Related Articles
Look out Sky Go — Virgin Media has announced its Virgin TV Anywhere streaming application.
The Branson-beard-bearing company is launching a TV streaming service for your laptop, PC, iPad, iPhone and other devices over Wi-Fi. It’s an evolution of the Virgin Media Player and will be officially launched in Autumn 2012.
Virgin hopes to leave Sky and its Sky Go streaming service quivering in its boots, with 30 live channels and more than 2,000 hours of on-demand services. If you’re a Virgin customer, you can watch live TV and on-demand on your laptop, tablet or phone at no extra cost to your current Virgin TV package — and that’s any TV contract, not just the top-whack XL deal.
The services available to watch on the go match your TV package — so if you pay for premium movies you can access these on the go too. And while the name suggests that you can do all this ‘anywhere’, you are really limited to Wi-Fi, with only management features accessible over 3G. Sky Go, on the other hand, does offer TV over 3G.
There’s currently no word on which specific live channels will be included, with Virgin telling us only that there’ll be a variety across a number of genres including sports, kids stuff, factual programmes and general entertainment. We can expect to see the channel line-up released soon, but hopes of live Sky Sports may be ill founded.
Customers who subscribe to Virgin’s TiVo service can also download the application to take advantage of some features of TiVo through your phone or tablet. You can watch live TV over Wi-Fi, manage your TiVo recordings and even control your box when you’re at home. Those recurring dreams of a 9.7-inch touchscreen remote for your TV have finally been fulfilled — thanks Virgin!
While there are only plans to immediately release the app on iOS devices, an Android version is in the pipeline for ‘early next year’.
Virgin is also looking at the possibility of streaming recorded TiVo shows direct to your iDevice, which is ‘something we are investigating for the future’ — so here’s hoping.
What do you think of Virgin Anytime? If you’re a Sky customer, could you be tempted to make the switch? Is it the final piece in the puzzle to topple the once-Murdoch-run satellite service? Let us know in the comments or on our Facebook wall.
