Volo TV tunes in to overseas growth

By PETER RANSCOMBE
Published on 10/06/2012 00:00

OVERSEAS rail companies are being targeted by an Edinburgh-based firm that provides on-board television for passengers.

Volo TV, which has secured a six-figure banking deal, already supplies screens on high-speed First Great Western services between London and Penzance and on Western Australia’s Public Transport Authority routes from Perth to Kalgoorlie, where journeys take more than six hours.

Passengers in the south-west of England can watch episodes from 83 programmes – including Glee and Peppa Pig – in the trains’ “entertainment carriages”, while Australian travellers are offered similar services. Volo is now preparing for further overseas work after a sealing a deal to gain international banking facilities from Clydesdale Bank as part of the lender’s “investing for growth” strategy.

Ian Wright, marketing director at Volo, said: “Over the past few years our business has gone from strength to strength – particularly after we broke into the Australian market last year.”

At the start of the month, the firm switched from charging passengers for its services to offering the programmes for free. The company will now make its money through sponsoring and showing advertisements instead.

Wright added: “We have spent a great deal of time reviewing our business model and feel that now is a good time to change the way we generate our income.”

Wright said the company is also working on other forms of entertainment, such as audio books and Welsh-language programmes.