Rolling out today across the regions is ITV Player (oddly called "ITV Net Player" in the Catch Up On Demand menu).UPDATE: Here's the rollout schedule
The rollout is being split up over a few days.
Knowsley Platform 24th February
Langley Platform 25th February
Bromley Platform 26th February
19 comments:
Looks like it's just ITV1 stuff at the moment but it's a start. No DOG either which is a bonus!
At least this means they can't "re-announce" ITV Player coming soon. Tomorrow will have to have some new revelation.... ??
Ah but they can still say "Look we gave you the ITV Player..."
some parts of the country wnt recive itv player till the end of this week
Drat - I was hoping to have Law and Order UK in HD (talk about wanting to have my cake and eat it...)
When I got it before 1am yesterday it was still only a partial launch. Of the OD stuff catch up appeared but no tv choice stuff, despite the menu being there (and empty).
Sounds like some poor people will have to wait to the 26th to get the catch up on demand bit.
I think that this development will form the main "Good News fior customers" in tomorrows statement. It clearly been timed, along with the BB upgrade, to co-incide and provide VM with something to say about improving their services. They're hoping it will take the limelight from their lack of progress on linear HD.
I hope I'm wrong!!
I don't think you are unfortunately.....
I still ain't got on demand, only catch up (Barnsley).
No sign of the version 2 pvr software yet either, and we're meant to be the first guinea pigs...
Now sky have started "carpet bombing" the airwaves plugging their HD service, coupled with their reduction in costs for hardware, The VM decision makers have to rapidly decide if they're in the game or not. If it hasn't already, time is running out for this platform as a viable modern entertainment package. As HD takeup gathers momentum, every day, week and month that VM don't respond is another nail in their coffin. Virtually everyone now has an HD ready TV, and now Sky & Freeview are leading the way to help them reap the full potential of them. Virgin? Well we've got on-demand... Hmmm
I know slightly off track, i upgraded to having Sky movies and said to the Cust services person " I know you get asked this alot but when are we getting more HD" to which he replied "problem is people with analogue, until they get them off that service they will not be any additional HD channels" comments to this have appeared on here before.
Well if that is the case, which I suspect it is. Then thyey should simply tell us the state of play. By throwing us little hints and tipping us winks about possible HD progress, they're effectively keeping us here under false pretences. They need to treat us with a little more respect, be honest about their plans and what stands in the way, and let us make informed decisions on which provider we feel is the more suitable for our needs going foward. Their broadband is largely unrivalled, their phone system competes well, their television service sucks and their information feed is appauling.
Yeah, i totally agree. Their Broadband service is fantastic. It just feels like they keep saying "weve got something in our hand but we cant show you, it could be HD or nothing at all." they should make a statement even if its an intention i.e we are intending to have a rival service by the 4th quarter.
Analogue is basically the problem. Looking at how their bandwidth is allocated it's barking mad. VM have been honest about this to an extent, they always used to bleat on about being "bandwidth constrained" which basically means analogue is the problem. I think they stopped saying the phraseology because customers became irritated by it and were asking when are you switching it off and the answer came back er, I don't know 2010 maybe (back in 2007 and 2008).
Having 30ish '+1' channels doesn't help either - yet they keep adding them!
Precisely... If catchup TV and on-demand are the future, as they keep trying to brainwash us into believing, then why should we need the +1 channels?!! Get shot of those, get shot of Analogue. Get everyone on digital and give us some all some High Definition television choice!! Or the dreaded bin lids will be going up on previously Virgin walls all over the country!!
Excuse my ignorance, but why are there any people still on analogue for cable? Can't VM just send them all new boxes? I understand that terrestrial digital switchover has to be a bit slower because those people are used to their TV just working, need to buy their own new equipment, probably need to upgrade their aerial etc... but don't most (all?) cable customers already have boxes for analogue cable anyway?
There is a lot of equipment to be upgraded. The franchises were all a mishmash of variable quality stuff and systems. After various mergers although nearly all of the tv customers about 3.5 million are on digital the hardest bits got left to last. There are less than 200,000 analogue customers and many of them are on areas that are regarded as either not upgradeable or problematic (for several reasons). Virgin refuses to cut them loose even though in the words of the CEO they could "switch it off tomorrow".
The issue was always complicated by the fact that for the channels you got and how fast the boxes are, analogue was quite a cool service. This cool service costs a lot less than the digital equivalent. Box cloning also had something to do with it :-(.
So in those areas they could have been a bit more generous and people would have moved over more quickly.
"There are less than 200,000 analogue customers and many of them are on areas that are regarded as either not upgradeable or problematic (for several reasons)."
I don't get it - if it's technical reasons in just some areas, I don't see why analogue needs to clog up the spectrum in everyone else's areas too.
If it's just that people want to hang on to their old subscription for whatever reasons, I can't imagine why VM wouldn't just cut them off or force upgrade to digital boxes. Especially if the analogue subscribers are paying less than digital (hard to believe when phone line + TV M is £11) and cloned boxes can be used. It's not like there's a viable analogue alternative they can threaten to move to when calling retentions!
Of course if they switched off analogue tomorrow, we'd probably get 27 more +1 channels before another HD one.
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