Virgin Media Celebrates Success of On-Demand Service

LONDON: British cable platform Virgin Media is celebrating the success of its on-demand offerings, with a record 750 million views in 2009, a 50-percent increase on 2008.

Delivering catch-up content from BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Virgin1 and LIVING, as well as music and blockbuster films, Virgin Media’s on-demand slate is now being used by more than 59 percent of the platform’s 3.7 million TV customers. “Virgin Media was the first company to bring true TV on demand to the U.K. and in doing so, we’ve helped redefine the viewing habits of millions of people by freeing them from the TV schedule," said Cindy Rose, the executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media.

The BBC iPlayer launched on Virgin Media in May 2008 and has since received almost 300 million views, including 20 million views in December 2009 alone. ITV Player received 25 million views over the last three months. Throughout 2009, there were 11 million on-demand movie views. Virgin Media also reports that kids’ programming, including a range of titles from Disney, generated almost 22 million views in 2009.