Virgin Media Launches Online Rentals

Virgin Media have announced they will be entering the online film rental market offering a online streaming service for £3.99 per new release.

Virgin will be stepping into a highly competitive online market which is currently dominated by DVD rental giants such as LoveFilm and established online media retailers like iTunes.

The service which was launched on the 26th of April will boast a large number of new releasers including 'District 9', 'Fantastic Mr Fox' and 'Twilight: New Moon'.

Films will be available to everyone, not just existing Virgin Media customers.

As is standard for most online rentals the film will be available for 30 days after renting the film but after pressing play the film will only last for 48 hours before it's returned to the digital drop off box.

The Future for Virgin

Alex Green, executive director, commercial, TV and online at Virgin Media commented on the launch suggesting that the company is looking to enable downloading of films as well as offering a high definition service.

Virgin will be facing stiff competition from iTunes which has been offering films to rent and download for a while now, Google owned YouTube have also been trailing video rentals in the US.

It is predicted that online rental and streaming will become the future for film rental with a number of Internet service providers including BT and MSN UK also offering a similar service to Virgin.

With many companies are looking to make the high street video store redundant does Virgin's £3.99 per film represent good value for money?

£3.99 - that's a bit steep!

£3.99 may seem a lot even considering that this is a relatively new service offering consumers the ability to get hold of a film when and wherever they like (well, as long as there's internet).

LoveFilm's streaming service is included with any unlimited rental package and there are also a number of films available to everyone for just £2.49 a pop.

Lovefilm unlimited dvd rental deals start at £9.99 a month. For that, film fans hold one disc at a time, rent an unlimited amount of DVDs per month and gain access to Lovefilm's nearly 4000 title strong streaming library.

Even with fairly conservative usage (say, 3 DVDs and 2 streamed films in a month), then, the Lovefilm service only costs £1.99 per film.

There's no doubt that Virgin have some stiff competition, then, but they have every chance of doing well if they get the basics right - a large film library which is easily accessible and someone on hand to help if things go wrong.

Other companies have failed to deliver in the past but with the huge Virgin brand behind it, it's hard to believe that this online streaming service will sink without a trace.

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