UK OTT platform TVPlayer will launch a subscription service this summer. TVPlayer Plus will enable live streaming of more than 25 channels including Discovery Channel, HISTORY, Lifetime, British Eurosport, Sony Movie Channel and Cartoon Network. TVPlayer Plus will be priced at £4.99 per month, and the current TVPlayer service will remain free of charge.
TVPlayer is already available on iOS, Android, Amazon Fire TV, Mac and PC. Additional devices available at the launch of TVPlayer Plus will include selected smart TVs, the Amazon Fire TV Stick and Google Chromecast, although UKTV channels will be limited to iOS, Android and PC. TVPlayer expects to announce its availability on additional internet-connected devices later in the year, including on a games console. An app for Windows Phone is also in development.
“TVPlayer has seen significant success to date with over half a million people now watching TV over-the-top each week on our service,” said Adam Smith, founder and CEO of Simplestream, the company behind TVPlayer. “Similar to what Netflix has done for movies and Spotify for music, TVPlayer Plus aims to offer a simplified viewing experience of traditional and premium television content; one which works with the devices you already have and lets you pause, modify or cancel your subscription whenever you like.”
In addition to live TV, TVPlayer Plus includes catch-up functionality from selected channels allowing both subscribers and non-subscribers to view selection of programmes from the previous seven days. Around 100 hours a week of catch-up will be initially available to TVPlayer Plus subscribers. In addition, the ‘plus one’ channels will be offered. TVPlayer Plus will launch with one channel pack, with multiple genre-based channel packs to be made available later in the year.
TVPlayer claims to be the first major OTT platform in the UK to combine an ad-supported basic pack with optional pay packs, with over 100 channels in total.
