Virgin Media mounts marketplace assault
Virgin Media is halving the price of its personal video recorder (PVR), V+Box, to £75 in an attempt to drive Christmas sales.
The V+ box acts in the same way as a Sky+ or Freeview Playback box. However, the company states that it is unique in having three tuners so two channels can be recorded while a third is watched. It can hold up to 80 hours of TV programmes.
James Kydd, managing director of marketing and brand at Virgin Media, said: “With so much going on at Christmas, people can miss out on the telly they want to watch. All our customers have access to On Demand – just like a video store on your front room that never goes out of stock – and Virgin’s V+ box gives customers the added freedom to control their own TV schedule.”
Meanwhile, today (29 November) saw the launch of Setanta Sports News in partnership with Virgin Media. The channel will be a rival to Sky Sports News and is available to all Virgin Media customers and also on free-to-air satellite.
SSN is positioning itself as a fans’ channel and expects much of its content to be generated by contributors. It aims to cover all sports and its presenters include Kelly Dalglish, former footballer Steve Claridge and ex-Commonwealth games athlete Lisa Knights.
Joint chief executive Leonard Ryan said: “I feel over the last 10 years something had been lost in terms of the money that has come into football … the integrity of sport is very very important. There are a huge amount of kids who go out there and play sport just for the love of sport. We want to get back to the roots of sport.”
