Virgin takes fight to Sky with ultimate app
Virgin is taking the battle to Sky and
looking to free further your TV from your living room with the launch of its TV
Anywhere service. The new service will deliver live TV and video-on-demand
content, and it will give you the ability to manage your set-top box in the
form of a new look website and a brand-new app.
Virgin
TV Anywhere
The app aims to bring the Virgin TiVo
experience to your smartphone or tablet, allowing you to browse the EPG, manage
your recordings and change channels without affecting the image on your TV
screen. And if you can’t agree on what to watch, you can stream content
straight to your portable device for a multiscreen TV experience.
TiVo on-the-go
Due to launch in Autumn 2012, Virgin TV
Anywhere is free and, theoretically, available to all Virgin customers. While
any Virgin customer can access the new look website, the live TV and on-demand
content that you can access will depend on your choice of Virgin TV package.
The added extras via the website, such as setting your box to record, managing
your recordings, and social aspects such as liking certain content will also be
exclusive to Virgin TiVo customers.
The new Virgin TV Anywhere app will also be
for Virgin TiVo customers only, bringing the sort of functionality familiar to
Sky customers with the Sky Go app to Virgin TiVo users. The TV Anywhere app
will launch on iPod touch, iPhone and iPad in Autumn 2012, though an Android
app is in the pipeline for 2013. You’ll need a Wi-Fi connection to watch
content, though a 3G offering is on the wish list.
Also on the to-do list is the ability to
watch your own personal recordings stored on your TiVo box on your tablet or
smartphone. Clever.
It’s a big push for Virgin in to the mobile
TV domain, and the company is bullish about the advantages of its own service
when compared with Sky’s. Virgin has been doubling its customers’ broadband
speeds. Fibre optic network speeds of up to 100MB help ensure stable streaming
to other devices in your home, while the TiVo box its own dedicated 10MB
connection for streaming content, ensuring it won’t throttle speeds elsewhere.
Exciting times for TV, then – and wherever you want to watch.
