Digital TV News

Virgin Media says TiVo will revolutionise on-demand TV

Wednesday 26 May, 2010

By Becca Talbot - becca@consumerchoices.co.uk

Virgin Media’s new TiVo set-top boxes will allow customers to access a whole host of on-demand and pay-TV programmes, through the internet.

The TiVo boxes will be launched before the end of the year.

Cable TV provider Virgin Media (www.virginmedia.com) told technology website TechRadar that the TiVo set-top boxes will change the way users watch TV.

A Virgin Media spokesman said: “[It] will offer Virgin Media customers a unique intuitive TV experience to help recommend and organise the vast digital world of entertainment.”

In March earlier this year, Virgin Media confirmed it would offer the TiVo boxes to subscribers before the end of 2010.

TiVo, a digital TV recorder manufacturer popular in the US, has designed the set-top boxes so users select their favourite programmes from an easier to navigate on-demand platform. Virgin believes this will make for an all-round better viewing experience than the current V+ Box.

Virgin Media said that it is pushing ahead with plans to launch the new TiVo set-top boxes, following the announcement of a new potential rival service from Google.

Google, the world’s most popular internet search engine, recently confirmed its own plans to launch a web-enabled TV service, Google TV. The service will users to watch online on-demand programmes and access TV websites, such as YouTube, via their TV sets at the touch of a button, as well as watching programmes through a traditional TV service like Freeview.

Jon Ingram, operations director at Digitalchoices.co.uk, said: “The way we watch our favourite TV programmes is changing rapidly.

“With the launch of services such as FetchTV, SeeSaw and the imminent Project Canvas and TiVo boxes, there has never been more choice when it comes to deciding how to watch TV. We are finally freeing ourselves from the constraints of the traditional TV schedule.”