Virgin wants back into gaming

Sony’s Gamescom press conference ended with a flurry of announcements. Price cuts for PS3 and Vita. New PlayStation Plus offers. That all-important PS4 release date.
Almost lost amongst them was the news that Virgin Media will be the official Internet Service Provider for the next-generation console. For Virgin, it’s a major deal that connects them directly to gamers.
It follows in the wake of Virgin’s partnership with Ginx TV to create a video games channel, and the addition of a game trailers app and casual games portal to the TiVo set-top box.
The firm’s director of broadband Joe Lathan calls it “a great endorsement” but says it ties directly with a grander plan that Virgin Media has been working on this year. “We believe in digital and, within that, gaming in its widest sense is one of the key contributors. Gaming and its related industries are important markets for us to explore.”
Virgin has been actively aligning itself and its services closer with gamers in the last year. Getting Ginx TV is perhaps the most significant. Virgin and the online media outlet teamed up earlier this summer to broadcast Ginx content as a TV channel, flying in the face of multiple failed attempts by rivals at establishing a video games channel in the past.

“We’re the only provider to be offering a
channel with dedicated gaming content.
That’s part of our wider strategy to make
this sort of content available to people
that are already interested, but also
broadening that out to wider audiences
who may stumble upon it or be
recommended it by friends.”

Joe Lathan – director of broadband, Virgin

“We’re the only provider to be offering a channel with dedicated gaming content,” says Lathan. “That’s part of our wider strategy to make this sort of content available to people that are already interested, but also broadening that out to wider audiences who may stumble upon it or be recommended it by friends.”
Central to this strategy is TiVo, Virgin’s premium set-top box that recommends content to users based on other shows they have watched. Lathan believes this will be vital to helping gamers discover Ginx and other gaming content.
“If Ginx is Channel 317 but you don’t know it’s there, it’s quite hard to find, but TiVo helps you find the content you like and puts it all into one place for you,” he says. “So, using TiVo to help 1.5m customers find the content that they want, and having Ginx TV on the platform means gamers have a better chance of finding the content they’re interested in and that’s relevant to them.
“We can do that from our side, and Ginx will be looking at the content it is pushing to the channel so it can create shows that are as relevant as possible to the audience that they want to attract.”
TiVo will also point customers to the game trailers app, a constant stream of high-definition footage from upcoming games like Battlefield 4 and Metal Gear Solid V. It may seem an unusual feature to tuck away in a set-top box, particularly given that said trailers are already available online, but Virgin believes it offers publishers a better way to showcase their upcoming titles.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/virgi...gaming/0121738