Product Feature
January 15, 2025
Just in time for the festive season, Virgin Media Play is bringing Xmas holiday magic to screens this season with the launch of its brand-new Christmas channel, powered by Simplestream’s award-winning Channel Studio. This dedicated channel offers non-stop festive programming that provides Virgin Media Play viewers across Ireland with a seamless holiday experience, on demand.
From Xmas concept to reality...
Simplestream’s Channel Studio is the engine powering Virgin Media Play’s ability to quickly and efficiently launch this seasonal channel, capturing audiences as they prepare for a season of holiday classics and festive favorites. With Channel Studio’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface, Virgin Media’s content teams could effortlessly curate a mix of Christmas movies and seasonal family specials. Furthermore, Channel Studio enabled seamless integration of sponsored content within the Virgin Media Play Christmas channel, allowing Virgin Media Television to effectively promote the services of its partners and drive user engagement with their offerings.
The result? A thoughtful and engaging lineup of holiday programming, perfectly timed to go live just as the Christmas season begins and viewers relax at home, ready to curl up on the sofa with their favourite films.
Delivering holiday cheer across all devices
Once the holiday content lineup was set, Channel Studio made streaming seamless across any device, delivering a high-quality, consistent viewing experience bringing the festive spirit right to audiences, whether on a smartphone, tablet, desktop, or TV. With Virgin Media Play’s Christmas channel, holiday films such as ‘It’s a Christmas Thing’ (2023) and ‘Destination Christmas’ (2022) are just a click away, making seasonal viewing accessible to everyone, anywhere, any time.
How did Simplestream’s Channel Studio help Virgin Media Television launch their Christmas channel?
- Thematic Channel creation made easy: In short, Channel Studio enabled the Virgin Media Play Television team to effortlessly transform their existing VOD assets into a festive Christmas-themed channel. By allowing the team to schedule and customise content, Virgin Media Television was able to repackage their library into a dynamic seasonal offering.
- Full control over EPGs: This allowed Virgin Media to build custom playlists and sub-playlists, with full control over the EPG’s metadata, including title, description, and image. This flexibility enabled the team to curate a tailored and engaging viewer experience that perfectly aligned with their seasonal theme.
- A drag-and-drop back-end interface: The simplicity of Channel Studio enabled the Virgin Media Television team to quickly create daily programming blocks with minimal learning curve. The drag-and-drop functionality allowed each segment to appear as a single programme in the EPG, streamlining the process for quicker content curation and scheduling. This flexibility ultimately led to seamless programming that could be easily adjusted at any time, ensuring a dynamic and efficient seasonal channel setup.
Ashley Horne, Technical Director at Simplestream said:
"We’re thrilled to support Virgin Media Play in delivering this Christmas-themed virtual channel, offering a fresh and festive experience for Irish viewers. This launch showcases the flexibility and power of our Channel Studio technology and how it enables major content providers like, Virgin Media Television, to create seasonal channels in record timing and to realise the full value of their content libraries."
Want to learn more about Simplestream’s partnership with Virgin Media Television?
Click here to dive into the full client story.
