UPC ups stakes in on-demand TV

UPC has unveiled its new on-demand My Prime entertainment platform. The new service replaces the company's existing on-demand offering and brings television series, boxsets and movies to customers of the company's Horizon product as part of their subscription.

It is available both on the set-top box and through mobile devices with UPC’s Horizon Go app. The latter is limited to two registered devices.

Ireland is the fifth country to launch the My Prime service. The Irish version of the service will have a mix of local content, including Love/Hate, Raw, The Guard, and international shows, such as Scandal and Agents of Shield. Customers can also pay to rent newly released movies.

As part of the new offering, the company has brought in RTE’s Dave Fanning to front an on-demand review show, looking at the content available on My Prime.

UPC launched its original on-demand service in 2012. Although it initially offered a range of box sets, it didn’t offer movies as part of the deal. It officially launched its out of home service, Horizon Go, in November last year.

The company’s head of commercial and products Bill Blake said more than 130,000 customers in Ireland are currently signed up to Horizon. They will receive My Prime free of charge, with customers on the older digital packages charged €5 per month to access the service.

Although My Prime is only getting its official launch this week, the service has actually been accessible to Horizon users for a number of days. Mr Blake said additional content was planned for the on-demand service in the coming weeks.