Virgin confirms iPlayer for April - TechRadar UK

Virgin Media has confirmed to TechRadar that it is on schedule to roll out on-demand services for the BBC next month – with the iPlayer available to its customers in April.

With increased concern about internet bandwidth, Virgin is confident that its network can not only cope with any increase in demand, but also confirmed that running the iPlayer through its set top boxes would not affect broadband speeds at all for customers.

“To give you a loose analogy, it’s like the broadband goes through the cable as red light and the television as green light,” a spokesperson for the company told us.

“The two things do not affect each other. So if you have our 20Mbit service then you can be watching the iPlayer on your television and still have a 20Mbit broadband.

“With most IPTV that service would have an impact on your broadband.

Coming in April

“We haven’t got an exact date for the iPlayer’s arrival, but it will be in April," the spokesperson added. “It’s a high quality streaming service that lets you watch TV on demand on its natural home – the television.”

There has been increased concern over the rise in internet traffic as more and more people use the iPlayer and YouTube to watch their television.

However, Virgin’s stance is that it has the infrastructure in place to easily cope with any increased demands.

Coping fine

“We have seen a rise in traffic from things like iPlayer but we are in an excellent position in terms of bandwidth and we don’t have an issue with that type of traffic," the spokesperson said.

“Ultimately we provide an unlimited service and whatever data people choose to receive, we will cope with that demand.

“That is our position with regards to our unlimited packages.”