Pluto TV adds VOD to the mix
Michelle Clancy
| 17 May 2017

Millennial-focused over-the-top (OTT) company Pluto TV has launched a free video-on-demand (VOD) offering adding to the OTT service’s 100-plus curated television channels.

pluto tv 17 May 2017Premium content providers such as Lionsgate, MGM, Warner Bros, CNBC, Great Big Story, Hearst Entertainment, Al Jazeera Entertainment, The Orchard, Defy Media, Machinima, Studio71, Tastemade, and others will power the offering. These are in addition to content deals already in place with providers including Paramount Pictures, Fremantle, Endemol Shine International, Yahoo!, CNBC, Cheddar and Mashable.

The offerings mainly comprise library content such as films and TV shows, including Silence of the Lambs, the Usual Suspects, Species 1, 2, and 3 and Vanilla Sky, as well as complete TV series like ALF, the Ben Stiller Show, Fear Factor, American Hoggers, I Love New York, The Dead Zone, Paranormal State and Super Fun Night.

“We are always striving to deliver the best curated entertainment offerings to our viewers,” said Tom Ryan, CEO of Pluto TV. “Over six million viewers enjoy our lean-back offering of more than 100 live, interest-based channels. We're excited to give them even more ways to enjoy the content they love, and now they can pick specific movies and TV shows to watch on demand. Both options are curated and completely free.”

Pluto TV can be accessed in the living room (Amazon's Fire TV, Roku, Android TV, Chromecast, smart TVs including Vizio, Hisense and Sony, and gaming consoles such as PS4), on the go (apps for iOS, Android, and Amazon) or on the Web at www.Pluto.TV.

YouTube TV beefs up cable package
Michelle Clancy
| 17 May 2017
Responding to the cut-throat competition in the online video and SVOD spaces, YouTube TV has added seven new live cable networks to its basic $35 package.

youtube tv 17 may 2017The offerings include AMC Networks’ AMC and IFC, BBC America, NBC Universal’s Telmundo and Universo, Sundance TV and We TV.

With the additions, the service’s basic package includes 46 channels plus YouTube Red Originals.

YouTube TV also offers add-on networks Showtime and Fox Soccer Plus for $11 and $15, respectively, per month.

EPIX sets premiere date for Get Shorty
Michelle Clancy
| 17 May 2017

Premium cable network EPIX has set 13 August as the premiere date for its original series Get Shorty.

Get Shorty 17 May 2017The ten-episode dark comedy from MGM Television, based in part on the 1990 best-selling novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard, follows Miles Daly, a hitman from Nevada who tries to become a movie producer in Hollywood.

There, he meets Rick Moreweather, a washed-up producer of low-quality films who is desperately hanging on to the rungs of Hollywood relevancy and begrudgingly becomes Miles’ partner and guide through the maze of show business. Along with his criminal associate Louis, Miles attempts to keep his worlds from colliding as he balances the demands of filmmaking while keeping the suspicions of the crime ring’s chief – and production bankroll – at bay.

Get Shorty is the third original series premiere for EPIX, joining its drama Berlin Station and comedy Graves. Both series are slated to return for second seasons in 2017.

4K, VR added as BT repeats Champions League, Europa League final offer
Editor
| 17 May 2017

Following on from a similar packaging last year, BT is to make the UEFA Champions League and Europa League finals available for free to as many people as possible, on YouTube, the BT website, BT Sport channels and its app.

BT sport 21 Jan 2017The UK pay-TV provider says the move underlines it commitment to make televised football more accessible to fans, but more sceptical voices believe that the move is designed to buttress what they say have been to date underperforming viewing figures.

For the first time, the Champions League final will be available on the BT platform in 4K/Ultra HD on YouTube as well as in UHD with Dolby Atmos sound on its core BT TV IPTV offer. In another first, the Champions League final will also be available through a number of 360° streams on YouTube and the new BT Sport Virtual Reality App, allowing viewers to choose between a 360°-produced programme with commentary and graphics, or select their own camera viewpoint.

The finals will kick off this year on 24 May with Manchester United hoping to find some solace after a hugely disappointing league season by beating an exciting Ajax in the Europa League final, while two weeks later Cardiff’s National Stadium of Wales will host the clash between heavyweights Real Madrid and Juventus.

“Making the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League available for free to everyone in the UK shows that BT really is serious about making sport much more accessible to the public,” said John Petter, CEO BT Consumer. “These are two of the biggest club football tournaments in the world and showing them live on social media and on mobile devices makes it more readily available to a younger audience as well as available to traditional TV viewers. We believe that VR can offer our viewers an immersive second screen view which will enhance our coverage. We’re excited to be broadcasting what we believe to be the biggest multi-camera live 360° sporting event ever for the first time to our customers.”

YouTube’s senior director in EMEA, Stephen Nuttall, added: “Our users love football, so we're seriously excited to bring BT Sport’s ground-breaking coverage of these two massive games LIVE on YouTube, for a second year running. Fans today expect quality content on every screen and this partnership delivers just that. People can enjoy it wherever they are, on any screen and experience new ways of watching the beautiful game.”

US pay-TV subs decline by more than 800,000 in Q1 2017
Joseph O'Halloran
| 17 May 2017

Comcast 12 May 2017A pick up in speed in traditional multi-channel defections is being cited by research firm Kagan as the prime reason for an estimated loss of 802,000 subscriptions in the first quarter of 2017.

Worryingly, the company’s First Quarter US Multichannel Subscriber Report calculated that this represented a 0.8% decline in what has historically been a strong first three months of the year.

Key drivers of the drop were found to include the impact of new streaming options which, said Kagan, suggests an important component of the loss comes from a shift in platforms within the familiar subscription construct rather than outright cord-cutting. The estimated total of traditional multi-channel subscriptions fell to 97.0 million in the first quarter. Adding estimated subscribers from virtual services including Sling TV, DirecTV Now and PlayStation Vue, brought the combined total subscriptions to a package of live linear channels and on-demand content to 99.2 million.

Assessing how individual platforms performed, Kagan found that cable operators posted their worst first-quarter performance since 2013, losing 188,000 total video customers. Yet this was a smaller loss than posted by direct broadcast satellite (DBS) and telecommunications (telco) competitors.

After full-year gains in 2016, the DBS segment stumbled in Q1. Those that launched virtual service provider (VSP) alternatives lost a combined 291,000 subscribers in the quarter. Due to prominent retreats from the multichannel business by leading players, the telco sector lost 324,000 subscribers in the first three months of the year.

YuppTV offers global subscribers new-release movies on-demand
Rebecca Hawkes
| 15 May 2017

YuppTV has added a new platform called Mini Theatre to its South Asian video streaming service, featuring movies currently on theatrical release.

YuppTV logo 15 May 2017The Mini Theatre platform will offer subscribers films that have just been released in India, either on the day of release or the week following their arrival in cinemas. The platform is compatible with users of Samsung and Apple devices, as well as Roku, LG, and Sony TV interfaces.

“At YuppTV, we have a great opportunity of bringing best quality South-Asian content to our users across the Globe. Launching Mini Theatre is another step in the same direction. The release of various Indian movies is often limited only to very few selected geographies across the world and sometimes limited only to the Indian subcontinent. Hence, users end up missing out on these high quality and entertaining movies missing a worldwide release,” said Uday Reddy, founder and CEO, Yupp TV .

“Following the launch of Mini Theatre, our users outside of India will have the opportunity to access new Indian movie releases, just like they used to, back at home in India. Furthermore, filmmakers may now showcase their movies to a global audience, notwithstanding exorbitant investment for an overseas release. Since the launch is slated to benefit every stakeholder in the ecosystem, we look forward to receiving a huge response from both, expat audiences and filmmakers.”

In order to combat content pirates, YuppTV ensures users accept the piracy agreement conditions prior to accessing a movie. The title will then be made available on a pay-per-view basis with a six hour viewing window.

The films are secured with DRM, invisible user based or forensic watermarking and encryption, and users are authenticated by mobile and location verification. Under the invisible or forensic watermarking technology, each viewer will have unique identification.

“It is an imperceptible and non-removable unique identifier that is embedded in the video, enabling YuppTV to trace any content breach. The pirate, if in case found guilty of breaching the privacy guidelines, will be charged with a heavy penalty,” the over-the-top (OTT) video company said in a statement.