Half a billion views for Virgin Media’s on-demand TV

Virgin Media’s TV viewers watched over half a billion on-demand programmes in 2008, with the BBC’s iPlayer on the cable TV platform approaching 1 million views.

Virgin Media said that it had a record-breaking 56 million views in December alone, with on-demand’s popularity growing by over 60% in the last 12 months.

It added that 52% of its 3.5 million TV customers regularly using the service.

The iPlayer, which launched on Virgin Media in May 2008, saw viewing has accelerate from 10.5 million views in June to 17 million views in December.

Virgin Media’s Movies on demand service experienced 10% month-on-month growth in December. The service, operated and managed by FilmFlex, has now totalled over 35 million buys since launch.

Neil Berkett, CEO of Virgin Media, said: “More and more viewers are abandoning TV schedules and choosing to watch the programmes they want, when they want.

“The launch of BBC iPlayer on our TV platform was a real tipping point in consumer understanding of on demand and we’ll continue this success with the launch of ITV Player. As we bring the nation’s favourite TV programmes to them, on the box, via PCs and on their mobiles, we are redefining how people watch TV.”

Figures from the BBC published in January showed that the iPlayer received 41 million requests to view programmes in December alone – the biggest month since its launch a year earlier (see BBC Three and BBC iPlayer deliver record performances).

The Corporation said that the total number of requests for programmes on the iPlayer from December 25 2007 to December 25 2008 hit 271 million.

Virgin Media: www.virginmedia.com