ITV Player (ITV Net Player)

Just noticed on Virgin Media that the new On-Demand service from ITV has appeared in Catch-up TV.

Looks quite good, although it's short on programming at the moment.

When did this launch?

It was sort-of launched yesterday, and most available programmes will appear by tomorrow.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/a147785/itv-content-launches-on-virgin-on-demand.html

According to posts on Digital Spy it's launching over 3 days depending on which platform you're on (ex-TW, ex-NTL or ex-C&W)

It is a bit short on programming but then I can't think of much on ITV I'd like to see if I missed it! It'll be good for the occasional thing as well as TV Burp

I don't reckon TV Burp will be on there- it's never been available on the web version of ITV Player, mostly likely due to copyright reasons on all the various clips it uses.

It's a useful addition and On Demand really coming into it's own now that most of the major broadcasters feature.

Each programme starts with the ITV Player ident. Surprised that they haven't packaged the content with an ad at the start or during the programmes but all ad breaks have been extracted. Not certain how the business model works though, presumably Virgin Media pay ITV for their content ?

Anyway, you get to watch view shows in much nicer manageable chunks, 23 minutes for the soaps, Law & Order, 46 minutes etc.

Well with the STV player there have "Lock" 20 sec ad before the programmes starts some times

On Demand is definately the strength of cable - just a shame that so much of the nation can't get the service, and I don't see Virgin investing in expanding their footprint at the moment either.

At the end of Emmerdale they mentioned that ITV Player was available on BT Vision but didn't mention Virgin Media

It hasn't been fully launched yet so I presume they'll wait until then.

Great that ITV player has launched on Virgin Media - can catch up with Corrie and Emmerdale on there now

I thought the whole idea of trying to get maximum ratings is to show a particular programme just once at a specific time. And if you miss it, it's tough. And ITV - and other networks - wonder where all their viewers are going to. It's preposterous on the perspective of TV networks.

You would think that in this unnecessary "Let's make everything technological" era that television would not mention its serious rivals. But you get it all the time from TV networks: "Visit our website: ITV.com, bbc.co.uk, sky.com" - it is getting to to the point of it being pushed down our throats. As I have mentioned before, Teletext/CEEFAX should be the point of reference for more information, seeing as it could be considered that text-based televisual information are 'friends' with TV.

Would it not be really foolish for these channels to completely ignore the fact that a lot people want to watch shows when they want?

Personally, I wouldn't have watched half as many shows lately as I have done if I didn't see them advertised on the BBC iplayer, particularly things like documentaries. I guess things like DOI and live shows are different and of course are intended for live viewing.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather visit the BBC site than attempt to navigate my way around Ceefax, its hardly very nice to look at either and seems quite dated.

I'd rather channels make things 'technological' and keep themselves relevant and appealing by making use of web players and on demand services, rather than just letting themselves be 'just another channel'.