Eircom now renting movies

As Eircom becomes as much a media platform as a "pipes and wires" operator, it's latest move has been to transactional video-on-demand service.

Eircom says that its eVision On Demand has exceeded the company's expectations since its launch through working with US content provider Vubiquity.

"I can't give you an exact number, but I can tell you that we're above target," said eVision head Colum Ring. "We set a particular target; we had an estimate of the average number that we would rent in a particular month or a particular day. To be perfectly honest with you, day by day, we're above that."

Transactional video-on- demand allows eVision customers to rent movies for a set fee per movie. Vubiquity provides content for the service as well as content-processing and scheduling services. Gathering and managing content by itself would be a "significant overhead" for the company, according to Mr Ring. The provider maintains relationships with several major Hollywood and independent studios, said Adam Poulter, Vubiquity's executive vice president and managing director for EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Asia) and LATAM (Latin America).

“We are working hard to increase the size of the library for Eircom,” said Mr Poulter. “Alongside licensing new releases, we will help them build a catalogue of movies to suit all moods.”

eVision On Demand launched last month with a view to reaching 1,000 movies within six months. Currently the service has around 650 movies in its catalogue, said Mr Ring.

“We said at the beginning that we would go from 500 to a thousand in six months,” he said. “I think we’re ahead of that pace at the moment.”

Neither Eircom or Vubiquity could provide specific customer numbers for eVision On Demand.