Microsoft is to launch its UK video-on-demand service today with hundreds of hours of programmes, including Skins, Kingdom, Faking It and Waterloo Road, and has promised that online high-definition viewing will follow.

The service, called MSN Video Player, has been in test phase since last summer with around 300 hours of shows from BBC Worldwide and the independent producer All3Media, including Peep Show, The Young Ones, Shameless and Midsomer Murders.

MSN Video Player, which was beaten to full public launch last month by its rival VoD service SeeSaw, has increased the number of hours of programming on offer to 1,000.

Microsoft has struck deals with Shed Media, the independent producer behind Supernanny and Waterloo Road; Wife Swap producer RDF Media; Digital Rights Group, which distributes shows such as Doc Martin and Kingdom; Endemol and Raw Cut.

All the content on the MSN Video Player is available free. SeeSaw intends to launch a paid-for version to add to its existing free content before the end of June.

Microsoft said it also intends to start making programmes and films available in high definition this year using its proprietary Silverlight technology.

The US software company is also using the launch as an opportunity to bring together its short-form video service, MSN Video, so web users can watch everything from full-length TV shows and films to trailers, news and clips.

Ashley Highfield, Microsoft UK’s managing director of consumer and online, would not reveal the number of users the service has attracted but said viewers are watching an average of 25 minutes of video content a month. In the first 11 days of the pilot launch, the service attracted 170,000 views of shows.

“That is significantly higher than ITV and Channel 4’s online TV services which suggests we are hitting the mark with our choice of content for the service,” Highfield added.

source: the gurdian