One billion on demand views for Virgin Media in 2011
Virgin Media has announced that its customers watched more TV On Demand than expected in 2011 as the advent of Virgin Media’s TiVo Service accelerates dramatic changes in how people are watching television.
One year ago Virgin Media predicted its customers’ growing love for TV On Demand would drive a significant increase in the number of programmes watched at a time that suits them. The company anticipated total On Demand views for the year would exceed one billion. The final total was 1,004,447,198, an overall increase of 14% on 2010.
Virgin Media TV customers sat down to watch On Demand for a combined total of approximately 490 million hours. If a single person wanted to watch this much television back-to-back, it would take more than 56,000 years.
ITV’s Coronation Street was the most watched catch-up show, while The Vampire Diaries was the most popular complete series.
Since TiVo’s launch in 2011, research from Virgin Media shows that 88% of customer searches were for programmes outside BARB’s top 50, with TiVo enabling people to easily navigate the growing number of channels and On Demand content, not just those at the top of a TV guide. This is enriching the entertainment experience for households across the country as well as bringing new and niche content to the awareness of wider audiences.
In addition, its intelligent recommendations engine learns to predict and suggest shows that a household will like.
The average number of recordings stored per box is ninety, split equally between those set up by the customer and those saved and recommended by TiVo. Within three months, TiVo users are typically looking at these recordings more than they do the traditional TV guide. Customers are also using the iconic TiVo thumbs to ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ shows 8 million times a month on average.
Cindy Rose, executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media said: “Essentially people are watching more TV; whether that’s On Demand, suggestions recorded for them, or as a result of new and exciting interactive experiences. We know On Demand is incredibly popular as it’s watched more than any channel except for BBC1 or ITV1 but we far surpassed our expectations in 2011. We’ve led the development of On Demand and we’re now doing the same with TiVo, which takes the entertainment experience to another level.
“The TV world is changing, with TiVo’s powerful functionality and ease of use giving people even more control over what they watch and when. The advocacy we’re seeing from users is vociferous with over half telling us they’re recommending the service to their friends and family. Together with the UK’s fastest widely available broadband, Virgin Media is putting the power of the digital world in the hands of our customers.”