Virgin Media VOD viewing up 50%

Virgin Media recorded over 750 million video-on-demand views in 2009, a 50% year on year increase, with December seeing 76 million views, up 6% on the previous month.

According to the latest figures from the cable broadcaster, over 59% of its 3.7 million TV customers now regularly use the service, an increase of over a quarter of a million homes in a year.

Cindy Rose, Virgin Media’s executive director of digital entertainment, said: “Virgin Media was the first company to bring true TV on demand to the UK and in doing so, we’ve helped redefine the viewing habits of millions of people by freeing them from the TV schedule.”

On-demand viewing of the BBC’s iPlayer on the Virgin TV platform has increased from 10.5 million views in June 2008 to a record 20 million views in December 2009, the cable company said, while ITV Player enjoyed 25 million views over the last three months.