We reported last month Virgin Media’s deal agreed with ITV to provide ITV Player content to Virgin Media’s 3.5 million digital TV customers. Under the terms of the deal, around 40 hours of ITV content will be made available through the service each week, including programmes such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Law & Order: UK. Selected shows will also be available in high definition (HD).
Less than 8 weeks later, content has already started to appear on Virgin Media’s catch-up on-demand service. The rollout of programming nationwide began on Tuesday and is expected to be complete today.
When the rollout is complete the 40 hours of content from ITV1, 2, 3 and 4 will be available for seven days after being broadcast as part of Virgin Media’s free “Catch up TV” service. But also, Virgin Media viewers will be able to choose from a library of about 500 hours of ITV comedies, documentaries and dramas, to watch at any time on demand.
As we discussed last month, the deal involves some of ITV’s most popular and therefore valuable content and illustrates Virgin Media’s financial commitment to leading the way in on-demand content, whilst in contrast Sky’s key focus remains on heavily pushing its Sky+HD, high definition TV service.