Digital TV News

Virgin Media launches online movie service

Tuesday 27 April, 2010

By Becca Talbot - becca@consumerchoices.co.uk

Looking for the newest DVD releases or fancy watching one of your all-time favourite films? Virgin Media is launching its own online, pay-per-view movie service this May.

Cable TV giant Virgin Media (www.virginmedia.com) is set to launch a new online film service, which will offer titles such as District 9, Fantastic Mr Fox and Twilight: New Moon on-demand.

The service, which will rival similar services including LoveFilm and Blinkbox, will have hundreds of pay-per-view movies to watch online and on-demand, priced at £3.99 for a new release.

Movie lovers will be able to start using the service, which is powered by FilmFlex - Virgin Media’s on-demand TV film service - from Thursday 6 May.

Alex Green, executive director, commercial, TV and online at Virgin Media, said: “Virgin Media Online Movies will help visitors discover and enjoy a whole world of film.”

He added that the service would be developed to enable the downloading of films and also the availability of high-definition viewing.

Each film will be available to watch streamed via a PC or laptop for 48 hours, letting users pause, rewind and watch the film as many times as they want. Tech-savvy users will also be able to connect their laptops to their TVs with a HDMI or VGA cable, so they can watch the films on their television.

You don’t have to be a Virgin Media subscriber to access the service, and you can watch the films you rent anywhere - at home, at work or on the move with mobile broadband.

Andrew Keyte, chief executive of FilmFlex, added: “With this new service, we believe online movie rental will really come of age.”

Virgin Media recently launched its online music video on-demand service, and plans to launch an online TV player later in the year.