Alex Green, Virgin Media’s executive director of online, recently announced the proposed launch of a rival to the BBC iPlayer and the Sky Player at the IPTV World Forum. The product will be in the market by the end of the year 2010. The news was soon reported on the technology website, Tech Radar, as well.
The service will be available both online and on mobile phones and will provide the users with highest quality experience. Mr. Green also gave the details of the subscription-based online content service. He said that the customers would be able to see their favourite program online as well as on phone by one simple click (see Virgin Broadband deals). By using the most recent and updated technology, the company intends to provide the best quality picture and sound and best experience. It is also probable that customers would get access to Virgin Media’s online HD content as well.
In addition to this, Virgin Media has also been planning to bring TiVo software to its set-top boxes by end of the year. TiVo will allow the customer to search for a program according to its popularity or availability on sites like YouTube or online shops like Amazon, etc. The features of the two products seem to suggest that they will be integrated in some way and will work together. Both are expected to come to the market by the end of 2010.