Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED) is taking its cue straight from Orange France’s playbook by signing a content deal with Disney (NYSE: DIS) covering digital TV, online and mobile broadcasting. In the first deal of its kind for VMED, and one it has been working on for some weeks, customers will soon be able to watch the recently launched Disney XD kids’ channel and a collection of other Disney on-demand content on any platform.
Such deals are commonplace in France where Orange delivers genuine three screen subscription packages as standard and runs the watch-again service Rewind TV, which is available over PC, TV and mobile — at one point, Rewind viewers were watching some shows more often on mobile than via TV or online. An Orange France iPhone app provides live streaming of 60 channels.
This is only one deal that only covers one channel, but it’s a clear indication of what’s to come from VMED: it wants to position itself as the all-encompassing, in-home and out-of-home VOD and linear operator, setting up the possibility of cross-selling across all three media. A three-screen approach is also, along with VMED’s flashy broadband speeds of “up to” 50Mbps, a handy marketing tool to drive subscribers — new customer additions fell 18 percent year on year between April and June giving it a total of 668,500. Compare that to Orange’s 75 percent increased in bundled digital TV subscribers to 2.5 million in Q109.
The appetite for VOD is clearly there from VMED’s audience: 55 percent of them regularly watch on-demand content, amounting to 62 million monthly views in Q209. But it remains to be seen how many will migrate to mobile or PC viewing and abandon their TV armchairs.
Meanwhile, Virgin announces that it’s hired a new chief financial officer: Eamonn O’Hare gets the job after spending four years as UK finance director for Tesco.

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