All of Virgin Media's 3.5 million customers will now be able to watch BBC programming they have missed by simply hitting the red button on any BBC channel. All customers will get access to the BBC iPlayer as well using Virgin Media's EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) menu but the menu wont be updated until the summer.
Malcolm Wall, CEO of Content at Virgin Media added: "We’re delighted to be the first TV platform in the UK to offer our customers BBC iPlayer as part of our on-demand service. The enormous success of iPlayer online has demonstrated the desire TV viewers have for viewing quality programmes at a time that suits them, and now it’s available from the comfort of the living room".
The iPlayer has been very successful since its launch late last year and the BBC has even said that there have been 42 million downloads in the first 4 months of the year.
A Sky spokesperson, a rival broadcaster to Virgin, had this to say:
"We'd expect that the BBC will make available its publicly funded content to all platforms. In the meantime, Sky+ is the biggest on-demand service, now used by 12 million people in 3.4 million homes. Almost three-quarters of enabled customers have used Sky Anytime since launch, watching a total of 32 million programmes to date."
Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 3 May 2008 18:23
