Like most broadcaster VOD services ITV.com has experienced a surge in usage over the past couple of years. As I wrote last quarter, the numbers are impressive: online revenues are up 21% from 2010, monthly unique users are up 15% year-on-year and, headline figure, 376 million long form videos were viewed across ITV.com and its catch-up services on BT Vision and Virgin Media in 2011.

Robin Pembrooke, Managing Director of ITV.com, joined the company in November 2010 and I spoke to him last week about his team's achievements, trialling micropayments and challenges for the year ahead. 

KAUSER KANJI: Hi Robin, so what stage was ITV at in terms of VOD services when you joined the company back in 2010?

ROBIN PEMBROOKE: Some of the challenges we've had in the past - and they've been similar to other broadcasters - is the sheer complexity and pace of change in terms of the number of platforms that we were trying to get ITV out onto. One of the early things that we established was to improve the quality and to increase the distribution of the ITV Player and that very clear objective reflects in some of the problems we had. For example, we didn't feel that we were on the right platforms; we didn't have a mobile or connected TV presence, and we also continued to experience quality issues. So the big focus for us over the last year has been fundamentally to get the Player to work and then to get it on to the highest number of platforms.

KANJI: And which are those platforms?

"We accept that the experience of ITV Player, while it's better than it was, needs more work and we're continuing - with every release on every platform - to improve that experience and it make it more coherent across the platform range."

PEMBROOKE: As well as PCs and Macs the fastest-growing platform for us over the past 12 months has been mobile and particularly iOS. In addition we've launched out on FreeSat, PS3 and, coming soon, YouView.

KANJI: And so what's been your contribution to this growth? I mean, ITV Player has been doing pretty well over the past 18 months.

PEMBROOKE: Well, we've tried to make sure that we had the right resources focused on it. We've established a user experience and design function across the business. So, in the past, there wasn't always necessarily a very structured approach to product management and we've formalised some of those processes. We accept that the experience of ITV Player, while it's better than it was, needs more work and we're continuing - with every release on every platform - to improve that experience and it make it more coherent across the platform range.

KANJI: And talking of user experience and UI (user interfaces), how did you come to adopt the ITV Player UI that's currently in use on the iPad?

PEMBROOKE: We have an internal user experience team and we have two agencies: Candyspace help us with mobile and Ostmodern work with us on the PC player. The experience you see on iOS is going to be replicated across connected TV in the coming months.

KANJI: And you've just upgraded the iOS Player app haven't you to include live as well as catch-up content [ITV's previous version had only catch-up content]?

"...the mobile version includes live simulcast for the first time - which is available on 3G as well as Wi-Fi - and we're also introducing the ability for people to browse around for the content they want while they're already watching a show.

PEMBROOKE: Yes, it was released last week and we think it's really important to continue to enhance that experience. So, the mobile version includes live simulcast for the first time - which is available on 3G as well as Wi-Fi - and we're also introducing the ability for people to browse around for the content they want while they're already watching a show.

KANJI: Robin, one of the hot topics that the industry is talking about is ITV's experiment with micropayments which I believe you're launching later in the year -

PEMBROOKE: Yes -

KANJI: Is that something that you can talk about?

PEMBROOKE: Well, we're continually flattered by everyone's interest in our plans in this area! So, we do have our solution in development and it's now in closed trials. As we've said before, we're looking forward to trying out different commercial models with our content during the course of the year.

KANJI: I guess it's like when The Times was launching its paywall and the rest of the newspaper industry was keen to see how it would do -

PEMBROOKE: Yes -

"We're looking to trial and understand what content - and what bundles of content - people are happy to pay for. Our plans mean that we'll be experimenting with a variety of different options."

KANJI: I was talking to Sarah Milton [Head of VOD] at 4oD the other day and she was saying that when 4oD first launched it was primarily pay-content and that the market wasn't necessarily ready for it at the point because Channel 4 was the first terrestrial broadcaster VOD service in the UK. But now things seem to have come full circle because consumers do seem to be ready to pay for content - they pay for apps and services on their mobile phones for instance. Is that your reading of the market too?

PEMBROOKE: We've consistently said that we're looking to experiment with different models. We are, at heart, a free-to-air business and we have a very fast-growing, free ITV Player experience which is a business model which we're committed to growing and improving. We're looking to trial and understand what content - and what bundles of content - people are happy to pay for. Our plans mean that we'll be experimenting with a variety of different options.

KANJI: Ok, so aside from micropayments then, what are the other challenges that ITV faces over the next 12 months?

PEMBROOKE: A big challenge remains the ever-growing number of devices on which it's possible to consume on-demand content. And at the moment the way in which the market is sitting is not dissimilar to where the mobile market was 8-10 years where, as a content provider, if you wanted to get your content onto a mobile phone you had to build a customer application and do direct distribution deals with networks or handset manufacturers. The challenge for us is the degree of complexity involved in supporting so many different ITV Player experiences at the same time. The key challenge is how to get ITV content out on to as many devices as possible using the same underlying applications in a way that is scalable and affordable as a broadcaster but also in a way that provides a high quality and engaging experience for users. We've got to identify what are the technical standards around metadata, streaming and DRM that will allow us to offer a sustainable and scalable set of products in what is going to be a rapidly-growing market over the next few years.

Our thinking is about coherence of user experience and technical architecture.

KANJI: So, last question: what's your proudest achievement since you joined ITV?

PEMBROOKE: One of the things I'm proudest about is that we have 60% more time spent on ITV Player than this time last year. The second is that we've had over 4m downloads of the ITV Player on mobile devices.