What none of Virgin’s published material mentions is compensation. Nothing in the FAQs, the guide or the migration terms mentions a refund or credit if a film you paid for can’t be moved (for example, if Rakuten doesn’t have the rights to offer a particular title).
The terms also note that the transfer “does not extend any applicable availability period” – meaning that if the rights to a film run out, it can still disappear from your library later, on Rakuten just as it could have on Virgin.
There’s also a quirk for TV box sets. Virgin Media Store let you buy individual episodes, but Rakuten TV sells shows by the season.
So if you bought selected episodes, Rakuten groups them into a “season pack” in your library – you keep everything you paid for, but because those shows aren’t sold on Rakuten, you won’t be able to buy the missing episodes to complete the season.
Your transferred shows also won’t appear in Rakuten’s main store, only in your My Library section.
A practical tip: before you transfer, take a photo or screenshot of your Virgin Media Store library. That way, you’ll know exactly what should be waiting for you on Rakuten, and you’ll have something to point to if anything is missing.
When “Buy” Doesn’t Mean Forever
When you “buy” a film digitally, you’re not buying a copy of it – you’re buying a licence to watch it, for as long as the shop that sold it to you keeps it available.
As we explained when a lawsuit accused Amazon of misleading Prime Video buyers, Amazon’s own terms say purchased content “may become unavailable due to potential content provider licensing restrictions or for other reasons”.
And when a whole store closes, buyers are at the mercy of how the company decides to handle it.
The best UK example of it going wrong is TalkTalk. In 2023, TalkTalk shut down its TalkTalk TV Store, and customers lost access to films they’d paid for.
There was no transfer to another service – instead, a compensation scheme that some customers felt fell short, with one reporting an offer of £25.
What makes that more frustrating is that TalkTalk had done it properly before. The TalkTalk TV Store started life as Tesco’s Blinkbox, and in 2018, TalkTalk moved its remaining TV-only customers – mostly former Blinkbox users – over to Rakuten TV, taking their purchases with them.
At the time, TalkTalk said that where titles couldn’t be moved, “a fair compensation will be offered by Rakuten”.
So Rakuten has been here before – and it’s the same kind of rescue Virgin has now arranged.
Films can vanish even when the shop stays open. Back in 2013, Amazon customers found that Disney Christmas specials they’d bought had become unavailable, and Warner Bros. has removed titles from buyers’ digital libraries without warning.
Against that background, Virgin deserves credit here. It could have switched the Store off and sent out vouchers. Instead, it’s arranged a free transfer to a service that’s already on its boxes, given customers plenty of time to do it, and offered free box upgrades to anyone whose equipment can’t run the new app.
The caveats still apply: some titles may not make it, no compensation has been mentioned, and your films now live under Rakuten’s terms rather than Virgin’s. But as digital shop closures go, this is how it should be done.
So if you’ve got films sitting in your Virgin library, don’t panic – but do the transfer now, while there’s still time to sort out anything that goes missing.
For more news about TV and streaming, Subscribe to our free newsletter.