--Company Says This Is First Time a Series Has Premiered on VOD in the UK
UK cable operator, Virgin Media, has for the first time premiered a TV series on its video-on-demand platform. Starting June 1st, the company is making all 13 episodes of "jPod"--a comedy-drama based on the coming-of-age novel of the same name by Douglas Coupland and acquired from UK distributor, Fireworks International--available in its VOD service's premium TV Choice area for two months, and is also making the first four episodes available in the service's free area, Virgin Central, throughout June. The show, to which Virgin Media has the exclusive UK rights (it has previously aired in Canada and the US), is being offered in both standard- and high-definition. "Premiering a show on our TV-on-demand service shows not only that Virgin Media is at the forefront of the digital TV revolution, but also demonstrates the growing importance of TV-on-demand as a viewing platform," Katharine Burns Rivington, Virgin Media's executive director of content acquisition, said in a prepared statement. "With 'jPod,' Virgin Media customers will be using on-demand TV to view content for the first time, rather than using it to catch up with shows which have already been broadcast on linear channels. We hope that this is the first of many on-demand premieres in the UK." The TV Choice service is offered at £7 per month for customers of Virgin Media's "M" and "L" TV packages, and at no additional cost to customers of the company's "XL" package.
