Virgin Media has announced that its catch-up television service TV on Demand has reached the 1 billion views milestone, with nearly 490 million hours of television watched in this way.
With the launch of the Virgin TiVo box last year, Virgin Media has managed to increase the number of people using its catch-up service by 14 per cent since 2010.
Virgin is putting this down to the innovations found in its set-top, including the likes of backwards EPG functionality and the amount of personalisation the TiVo service offers – that, and the addition of Sky Anytime on its platform.
Most watched
While its customers may be tech savvy having embraced on demand, their tastes leave a lot to be desired.
According to Virgin Media, the most watched boxset was emo snore-fest The Vampire Diaries.
They do earn some cool points for having Paul as their most-watched film of the year and good ol' Coronation Street topped the most-watched TV show for the second year running.
Cindy Rose, executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media explained about the numbers: "Essentially people are watching more TV; whether that's On Demand, suggestions recorded for them, or as a result of new and exciting interactive experiences.
"We know On Demand is incredibly popular as it's watched more than any channel except for BBC1 or ITV1 but we far surpassed our expectations in 2011.
"The TV world is changing, with TiVo's powerful functionality and ease of use giving people even more control over what they watch and when. The advocacy we're seeing from users is vociferous with over half telling us they're recommending the service to their friends and family."
