It is understood that Channel 5 is in discussions with PlayStation in order to create a specific player for the PS3 console to allow PS3 owners to watch on-demand content from Channel 5.
When working with digital partners, Channel 5 retains the commercial power, selling all forms of advertising around its content which is delivered in a Demand Five branded portal.
PS3 users can currently catch up with Channel 5 programming through the PS3 browser, and 2% to 3% of Demand Five online viewing is through a PS3, but a specific player will vastly improve the user and advertiser experience.
. At the same time it was taken off the BT Vision platform.
Jonathan Lewis, head of digital at Channel 5, said it had already seen a huge spike in volume as a result of being moved onto the Virgin platform.
It is understood that commercial discussions are ongoing between Channel 5 and BT Vision and that the broadcaster hopes to return the service to BT Vision customers in due course.
On 1 November Channel 5 relaunched Demand Five, integrating Demand Five with the portal website five.tv for the first time and bringing long and short-form content together.
Lewis said: "Virgin is particularly important because of the number of homes it delivers. Obviously it is a different audience to the Sony Bravia, to SeeSaw or Facebook."
In July Channel 5 said it was planning to offer an iPhone app in the autumn at the same time as the launch of Demand Five. However, Lewis said the iPhone app has been put back to next year.
Channel 5 is also a partner in YouView, the internet TV consortium, alongside BT, ITV, Channel 4, the BBC, TalkTalk and Arqiva.
.jpg)
.jpg)