As we all know Virgin Media and Sky TV have been having a little spat.
Now Virgin Media are taking a leaf out of Sky’s book and signing up rights to distribute sports.
The Football League have signed a deal that will see the Coca-Cola Football League matches will be delivered to Virgin Media’s broadband and mobile phone platforms for the first time.
Starting on 11 August and running for two seasons, the highlights of league 1 and 2 will be available to watch on-demand for up to one week after transmission.
No surprisingly, Malcolm Wall, chief executive officer of content at Virgin Media, earnestly sang, “We’re committed to investing in great content for our customers and this new partnership will give football fans a genuinely value-added service.”
The Championship, as it’s abbreviated to by those who follow it, is the step down from the UK Premier League, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a load of cash involved with it. Deloitte are on record as finding that, in 2004-05, it was the richest non-top flight football division in the world.
Why?
No matter how poor, or not, football teams are, they do a very loyal fans, so much so that making their matches available on on-demand may encourage people to change their mobile or broadband provider. Or that’s the bet that Virgin Media are making.
Commercial terms were not disclosed.
The champagne corks have been popping in the 4 digital group offices this morning, as they hear from Ofcom that they have been successful in their bid to gain 10 national DAB radio licences.
T-Mobile has announced their new Mobile Jukebox service which lets roaming customers download purchased DRM-protected tracks to both their phones and their PCs for a quid a pop.
There’s a dilemma in an age of cremations. What is the item of focus for a loss of a loved one? There isn’t an grave to attend and in the time of so much migration for work, even if there is a grave.
A headphone-style set that allows you to compare your sporting progress with a virtual competitor.
OfCom’s Consumer Panel has released a report, Children and the Internet, based on recent research whose findings state that children who do not have an Internet connection at home can become socially disadvantaged.
This goes beyond the simplicity of smell-o-vision, to a far more deeper, emotional level. Using smells to associate to emotions, providing powerful triggers.
Virgin Media tell us that they “will be the first” TV service to offer the BBC iPlayer service through their STB and remote control – rather than through a computer.
On the eve of the most hysterical launch known to mankind – the Apple iPhone (exceeding even the heavily spent-on Windows XP launch), we have an exclusive the Apple iPhone II.
This morning, BBC boss Mark Thompson announced that the corporation’s long-awaited iPlayer on-demand TV service would launch, as an open public beta, on 27 July this year.