Category Archive: Over-The-Top TV

News from the OTT TV industry

Announcing YouTube TV with membership at $35 a month

YouTube announced the release of their newest service, YouTube TV. It’s live TV designed for the YouTube generation—those who want to watch what they want, when they want, how they want, without commitments.

youtube-tv-logo

(From YouTube’s official blog)
What YouTube TV offers:

  • Live TV streaming from ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, ESPN, regional sports networks and dozens of popular cable networks. YouTube TV gives you the best of live TV, from must-see broadcast shows like “Empire,” “The Voice,” “The Big Bang Theory” and “Scandal,” to the live sports you want. YouTube TV includes major sports networks like ESPN and regional sports networks like Fox Sports Networks and Comcast SportsNet, so you can watch your favorite NBA or MLB teams. We’ve also partnered with local TV stations, so you’ll also get sports and local news based on where you live. And YouTube TV offers dozens of additional cable channels, so you won’t miss out on the latest news from MSNBC or Fox News, popular shows and movies from USA or FX, kids programming from the Disney Channel or Sprout, or reality TV from E! or Bravo. You can also add Showtime, or Fox Soccer Plus to your networks for an additional charge. In total, YouTube TV gives you access to more than 40 networks, listed below.
  • A cloud DVR, with no storage limits. With YouTube TV, you’ll be able to record live TV and never run out of storage. Your cloud DVR can record as many shows as you want, simultaneously, without using precious data or space on your phone and we’ll store each of your recordings for nine months.
  • A service that works great on all your screens. You can watch YouTube TV on any screen—mobile, tablet or computer—and you can easily stream to your TV with a Google Chromecast or Chromecast built-in TV. YouTube TV works on both Android and iOS. And your cloud DVR goes with you, so you can stream your recordings on any device, whenever and wherever you want.
  • YouTube Red Originals. With a YouTube TV membership, you can watch all of our YouTube Red Original series and movies right on the new YouTube TV app.
  • Six accounts, one price. Every YouTube TV membership comes with six accounts, each with its own unique recommendations and personal DVR with no storage limits. You can watch up to three concurrent streams at a time.
  • Half the cost of cable with zero commitments. A YouTube TV membership is only $35 a month and there are no commitments—you can cancel anytime.

YouTube TV will be available soon in the largest U.S. markets and will quickly expand to cover more cities across the country. Visit tv.youtube.com and sign up to find out when we’ll launch in your market.

Source: videomag.gr

Disney launching branded streaming media box

Disney is prepping the launch of the Disney Kids TV streaming box, a TV-connected device that will focus on family-friendly entertainment.

According to Tom’s Guide, the Kids TV box, which Disney last week demoed during CES, is built by Snakebyte and runs a modified Android OS. The device is due to be launched in 2017 and will be priced at $99. It will come with pre-loaded movies, TV shows and games from Disney, and will allow users to connect to SVODs, TV Everywhere apps and streaming music.

According to IGN, the box will be sold in the Disney Kids variant as well as a Frozen and Avengers themed box. In addition to the box, Disney will sell a branded game controller for the Kids TV.

The box supports 4K and 60 fps video and it features multiple USB ports and expandable memory.

disneybox

For Disney, the new streaming box comes about around one year after the company announced a different streaming box for its DisneyLife service in China. Unlike Disney’s new streaming box, which is shaped similarly to an Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV, the DisneyLife box was shaped like Mickey Mouse, and it only connected to DisneyLife’s subscription service, instead of multiple apps and services.

While Disney looks to enter the crowded streaming box market in the U.S.—at a $99 price point, which could make competing with $30 Roku boxes a challenge—the media giant is also moving ahead with plans to launch a standalone ESPN live streaming service.

Speaking last week at an investor conference, Disney CFO Christine McCarthy offered few details on the new ESPN direct-to-consumer product, but did promise it would launch in 2017 and that it would feature sports and sporting events that are not on ESPN’s linear networks.

 

Source: http://www.fiercecable.com/broadcasting/disney-launching-branded-streaming-media-box

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/snakebyte-streaming-box-ces,news-24229.html

 

Ericsson report: Mobile video viewing up over 200 hours a year since 2012

Ericsson launched the seventh edition of its annual ConsumerLab TV & Media Report, which details the enormous and rapid shift in TV and video viewing behavior towards mobility. The report also shows that while both mobile video and on-demand TV viewing have soared over the past seven years, content discovery remains a huge frustration for consumers.

Continued shift to mobile:

Average viewing times on mobile devices has grown by more than 200 hours a year since 2012, driving up overall TV and video viewing by an additional 1.5 hours a week. The surge in mobile viewing is offset with a decline in fixed screen viewing of 2.5 hours a week, however the appetite for TV and video is not waning.

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  • Weekly share of time spent watching TV and video on mobile devices has grown by 85 percent (2010-2016); on fixed screens it has gone down by 14 percent over the same period
  • 40 percent of consumers globally are ‘very interested’ in a mobile data plan that includes unrestricted video streaming
  • In the US, 20 percent of mobile viewing is paid-for content using services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime

Content discovery – how hard can it be?

A major issue, highlighted by the report, is low consumer satisfaction when trying to find something to watch. 44 percent of US consumers say they can’t find anything to watch on linear TV on a daily basis, an increase of 22 percent compared with last year (36 percent). In contrast, US consumers spend 45 percent more time choosing what to watch on VOD services than linear TV.

Paradoxically, 63 percent of consumers claim that they are very satisfied with content discovery when it comes to their VOD service, while only 51 percent say the same for linear TV. The findings suggest that although the VOD discovery process is more time consuming than with linear broadcast TV, consumers rate it as less frustrating, as it implicitly promises the opportunity to find something they want to watch, when they want to watch it.

Popularity of on-demand services soars:

The total viewing time of on-demand content – such as streamed TV series, movies and other TV programs – has increased 50 percent since 2010. Strong indicators of this growing engagement and satisfaction with VOD services include:

  • Consumers continue to embrace binge watching; 37 percent watch two or more episodes of the same show in a row on a weekly basis, more than a fifth say they do this daily
  • Consumer spending on VOD services in the US has increased by over 60 percent since 2012, from $13 to $20 per month
  • 40 percent of respondents say they watch YouTube daily; a substantial 10 percent of consumers say they watch YouTube for more than three hours a day

Zeynep Ahmet, Senior Advisor, Ericsson ConsumerLab says: “Based on our extensive research, we can see consumers increasingly ask for seamless access to high quality TV and video content, across services and devices. For consumers in general, and millennials in particular, being able to watch on the smartphone is key. Consumers not only want the shared, social broadcast TV experience, they also expect the flexibility of an à la carte on-demand media offering. Today’s experience is multifaceted and consumers want to create their own worlds of compelling, personalized content.”

READ THE FULL REPORT HERE:

Ericsson ConsumerLab TV & Media Report 2016 (HTML and PDF versions)

http://www.ericsson.com/ 
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Source: www.videomag.eu

@videomageu

Vimeo planning SVoD service

Online video platform Vimeo has confirmed plans to launch a subscription service.

“Vimeo has the once-in-a-generation opportunity to, following in Netflix’s footsteps, deliver compelling subscription viewing experiences for consumers in the market for pay TV,” said IAC CEO and interim Vimeo CEO Joey Levin in a letter to its investors. He continued, “I believe we can do so at a fraction of the cost of other major competitors by virtue of the audience and content benefits conferred upon Vimeo through our existing marketplace.”

Vimeo has stated that it plans on strategically funding content, but it also focuses its efforts and leverage on its community of filmmakers. The platform said it will also “spend on programming” from third parties.

The ultimate goal, Levin added, is for Vimeo to “drive millions of subscriptions and transactions for our creators while also growing a proprietary subscriber base with millions of consumers directly.”

Previously Vimeo has shunned ads and operated as a ‘software as a service’ business, offering three payment plans – Vimeo Plus, Vimeo PRO and Vimeo Business – for video creators, filmmakers, and businesses using the site.

Introducing a subscription offering would allow Vimeo to boost revenues while tapping into the site’s existing community and large archive of content.

http://www.vimeo.com

Source: http://advanced-television.com

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