STV Player launching UK-wide on Virgin Media
June 11, 2020
STV, the Scottish broadcaster, has agreed a deal with Virgin Media which will give its TV customers across the UK access to the STV Player.
The STV Player app and catch-up service was integrated into Virgin Media’s STBs for viewers in Scotland in December 2018. This new deal ensures that STV content can now be accessed throughout the UK, considerably extending the reach of the Player. The expanded roll out to England, Wales and Northern Ireland will take place this summer.
Virgin Media is the third connected TV platform the Player is automatically installed on outside of Scotland. Due to licensing agreements, STV can only broadcast its Channel 3 Network schedule in its broadcast regions in Scotland. However, over the last 18 months STV has been building up a catalogue of UK-wide licensed content on the STV Player and this, alongside a range of STV’s own productions, is now available across the rest of the UK on Virgin, YouView and Freesat – with more platforms to follow.
Richard Williams, STV’s Managing Director, Digital, said: “We’re delighted to be working closely with Virgin Media in bringing our ever-increasing Player content offering to more households across the UK. We see significant scope for future digital growth from both our core audience and new audiences, and partnerships such as these are key to delivering such progress.”
David Bouchier, Chief Digital Entertainment Officer at Virgin Media, added: “STV has a diverse range of programming so it’s great news that all of our customers across the UK can now access its content.”