1 June, 2009
UK premiere for jPod on Virgin Media TV on demand
jPod comes to British screens for the first time, exclusively with Virgin Media
Virgin Media Virgin Media today announced another ‘first’, as the entertainment company today premiered a brand new TV show in the UK on its pioneering TV on demand platform. Comedy-drama jPod, acquired from leading UK distributor Fireworks International, a ContentFilm Company, is based on the coming of age novel of the same name by Douglas Coupland and will be available for all Virgin Media TV Choice customers exclusively this summer in standard definition as well as crystal clear HD.
All thirteen episodes of jPod will be available in Virgin Media’s on demand library TV Choice for two months from 1st June, with the first four episodes also available in Virgin Central, the free on demand channel, throughout June. Virgin Central is available at no additional cost to all customers who subscribe to Virgin Media’s digital TV service.
The cult Canadian drama has never been shown in the UK before and explores the amusing and twisted lives of five co-workers at a massive video game company, ‘Neotronic Arts’. The protagonist Ethan, played by David Kopp who has appeared in such series as That Was Then, Glory Days and Stargate SG-1 and Blade, works with four colleagues in the company’s basement. The basement is affectionately referred to as ‘jPod’ due to each of the team’s surnames starting with ‘J’. The show also follows the amusing antics of Ethan’s parents, who appear middle class but dabble in bizarre activities ranging from love affairs to getting involved with biker gangs.
Katharine Burns Rivington, executive director of content acquisition at Virgin Media said “Premiering a show on our TV on demand service shows not only that Virgin Media is at the forefront of the digital TV revolution, but also demonstrates the growing importance of TV on demand as a viewing platform. With jPod, Virgin Media customers will be using on demand TV to view content for the first time, rather than using it to catch up with shows which have already been broadcast on linear channels. We hope that this is the first of many on demand premieres in the UK.”
The entire series will be available throughout June and July on TV Choice. TV Choice is available at no additional cost to subscribers of Virgin Media’s ‘XL’ TV package, or £7 a month for customers on the ‘M’ TV or ‘L’ TV packages.
For more information on Virgin Media products and services visit www.virginmedia.com.
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Media Contacts Karen Jason, 020 7299 5705, [email protected].
About Virgin Media
With almost 10 million customers, Virgin Media is the UK’s first quad-play provider of broadband, TV, phone and mobile.
The company is the largest residential broadband provider in the UK, using a unique fibre optic cable network to deliver next generation ultrafast internet access of up to 50Mb to just over half of all homes. Combined with a high speed ADSL service and mobile broadband products, Virgin Media is able to offer broadband internet access to virtually the entire country.
Virgin Media has the UK’s most advanced TV on demand service and is the only TV platform to carry BBC iPlayer. It is the second largest provider of pay TV, was the first to launch a high definition TV service and offers a high-specification, HD-ready V+ personal video recorder.
The company operates the most popular virtual mobile network in the UK which, when launched, was the world’s first such mobile phone service. It is also one of the largest fixed-line home phone providers in the country.
Virgin Media also owns Virgin Media Television (VMtv) which runs eight entertainment channels, including Virgin1, Living, Bravo and Challenge. VMtv is a 50 per cent joint partner with BBC Worldwide in UKTV, which consists of ten channels including Dave, G.O.L.D., Watch and Alibi.
With operations based entirely in the UK, Virgin Media Inc. is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market (VMED).
For more information, go to www.virginmedia.com.
