Tribune Media Services (TMS) announced today at CES that TMS entertainment metadata will be used for Virgin Media TV, a next-generation entertainment platform using TiVo technologies that is being launched by the U.K.'s largest cable operator, Virgin Media.
Virgin Media TV is powered by TiVo and features an advanced user interface enabling viewers to combine the live TV schedule with catch-up TV, a huge library of on-demand programming and popular web-based applications alongside a market-leading personal video recorder.
"For the first time, UK viewers are enjoying a truly personalized viewing experience and getting the most out of great online, on demand and live TV content, all in one place," noted Ian Mecklenburgh, director of consumer platforms, at Virgin Media in a statement. "We're really excited to bring our customers what is just the first of successive generations of transformational digital entertainment services and our agreement with TMS will help them find exactly what they want and discover even more."
TMS will provide Virgin Media with rich, deep and robust entertainment content including linear TV schedules, program and video-on-demand metadata, celebrity metadata and images. The agreement also includes TMS TV Showcards which offer show synopses, logos, cast ensemble and cast-in-character photos plus award histories. TMS Unique IDs serve as the data taxonomy which ties all the information together, making it possible to easily search and discover related content across all programming sources and consumer devices.
"We are very excited to support the launch of the innovative user experience to be offered by Virgin Media," said Ken Carter, TMS vice president and managing director, international said in a statement. "They appreciate that to provide the ultimate entertainment search and discovery experience, quality entertainment metadata and images are essential. This is an important validation of TMS' continued expansion into international markets."
