The partnership enables Virgin Media subscribers to be the first to get the immensely popular catch-up service on their TV without the need for an internet-connected PC.

Virgin Media customers will be able to catch up on their favourite BBC programmes by pressing the red button on any BBC channel.

The iPlayer lets viewers catch up on over 350 hours of TV programmes from the past seven days, at no extra cost.

The latest partnership signals an expansion by the BBC to work with other media corporations. Earlier this month the corporation made the iPlayer available to the Nintendo Wii.

Ashley Highfield, the BBC's departing director of Future Media and Technology, said that the corporation had always envisaged having the iPlayer on a TV platform, so viewers could watch programs in their living rooms.

Highfield was recently appointed chief executive of the soon-to-be-launched Kangaroo project, an on-demand service that will involve the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.

Ian Fogg, analyst at Jupiter Research, praised the addition of iPlayer to Virgin Media's TV service, pointing out that it would reduce strain on the company's broadband network.

www.virginmedia.com.
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer

Back to index