ITV arrives on Virgin Media's on-demand

It's been 'coming soon' since a partnership was agreed back in January, but ITV's shows will now be available on Virgin Media's popular catch-up service, including some of its HD offerings.

With the likes of BBC, Channel 4 and Living already being enjoyed by Virgin's television, the addition of ITV to the mix will be welcomed by the cable platform's customers, following a partnership deal earlier this year.

The service will be "rolled out across the country over the next three days, with all Virgin Media's 3.5 million digital TV customers having access to ITV Player by 26 February," says Virgin Media.

Catch-up and choice

"Popular shows such as Coronation Street and Emmerdale will be made available for seven days after being broadcast as part of Virgin Media's free Catch Up TV service, joining the pick of the last week's best television from the BBC, Channel 4, E4, More4, Bravo, Living and Virgin1."

Back in January, when the deal was announced, ITV's Director of Online Ben McOwen Wilson said: Ben McOwen Wilson, Director of Online at ITV, said: "We are thrilled to be announcing this deal with Virgin Media at a very exciting time for ITV.

"We know Virgin Media's customers consume a lot of content on demand, and we are confident that with the massive appetite and growth of on demand content across our online sites during 2008 this deal will allow a new wave of viewers to enjoy our content; in a time when the way our audiences watch TV continues to transform."

The deal will see 500 hours of ITV content made available per year in Virgin Media's TV Choice on-demand service.

Virgin and ITV also talked of an online service for the former's subscribers, but the company confirmed to TechRadar that there is not yet any firm date or details on this.