Virgin Media TV customers say ‘hayu’ to SVOD

NBCUniversal International (NBCUI) and Virgin Media today announce a ground-breaking partnership with the launch of hayu to Virgin Media customers.

hayu is the new subscription on-demand service from NBCUniversal for reality TV fans,  launched in March in the UK for a monthly fee of £3.99.  For the first time, from 7 April 2016 Virgin TV XL TiVo®customers’ subscriptions will include hayu at no extra cost and will be available on Virgin TiVo through an all-new app.  Later in the year, hayu will also be available to purchase by other Virgin Media TV customers.

With 3,000 episodes available at launch, hayu is the only go-to multiscreen source for top on-demand reality content, with over 500 new episodes added every year. Shows include Keeping Up with the Kardashians and its spin-offs along with The Real Housewives, Million Dollar Listing and Top Cheffranchises, I Am Cait, Vanderpump Rules, Flipping Out, Shahs of Sunset and The Millionaire Matchmaker – among many others.  And better still, the majority of shows debut on the same day as their US launch.

Beyond the TiVo experience, Virgin Media XL customers will also have access to the hayu iOS and Android apps, as well as the hayu website, allowing for a fully immersive reality hit on the go.

hayu’s newly developed interface includes not only full episodes of fans’ favourite reality series but much more – shareable content and social media are at the heart of the service. Through the hayu mobile app, news feeds from multiple sources featuring the latest celebrity news and gossip are central to the user experience.  Specially made short-form snippets featuring the shows are available to share directly via fans’ social media accounts and the social media accounts of hundreds of reality’s hottest stars sit alongside programmes to give viewers the opportunity to share their own comments and engage with fellow reality fans.

David Bouchier, Chief Digital Entertainment Officer, Virgin Media said: “Our partnership with hayu brings our customers the biggest and best in reality programming across every screen at no extra cost.  With more than 3,000 episodes of the world’s most popular reality shows available on TiVo and through multiscreen apps, our customers can indulge their passion wherever they are with a new way of enjoying great TV – integrating social media and immersive TV shows into a single service making it the perfect fit for reality TV fans.” 

Hendrik McDermott, SVP, Branded On-Demand, NBCUniversal said: “It is such an exciting milestone to team up with Virgin Media as our first ever TV platform partner, allowing hayu to reach an even wider audience of reality fans on the wide range of devices they use every day.  As partners, we are delighted to unveil a bespoke hayu TiVo app to provide Virgin customers with tailored access to this unique and immersive SVOD service.”

About hayu

• Top reality content from NBCUniversal available in one place – for the first time
• Over 3,000 episodes including Keeping Up with the Kardashians, The Real Housewives andThe Millionaire Matchmaker
• Majority of US shows will debut on the service the same day as their US launch
• 500+ episodes will be added to hayu each year
• Complete box sets allow fans to catch up on series from the very beginning
• Fans can now watch where and when they want on multiple devices, including mobile phone, tablet, laptop and connected TV
• Next-generation service is fully integrated with news feeds and social media – offering a breakthrough, shareable user-experience
• hayu will be available to Virgin TV XL TiVo customers through an all-new app from 7 April 2016 at no additional cost. Later in the year, hayu will be available to purchase by other Virgin Media TV customers for £3.99
• hayu will be available via TiVo in the apps section and via the Red Button on the hayu channel 210 on the EPG