--Company Taps Perform to Bring On-Demand Video to its Sports Portal
UK cable operator, Virgin Media, says that its VOD platform has
enjoyed a "massive increase" in viewing over the course of the year,
growing from 34 million views in January to 45 million views in
August (i.e. 33%). The company claims that the service generated 314
million views over the eight-month period, and that 50% of its 3.5
million customers are now watching on-demand programming on a
regular basis. It says that the service's success has been driven by
multiple new on-demand programming partnerships and by the launch
of the BBC's popular iPlayer service. "We are clearly on the precipice
of some fundamental changes in the way people watch TV," Virgin
Media CEO, Neil Berkett, said in a prepared statement. "The giant
leaps we have taken, this year alone, show how popular on-demand
viewing has become, and as we continue to add compelling
programming and develop innovative new ways of accessing it, we will
certainly enter a new era of television."
According to Virgin Media, there were 16 million views of its
on-demand music service in August, the highest number since the
service launched. The company attributes the service's success to such
offerings as genre-based music playlists, special features (including
concerts by Kanye West and the Sugarbabes), and regular competitions
to win concert tickets. In July, Virgin says, Leona Lewis's single,
"Bleeding Love," was the first music video on its service to receive a
million on-demand views. Children's programming, meanwhile, saw a
300,000-view increase between July and August (for a total of 2.5
million views in August), thanks to the launch of new content,
including "Dora the Explorer" and "SpongeBob SquarePants," the
company says. It also says that its movies-on-demand service, which is
operated by FilmFlex, saw a 15% increase in growth in August,
following a 9% increase in July. According to Virgin, the service has
now totaled over 30 million buys and offers more first-run movies than
any other on-demand service in Europe. Finally, the BBC iPlayer is
generating 11.5 million views per month on its VOD platform, Virgin
says, and its implementation of BBC iPlayer now accounts for around a
third of iPlayer views. Virgin is still the only TV platform to carry the
iPlayer.
In other Virgin Media news: The company recently signed a deal with
digital sports specialist, Perform (note: Perform manages the Premier
League's site, Chelseafc.com and 80 Football League Interactive sites),
that sees the latter offering on-demand sports video clips on Virgin
Media's online sports portal (virginmedia.com/sport). The video clips,
which include news and interviews covering soccer, tennis, golf,
autoracing and other sports, are drawn from Perform's recently
launched daily sports news service, the Omnisport.tv Daily Bulletin.
The new deal builds on an existing relationship between Virgin Media
and Perform, under which the latter provides video production services
for the cable operator's soccer content, including highlights of all
Barclays Premier League, Coca-Cola Championship, League 1 and
League 2 games. The deal expands Perform's responsibilities to include
daily operational management, video integration, editorial services, and
a dedicated content management platform for Virgin Media's sports
portal. "We have a long-standing and very successful relationship with
Virgin Media and we'll be working closely with the team to ensure an
integrated portal offering," Perform's co-CEO, Oliver Slipper, said in a
prepared statement. "This partnership enables us to further utilize
content across Virgin Media's sports portal and will help drive brand
loyalty and awareness with a compelling sports line-up."
