Virgin Media in the UK has come out and launched a TV Everywhere system which went into Beta test this week. Customers of the Virgin Media XL package can now get free TV through a browser, on any internet connection including one on their mobile phone. The system uses the same naming convention as other rivals and is known simply as the Virgin Media Player.
Initially content is limited to just a few hundred hours of, which will rise over the coming months, and this includes ITV, Living, Disney, Cartoon Network, National Geographic MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon shows.
Existing Virgin Mobile customers get an hour of Virgin Media Player shows each day free with no extra data charges on their mobile, as part of the Virgin TV package. Even mobile customers who are not Virgin Mobile customers can still get an hour a day at discounted prices as long as they are TV XL and Virgin Broadband customers at home and can pay for their own data.
Interestingly, at virtually the same time, Virgin has submitted a formal complaint to Ofcom, asking the regulator to investigate Project Canvas as anti-competitive. Canvas is the hybrid set top that was proposed by the BCC and its partners, and will receive DVB-T Freeview services as well as internet video, but only from the existing Canvas members who are almost all existing broadcasting companies.
The complaint points out that Canvas was supposed to be open, but says it is a proprietary closed platform, which dictates look and feel. The argument appears to be one of branding, with the logo of Canvas enforced as the dominant logo, over and above that of potential users, such as Virgin. The report says that Canvas is ‘intent on controlling how people watch TV.’
Separately Virgin, which also plans to use TiVo software to offer an advanced broadband TV service in the UK, this week said that the maker of that box would be Cisco, a long term partner for Virgin.
This service will go out to homes which doesn’t even use Virgin broadband lines, but instead goes over the top of rival broadband lines. The new Virgin Media Player is NOT the same as the TiVo service which is expected this Autumn. It will offer online search, recommendation and DVR capabilities and an integrated EPG, all on a TiVo box.