QWERTY keyboard on the sofa? Not on Virgin Media's TiVo Watch

Ian Mecklenburgh (Director of Digital Entertainment at Virgin Media) spoke to Videonet about the PVR box the vast majority of us are still waiting for. Ian mentions that the dedicated broadband connection could be used to deliver the proposed local TV services, as well the confirmed use of extended IP-based VOD services above and beyond the existing VOD services such as BBC iPlayer:

"There is a massive advantage for cable when you see how we are segmenting the pipe. DSL offers a relatively small and hard to manage [Quality of Service] pipe. What we are offering through our fibre optic network is what I call real television."

As for the vast number of customers currently on Virgin's legacy TV platform, "As customers move onto the TiVo platform it will not be totally unfamiliar to them. It is a better version of what they have now."

Referring to the coming invasion of TiVo apps, Ian mentions that:

"We can introduce more services faster than we could have before. Part of it is opening it up for alternative content providers and application providers and service providers. We are starting by replicating what we have today but will build different options into it."

And when you finally get your TiVo installed, the technician will then show you how it works, because "More than anything else this is about television. It is not just about on-demand content or [Over-the-Top] streaming or YouTube. People buy a TV to watch television and it has to be a simple-to-use service. It has to provide a simple interface and we have spent a lot of time on that."

"This is about television services and managing that for people and about how many remote controls you want to end up with. I don’t want a QWERTY keyboard on the sofa.”

Read the full interview at Videonet.

"So, did you listen to what the nice technician told you about me? Did you?"