Virgin Media has unveiled details of the Virgin Media TV powered by Tivo next-generation entertainment platform. The platform brings together the best of TV, on-demand and web through a single. A graphical interface will combine the live TV schedule with catch-up TV, a library of on-demand programming and popular web-based applications alongside a PVR. As Virgin Media TV powered by TiVo utilises dedicated channels of bandwidth, the user's viewing choice will not come at the expense of their broadband connection, so households can watch and surf simultaneously without interruption. Cindy Rose, executive director of digital entertainment for Virgin, said the launch was a landmark moment in the UK's digital revolution. The platform has an intelligent recommendations engine which will learn to predict the type of shows that a particular customer and then recommend content. The user will be able to create a WishList search based on a particular show, theme, actor or director and all future content relevant to that will be automatically recorded. As well as planning TV viewing over the next week, the service allows viewers to scroll backwards by up to seven days in the TV Guide and access catch up TV and programming information instantly. The platform has a dedicated 10 Mbps cable broadband modem, built into the PVR, and brings the app store to customers' living rooms. The service launches initially with apps from major web brands including catch-up TV from BBC iPlayer, videos from YouTube, shopping from the online marketplace eBay, Tweets from Twitter and photos from sites such as Facebook, and will be expanded over the coming months. The service will be supported by a new set-top box offering 1 TB of storage, up to 500 hours of SD programming. Virgin Media TV powered by TiVo will begin to roll-out from mid-December. Standard price of GBP 199, plus GBP 26.50 per month (when taken with a Virgin phone line) for the XL TiVo package. Without a Virgin phone line, the service will cost GBP 32.50 per month. The service is launching with two tuners and will be updated with three tuners in early 2011. Three tuners will allow viewers to record two channels whilst watching a third.
