UK cable operator, Virgin Media, and Universal Pictures announced Monday that the latter's subscription-based movies-on-demand service, PictureBox, will launch next month on Virgin Media's VOD platform. Priced at £5 per month, the service will offer 28 films--including recent releases and library titles--at any one time, with seven new titles added to its line-up every Friday. According to the companies, most of the films will be available in HD and many will not yet have been made available on free-to-air television in the UK. Titles slated for availability on the service in the coming months include recent releases "Hot Fuzz," "The Bourne Ultimatum," "Children of Men" and "The Holiday," and library titles "Scarface," "Total Recall" and "ET-The Extra Terrestrial." "Our customers love movies-on-demand and they're watching millions of films every year," Virgin Media's executive director of content acquisition, Katharine Burns, said in a prepared statement. "The addition of PictureBox means Virgin Media is the perfect choice for film fans, with a fantastic HD line-up and even more films to choose from, all at great value for money."
According to Universal, PictureBox's Virgin Media launch sees it continue an expansion that has also seen it launch on other platforms in the UK (including BT Vision and Top Up TV), as well as in Poland and Singapore; and marks the first time that it has offered films in HD in the UK. "This agreement is a significant step in the growth of the PictureBox brand, which will now be available to Virgin Media's 3.6 million TV customers in the UK," Belinda Menendez, president of NBC Universal International TV Distribution, said in a prepared statement. "Our reach in the UK has now increased more than fivefold and the service has expanded internationally since initial launch less than three years ago."
Virgin Media claims that its VOD service generated over half a billion views in 2006 and that over half of its 3.6 million TV customers are now regularly watching VOD content.
