Virgin Media launches Setanta Replay as part of continued video on demand drive

19 Jan 2009 | 10.32 Europe/London

Virgin Media is launching Setanta Replay today which gives its top tier customers free video on demand replays of sporting action for up to a week after it is first broadcast.

XL customers (up to 20Mb for £39 month) are being offered the service for free whilst the rest of the company’s broadband customers can pay £7 per month for a range of video on demand content which includes Setanta Replay.

Setanta is best known for its Barclays Premier League football and England World Cup qualifier football games as well as Scottish Premier League games and golf.

Malcolm Wall, CEO of Content, Virgin Media, said Setanta Replay, “is a great way to watch the game when you want, how you want and, by continuing to add such great content, we’ll further drive uptake of on demand and keep changing the way people watch TV”.

Clearly the move is part of Virgin Media’s push behind video on demand which is hopes will whet the appetite for ever faster connections which will bring more customers to its XL package as well as its 50Mb technology it is currently rolling out across its network.

At the start of the month it added ITV Player, the commercial broadcaster’s video on demand service, to the existing BBC iPlayer offering. The cable operator claims to have been encouraged to add more online on demand television programming by a near doubling in audience, year on year, during the third quarter of 2008 to 45m views per month.