Fiona Ramsay, Media Week, 18 March 2008, 10:00am

BBC, C4 and Five move on-demand beyond PCs

LONDON - 4oD and iPlayer, the video-on-demand services respectively operated by Channel 4 and the BBC, are set to launch on the Virgin Media cable TV platform.

BBC iPlayer

BBC iPlayer, currently available as a PC-based offering, is set to launch on Virgin Media's on-demand service in April, marking the first time that the service will be available via TV sets.
Meanwhile, according to agencies, Channel 4 is presenting its plans for the May launch of 4oD on Virgin Media's platform.

Channel 4 is expected to offer advertisers the opportunity to carry ads on a pre-roll, post-roll and sponsorship basis.

About 1.5 million of Virgin Media TV's customers now use its VoD service on a monthly basis.
A Virgin Media spokesman said he expected the Virgin on-demand service to be further developed to make the content easier to navigate.

Meanwhile, Five is in talks with BT Vision, Tiscali and Virgin Media to launch its revamped Five Download on-demand service on their respective digital TV platforms.

Rhys McLachlan, head of broadcast implementation at MediaCom, said: "VoD on TV makes complete sense. We know from Sky's Anytime service that proper TV VoD is well-received by consumers. From our perspective, it is good news."

McLachlan added that the development of VoD services on pay-TV platforms such as Virgin Media would boost consumer demand for pay TV.

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All Comments

Sean Murricane - 18 March 2008

To say I'll believe it when I see it is an understatement - Virgin 1 have totally failed to get their channel into Widescreen in time for the much promoted Terminator:SCC, the much trumpeted HD Video on Demand for Channel 4 materials hasn't materialised, Half of the series which *are* up have episodes missing - it's all rather indicitive of having a somewhat slap-dash approach to uploading and managing content...