Virgin Media 2010 Annual Report Download - page 13

approximately 3.76 million received our digital television, or DTV, service and approximately 19,000 customers
received our analog television, or ATV, service.
Our DTV service includes access to over 160 linear television channels, advanced interactive features, and a
range of premium subscription-based and pay-per-view services. From June 2009, our subscription-based
premium television services have been provided by our Luxembourg subsidiary, Future Entertainment Sarl,
trading as Virgin Media Entertainment. We offer a free-to-air digital television service, or Free TV, to certain
customers on our cable platform. Our Free TV service provides access to approximately 45 linear channels and
radio services such as Dave, E4, Yesterday, Sky 3 and Five USA. In addition to our linear television services,
which allow our customers to view television programming at a scheduled time, our DTV and Free TV
customers also have access to certain digital interactive services, including one of the most comprehensive VOD
services in the U.K. See “Virgin TV On Demand” below. We also provide ATV services to customers in limited
geographic areas.
Our cable network enables us to deliver a broad range of digital interactive services, including games, news,
entertainment and information services, from an on-screen menu. We also offer interactive “red button”
applications from the BBC and other commercial broadcasters. “Red button” functionality in the U.K. permits
television viewers to press a red button on their remote control handset to receive additional interactive services,
including multiple broadcasts. For example, in a Wimbledon tennis broadcast, a customer can press the red
button and choose which match to watch.
Virgin TV On Demand
Our VOD service, Virgin TV On Demand, provides our customers with instant access to a wide selection of
premium movies, television programs and series, music videos and other on-demand content. Programs begin
instantly, without the need for buffering, while the service also offers features such as freeze-frame, fast-forward
and rewind, which allow our customers increased control over the content and timing of their television viewing.
Additionally, our cable network enables us to provide VOD content to our customers with no concurrent
degradation of their broadband speed. As of December 31, 2010, we had over 4,500 hours of on-demand content.
In 2010, our VOD usage increased to 87 million average monthly views in the fourth quarter, up from 68 million
average monthly views in the first quarter. We believe that customers who use our VOD service are less likely to
churn.
The primary types of content available within Virgin TV On Demand are television programming, movies
(on a pay-per-view and subscription basis) and music videos. A selection of content is available free of charge to
all of our DTV customers. This is primarily focused within our ‘catch-up’ television service which offers
approximately 500 hours of popular broadcast television shows. We also offer BBC iPlayer as part of our
on-demand service, which enables viewers to catch-up on over 350 hours of BBC programs and our offering
further includes content from ITV plc, or ITV, one of the largest commercial broadcasters in the U.K., including
the addition of up to 80 hours of catch-up television per week. We also offer the full suite of terrestrial channel
catch-up, including 4oD and Demand Five.
We offer our television customers a subscription VOD package, including up to 2,300 episodes of premium
television programming. In addition, there is also a music video service featuring over 3,500 tracks. Our
subscription VOD packages are provided free of charge to subscribers to our top tier television package and is
available for an additional monthly fee to our other DTV customers. In 2009, we also launched a movies VOD
offering with the launch of ‘PictureBox,’ a subscription movie-on-demand service, offering premium movie
content in both standard and high definition format. All of our DTV customers also have access to
pay-per-transaction content, including approximately 500 movies, while customers with less comprehensive
packages can rent our entire library of music videos on a per-title basis. Pay-per-transaction movies are available
for 48 hours while music is available for 24 hours after purchase and may be accessed multiple times during that
period for a single fixed charge.
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