ITV To Relaunch VoD Service as ITV Player

ITV is set to relaunch its online video-on-demand service as ITV Player, following plans to increase its web activity.

ITV.com, which offers live channel streaming and a 30-day catch-up service, has been criticised for not being as user-friendly as the BBC’s iPlayer, according to reports.

The iPlayer has dominated the market since its launch, despite ITV being the first to launch its VoD product – the BBC revealed that it had received over 75 million requests to stream or download programmes earlier this year (see iPlayer Receives More Than 75m Requests To View Since Launch).

Last week, the BBC and BSkyB signed a deal to make the iPlayer available through the satellite broadcaster’s online TV service, Sky Player (see iPlayer Launches On Sky’s Online TV Service).

Sky renamed its PC on-demand download service, Sky Anytime, as Sky Player in May following the BBC’s success with iPlayer (see Sky Renames Its Catch Up TV Service Sky Player).

The BBC’s iPlayer service is also now available via Virgin Media as well as on the Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and Nokia’s new N96 handset.

ITV plans to increase its web businesses in order to achieve its £150 million online revenue target by 2012, which has recently been pushed back from 2010.

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com