Virgin Media boasts 200 million VoD views in Q1 2010

Virgin Media has recorded over 200 million on-demand views for the first three months of the year.

Over 2.1 million homes are now using Virgin’s VoD service, which hosts catch-up content from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Virgin1 and LIVING as well as music videos and films.

Cindy Rose, executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin, said: “Watching TV on demand is now part of the nations’ daily viewing habits, with millions of people tuning into the TV programmes they love when they want to watch them.

“As the way people watch TV continues to change, Virgin Media is bringing the best of high definition, 3D and online TV to viewers and we continue to develop innovative new services that will help consumers make the most of the digital world.”

Channel 4’s catch-up service 4oD enjoyed a record-breaking quarter, with nearly 19 millions views of on-demand content during the three month period.

During March, 4oD had its best ever month with almost 8 million catch-up views thanks to popular programmes including Glee, Shameless and Skins.

BBC iPlayer, meanwhile, recorded over 50 million views during Q1 2010, with EastEnders Live watched by more than a quarter of a million Virgin Media TV customers.  ITV Player continued the soaps’ catch-up success with over 6 million episodes of Coronation Street watched on-demand.

In addition, more than 2.6 million films were watched during the period, including The Hurt Locker, Aliens In The Attic and Inglorious Basterds.

Virgin’s on-demand music service also did well in Q1, with a 12% increase in views in March, according to the company.

Virgin plans to launch an online TV player and its next generation of set-top boxes with TiVo later this year.