Published on the 01/07/2015 | Written by Donovan Jackson
The dreaded ‘N’ word wasn’t mentioned at the launch of Freeview Plus in Auckland this morning, but its presence was certainly felt in the room…
Freeview Plus combines broadcast television with on demand shows, giving users the ability to choose how and when they want to consume their television. As implied, accessing the service depends on a UHF aerial for the broadcast component and an internet connection for the streaming part.
New smart TVs will have Freeview Plus built in, continuing the broadcaster’s tradition of working with television vendors; a new Freeview Plus box will get everyone else who wants the service on board.
Introducing the new service, Maori TV CEO Paora Maxwell said the intention is to allow Freeview viewers to engage with content in more meaningful ways, anywhere, anytime. “This has been a long time coming, with a few hiccups on the way.”
That’s not surprising, as the combination of broadcast with on-demand isn’t a simple matter; Freeview’s execs said they had noted that in a short timeframe, user behaviour has changed with more viewers wanting on demand television combined with simpler access. “Doing simple is really difficult; fast and easy to use is the ultimate for user experience,” said Sam Irvine, Freeview GM.
In a demonstration of the interface, the Freeview Plus system did appear easy to navigate, offering the ability to switch between on demand and broadcast, with access to back catalogues of local and international content. Typical ‘PVR’ type functions are included and, at the risk of opprobrium for mentioning a competitor, TVNZ CIO Tom Cotter said the intention with the new service is to make it ‘Like a MySky in the cloud’. In that vein, FreeviewPlus allows an eight day ‘catch-up’ to access content on demand from an onscreen guide.
The investment which has gone into the service remains under wraps; TVNZ CEO Kevin Kenrick said that information is commercially sensitive, but that ‘there are two commas in the number’.
It’s hard to avoid the position that Freeview Plus is in response to the Netflix effect; recently, telecoms analyst Paul Budde outlined the scope of the challenge for broadcasters in a blog. While he is discussing the Australian market, his views hold currency on this side of the Tasman, too, as Netflix gains traction.
“…While we still might have another decade of broadcasting as we know it today, changes – coming in from the outside – are well and truly underway, driven by streaming video services such as Netflix – a stunning 32% of the global population is now using this service, within two months after [] launch in Australia over one million people had registered with the service,” Budde wrote.
He does offer a lifeline for broadcasters: “An important subset of the new video streaming services is TV catch-up, and although the content for these services is still provided by the broadcaster it is no longer delivered in the traditional broadcasting format; and, given the globalisation and commoditisation of content, the supply of content will increasingly be carried out by others.”
Freeview Plus is addressing this particular component of broadcasting and – as mentioned by Cotter – it equips domestic broadcasters to compete on the strength of local content. International content, of course, is commoditised through Netflix and its domestic streaming competitors which include Lightbox, Neon and Quickflix.
A demo of Freeview Plus is available. Visit www.freeviewnz.tv/ for more.
