Virgin Media will be sticking with its TiVo-based service, rather than adopt the Horizon platform developed by new owner Liberty Global.
Virgin Media elected to use the TiVo box in part because it enables the company to integrate Netflix as a channel available to its customers. In response to questions about adding other services similar to Netflix, Mockridge said that not only is Virgin Media open to the idea, but that is has had exactly that discussion with Amazon about adding Amazon Prime.
The question of sticking with the TiVo box has been coming up since Liberty Global bought Virgin Media last year.
Virgin Media CEO Tom Mockridge was asked at a Broadcasting Press Guild event in London if Virgin would switch to Horizon and responded, “the short answer is no.”
“You make pragmatic, sensible judgements. You don’t do it via a simplistic rulebook. The boxes deployed today have been very successful here… The strongest mantra we take is that our customers like it.”
Roughly half a million subscribers are currently being served by the Horizon platform, which is based in part on ActiveVideo’s cloud-based technology and NDS middleware. Meanwhile, Virgin counts about 2 million customers for its TiVo-based service. Mockridge said the TiVo-based service in the UK has been increasing its penetration rate by “several percent a month.”
Mockridge said that Virgin considers itself strictly as a content aggregator, and therefore remains open to getting content such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Sources for this item include Broadband TV News, Digital TV Europe, The Guardian
