Virgin Media has welcomed in the new Premier League season with the launch of an online football app. Sofa Stadium is designed to run alongside the action from televised games with match statistics, social networking and real-time voting.
Fans can see updates from Twitter and Facebook in real time and add their own comments.
The dual-screen application is available to anyone with an internet connection, though clearly designed to promote the availability of Sky Sports on the cablenet, the new season being the first under which Ofcom’s Wholesale Must Offer (WMO) rules apply. Although, unlike BT and Top Up TV Sky Sports was previously available to Virgin homes, the operator had said it lost money on every subscription sold.