HomeInsightsIn the UK and elsewhere: A New Year roundup of recent TV platform activity

Here is an update of some of the key developments across the landscape towards the end of last year. In the UK… Sky Sports to launch on Now TV: Sky is rolling out Sky Sports to its internet TV service Now TV. The launch of Sky Sports will be followed by additional entertainment content and channels on the service including Sky 1, Sky Atlantic, Sky Arts, Living along with comedy, drama and US shows. Meanwhile Sky has also extended Now TV to streaming service Roku, letting owners of Roku boxes stream the content to their TV screens via their internet connection. This is all while Now TV continues its strategy to target the 13m UK homes that do not have a pay TV subscription.  Next step for Virgin TiVo, TV Anywhere companion app: The idea that consumers want to access more web and interactive content through a single coordinated platform access point is being pushed on the TiVo platform at Virgin Media. Now the company is offering customers a powerful companion app for the Apple iPad, called Virgin Media TV Anywhere, that acts as a rich extension to this television UI and includes streamed video. ITV slowly rolling towards paid VOD launch: ITV has soft-launched the online service it hopes will augment its traditional free-to-air model with direct digital viewer payments. The launch will plug new features into ITV Player, the existing online catch-up service which already gives access to shows from the last week. Looking for new revenue streams beyond advertising, ITV is in a tough spot trying to persuade people to pay for old shows, especially with the wealth of content on subscription will find services like Lovefilm and Netflix. And finally ….would you like extra cheese and a movie with your pizza sir? Domino’s Pizza serves up UK VoD:  Domino’s Pizza is moving into the video-on-demand space in the UK and Ireland through a partnership with film studio Lionsgate. The takeaway franchise will now allow customers in the UK to add film rentals to their order when they buy a Domino’s Pizza online and will also offer bundled pizza and movie meal deals. And elsewhere… Vimeo gets pay-per-view: Vimeo plans to open up its pay-per-view platform to long form content producers. It debuted the platform with six select movies to showcase some of its features, including flexible viewing windows and additional content not found elsewhere. Vimeo is similar to YouTube, but always focussed on more professional content.  It now joins YouTube in offering movies on a pay per view basis – see next item re YouTube’s expansion onto connected TV’s. YouTube movie rentals are coming to connected TVs: YouTube is launching VOD-style movie rentals on TVs and connected devices. The Google-owned video service will add a premium component to its TV application on various Smart TV platforms. To rival the other film services like iTunes (and VUDO/Amazon Prime in the US), YouTube continues to expand its content catalogue and cross platform/ device coverage. Fox set to acquire all of Hulu:  Fox is expected to acquire full ownership of online VoD video service Hulu via a buy out of its partners – NBC Universal and Disney. It is thought this could also lead to further international expansion for the streaming service, which is currently only available in North America and Japan, and allow Fox to optimise the opportunity for original programming. And if there weren’t enough choice already…. Toys ‘R’ Us moves into VoD: Retailer Toys ‘R’ Us has moved into movie and television streaming and downloads, with the launch of a new US service called Toys ‘R’ Us Movies. The digital store launched with more than 4,000 titles of kids-focused content from the likes of 20th Century Fox, NBCUniversal, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Starz Media, The Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros Entertainment. For more information, please contact David Deakin on david.deakin@wiggin.co.uk

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