Neil Berkett, CEO of Virgin Media has been talking about the company's plans for super-fast broadband and digital TV. The company is the UK's second largest pay digital TV provider and third largest broadband provider.
However Virgin Media is the UK's only sizeable fibre-optic broadband provider and fibre-optic broadband is what Mr Berkett and his team is looking to leverage.
Mr Berkett said the TiVo-powered PVR, set to replace V+, will unite broadcast and on-demand video (via fibre-optic broadband connectivity) for a superior experience.
Virgin Media offers up to 50Mbit/s super-fast fibre optic broadband and is trialing 200Mbit/s to customers in Kent (while BT is rolling out a fibre-optic broadband infrastructure for a 100Mbit/s network, although most customers will only get 40Mbit/s).
Virgin Media needs to move to parity with Sky in terms of content, said Mr Berkett, adding: "We will do that through applications (such as TiVo) as opposed to through exclusive content (such as football)."
The company can take on Sky with a combination of super-fast broadband and on-demand digital TV technology, he added.
Mr Berkett also said that financial improvements meaning the Virgin Media channels do not need to be sold and a chance that Virgin may keep its 50% stake in UKTV.
