ITV

Tag: now TV

  • Sky to launch advanced Now TV box developed by Roku

    Sky to launch advanced Now TV box developed by Roku

    MUMBAI: Sky’s online TV streaming service Now TV will be launching its most advanced TV box later this year. The new Now TV Smart Box will bring together Now TV’s wide range of pay TV content and over 60 live free-to-air channels.

     

    Now TV worked with Silicon Valley based Roku Inc. to develop the new Now TV Smart Box, which will sit alongside the existing Now TV Box. The pricing details and further information will be made available later in the year. 

     

    Additionally customers with a Now TV Box will see new a brand new interface (UI) roll out to their TVs from February. The new-look UI will include a number of new features including a content-rich homepage offering editorial recommendations of what to watch across catch up TV apps and pay TV content from Now TV. A new ‘Best of Catch Up’ section, curated by content partners, will also arrive showcasing all the best shows our customers may have missed in one place.

     

    Now TV director Gidon Katz said, “The launch of our new homepage on the Now TV Box will make it easier than ever for our customers to quickly find and watch their favourite shows. And when the new Now TV Smart Box arrives later this year, it will be the perfect one-stop box to get a contract-free, flexible way of watching the best of pay TV and free-to-air content all in one place.”

  • Sky to launch advanced Now TV box developed by Roku

    Sky to launch advanced Now TV box developed by Roku

    MUMBAI: Sky’s online TV streaming service Now TV will be launching its most advanced TV box later this year. The new Now TV Smart Box will bring together Now TV’s wide range of pay TV content and over 60 live free-to-air channels.

     

    Now TV worked with Silicon Valley based Roku Inc. to develop the new Now TV Smart Box, which will sit alongside the existing Now TV Box. The pricing details and further information will be made available later in the year. 

     

    Additionally customers with a Now TV Box will see new a brand new interface (UI) roll out to their TVs from February. The new-look UI will include a number of new features including a content-rich homepage offering editorial recommendations of what to watch across catch up TV apps and pay TV content from Now TV. A new ‘Best of Catch Up’ section, curated by content partners, will also arrive showcasing all the best shows our customers may have missed in one place.

     

    Now TV director Gidon Katz said, “The launch of our new homepage on the Now TV Box will make it easier than ever for our customers to quickly find and watch their favourite shows. And when the new Now TV Smart Box arrives later this year, it will be the perfect one-stop box to get a contract-free, flexible way of watching the best of pay TV and free-to-air content all in one place.”

  • Disney inks new multi-year deal with Sky

    Disney inks new multi-year deal with Sky

    MUMBAI: Extending its relationship spanning almost 25 years, UK pay TV operator Sky has inked a new multi-year movie and TV agreement with Disney.

     

    Sky Movies and NOW TV Sky Movies Pass customers will be able to watch new movies like Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur and Star Wars: The Force Awakens in the first pay TV window from around nine months after their release in cinemas.

     

    Additionally, Sky Movies subscribers can access the Disney channel and watch all the latest Disney, Pixar, Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm movies in HD, and in some cases, 3D. In addition, they will have access to Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney Junior TV channels through Sky’s subscription packages in both standard and high definition.

     

    As per the new agreement, customers will get more Disney Channels series through Catch Up TV and On Demand than now available, at no extra cost. Also included in this agreement are ABC Studios primetime drama and comedy series such as Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy andScrubs, available via ABC Studios on demand, through Sky Box Sets.

     

    Moreover, Sky Movies customers will be able to choose from a wide selection of classic Disney movies on demand in Sky’s library of more than 1,000 films including Frozen, Enchanted, Maleficent, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, as well as Disney Pixar hits such as Up,Monsters, Inc. and Toy Story. 

     

    Sky will be offering more flexibility for customers to watch where they want with Sky Go, the mobile TV service. The agreement means customers can access the Disney movies, channels and on demand content as part of their subscriptions on over 70 compatible devices including mobiles, tablets and games consoles. All new movie titles and a large selection of classic movie titles will also be available to buy and keep, or rent, via Sky Store.

     

    Sky MD content Gary Davey said, “Sky and Disney have been working together for almost 25 years. Our collaboration has continued to grow and the launch of the exclusive Sky Movies Disney channel two years ago has been a huge success. This new agreement means our customers can continue to enjoy the biggest blockbusters like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Inside Out before they are available on any other online subscription service. They also get access to a great portfolio of family channels and a growing on demand library of amazing shows and films which we know they love.”

     

    Disney EMEA SVP and general manager, media distribution Mark Endema?o added, “With our shared goal of bringing the highest quality, creative entertainment to audiences in the UK and Ireland in ever more flexible ways, we are extending our relationship with Sky to offer subscribers our movies, series, and our channels at home and on the go. Two years on from its launch, we are particularly proud of the shared success of Sky Movies Disney, and look forward to bringing more of our much-loved stories and characters to audiences in the UK & Ireland.”

  • MTV India hops on to Hong Kong’s now TV platform

    MTV India hops on to Hong Kong’s now TV platform

    MUMBAI: Starting June, youth entertainment channel MTV India has hopped on to now TV in Hong Kong. Now TV is one of the world’s largest commercial deployments of IPTV and Hong Kong’s largest pay TV provider. It offers a wide range of local and international content on its platform in Hong Kong.

     

    MTV India EVP and business head Aditya Swamy said, “It is extremely exciting for MTV India to enter Hong Kong with now TV. Being the universe of the young, we have never been boxed by geographical boundaries. Our service goes to over 35 countries, broadcasting a heady dose of our local pop culture.  The catchy Bollywood tunes, our original music productions and our super hit reality and drama series will entertain young people across varied cultural backgrounds bringing them together in their love for all things MTV.”

     

    IndiaCast group COO Gaurav Gandhi added, “With the launch of MTV India on now TV, we have further strengthened our relationship with the platform. Together, we look forward to providing the very best of South Asian Entertainment to the diaspora in Hong Kong. This launch increases MTV India’s international footprint to 50 countries as the channel continues to entertain global audiences through its unique offerings including original music programming, Bollywood music and successful fiction and non-fiction format shows targeted to the youth.”

     

    Pay TV PCCW’s executive vice Loke Kheng Tham said, “now TV is Hong Kong’s largest pay-TV provider, offering more than 190 top-class channels to our 1.2 million customers. Adding MTV India to our lineup further demonstrates now TV’s commitment to providing all customers with a wide range of program choices. Indians in Hong Kong can now watch their favorite shows exclusively on now TV as part of the Indian Pack.”

     

    Currently, MTV India is available in 49 countries including the US, Australia, New Zealand, UAE, Nigeria, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Singapore among others.

  • BSkyB posts record financial results

    BSkyB posts record financial results

    MUMBAI: Full-year operating profit at BSkyB reached a record ?1.3 billion ($2 billion), up nine per cent from a then-record of ?1.2 billion ($1.86 billion) in the prior fiscal year.

     

    Revenue for the year ended 30 June, 2013 rose seven per cent to ?7.2 billion ($11.08 billion). EBITDA was up eight per cent, at ?1.7 billion ($2.6 billion).

     

    The British pay-TV giant added 34,000 TV subscribers in the latest quarter, compared with 20,000 TV sub additions in the year-ago period. Existing customers upgraded to new services at a rapid rate. There was 170-per cent growth in internet-connected Sky+HD boxes, to 2.7 million; a 19-per cent increase in Sky Go users, to 3.3 million; a fivefold increase in On Demand downloads; and 200-per cent growth in Sky Store video rentals. BSkyB’s new NOW TV sports day pass had more than 50,000 individual users purchase a pass in the first three months.

     

    Looking ahead, BSkyB said it wants to extend leadership in core areas such as original British drama and sky sports, but also to accelerate the take-up and usage of new services, which this year saw a strong response from customers.

     

    BSkyB chief executive Jeremy Darroch commented, “We have had another very good year of growth, with revenues up seven per cent, operating profit up nine per cent and earnings per share up 18 per cent. The strength of our financial performance is a result of our successful transition to more broadly-based growth and sustained investment to create a better service and wider range of products for customers.”

     

    “On the back of this performance, we are increasing returns to shareholders with the ninth consecutive rise in the ordinary dividend and we intend to seek approval for a further ?500 million of share repurchases.”

     

    “Over the course of the year, we added more than three million new paid-for subscription products. We finished the year strongly with 11 per cent organic growth in product sales for the fourth quarter, reflecting good demand in all areas. It was a particularly significant quarter for home communications as good organic growth, combined with the consolidation of the consumer broadband and fixed-line telephony business acquired from O2, delivered well over a million product additions.”

     

    “In our television business, there has been an excellent response from customers to our new services. We’ve seen an explosion in on-demand and mobile viewing as more people connect their Sky boxes to broadband and watch TV on laptops and mobile devices with Sky Go. Sky Go Extra, our new subscription service, has already attracted more than 150,000 customers in just five months. Customers tell us they get huge value from these services. The benefits to our business are equally strong through take-up of higher-tier packages, expanded revenue opportunities and improved customer satisfaction. We see an exciting opportunity for future growth in this area and we intend to increase investment over the next year to accelerate growth and returns from these new services.”

     

    “We expect the consumer environment to remain challenging over the coming twelve months. Against that backdrop, we have a strong set of plans that will extend our leadership in core areas – on screen, in home communications and in front-line service delivery; accelerate growth in new services; and improve efficiency to build a bigger, more profitable business for shareholders.”

     

  • Sky strengthens movie offering with SPT deal

    Sky strengthens movie offering with SPT deal

    MUMBAI: UK pay TV service provider Sky has further strengthened its movie offering through a new deal with Sony Pictures Television (SPT) that will provide customers with access to movies like ‘Men in Black 3‘, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man‘ and ‘Django Unchained‘ before any other TV channel or subscription service.

    Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, Sky Movies will be the first subscription service in the UK and Ireland to screen new movies from Sony Pictures, including upcoming titles such as Smurfs 2, This is the End and After Earth. Sky Movies customers will be able to enjoy exclusive subscription access to Sony Pictures‘ new releases around six months after they have ended their run in cinemas. Once on Sky Movies, the titles will be exclusively available for at least a year.

    Alongside the new releases, Sky Movies customers will also get access to an extensive collection of classic films from the Sony Pictures library, including the first three Spiderman movies, The Da Vinci Code and Bad Santa, available on an exclusive basis while they are on the service.

    Continuing Sky‘s commitment to offer customers new ways of accessing Sky content, the full range of new and classic titles included in the agreement will be available to Now TV customers with a Sky Movies monthly pass. NOW TV, Sky‘s internet TV service, offers easy and flexible access to Sky Movies across many connected platforms and devices.

    All movies will be available on demand, on Sky Go, HD, and, where available, 3D, further enhancing the viewing experience and adding more value for Sky customers. For customers who want to take movies with them on the move, the films will also be available on Sky‘s new subscription service Sky Go Extra. For Â?5 a month, Sky Go Extra customers can download movies and entertainment shows to their smartphone, mobile tablet, laptop or MacBook.

    Alongside access to the first pay TV window titles, the two parties have also agreed a non-exclusive deal for pay-per-view movies, which will be available to Sky customers through Sky Movies Box Office and on demand through Sky Store. Through these services, all Sky customers can rent Sony Pictures titles, from the latest movies – many at the same time as they are available on DVD – through to an extensive library of classic films.

    Customers who subscribe to Sky Movies via Virgin Media, UPC and TalkTalk will also be able to enjoy the full range of subscription films from Sony Pictures.

    Sky Movies director Ian Lewis said, “We‘re delighted to have secured Sony Pictures content for our customers, further extending our leadership in movies. We are committed to providing our customers with the biggest and best movies, available to watch when and how they want. That‘s why Sky Movies customers enjoy access to the biggest movies first, in HD, on demand, on the go and in 3D. And with the launch of Sky Go Extra, they can now even download movies to their smartphones and tablets to watch offline.”

  • Now TV continues to extend reach with Roku launch

    Now TV continues to extend reach with Roku launch

    MUMBAI: Now TV, the internet TV service powered by UK pay TV service provider Sky, is now available on Roku streaming players.

    Now TV offers instant access to Sky Movies with no contract, set-up costs or installation. New customers can take advantage of a free 30 day trial of the service, plus also benefit from a three-month introductory offer of ?8.99 a month.

    Roku users will be able to find Now TV within the Roku Channel Store and once registered for Now TV online will be able to access the movies they choose instantly. Once they have connected their Roku box to their TV and home WiFi network, Now TV customers will be able to watch their favourite movies on their main TV, as well as continue to watch them out through their smartphone, tablet or laptop.

    Now TV is already available on PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, selected Android smartphones, and other connected devices.
    Now TV customers can enjoy blockbuster releases around six months after they have ended their run in cinemas. Each month, customers can enjoy access to up to 20 new premieres – at least 12 months before they become available on Netflix or LoveFilm Instant. Sky Movies is also offering exclusive access to the most successful movie franchise ever, with customers able to enjoy all the eight Harry Potter films on-demand throughout the Christmas holidays. Other top titles which customers can enjoy in the next few weeks include ‘In Time’, ‘Young Adult’, ‘Jack and Jill’ and ‘Contagion’.

    More Sky content will also be added to Now TV, with Sky Sports due to be introduced in the next few months. This will enable Now TV customers to enjoy live action from the Barclays Premier League, Uefa Champions League, England Test cricket, Heineken Cup rugby, ATP tennis, F1, Masters Golf and more. The introduction of Sky Sports will be followed on Now TV by must-see shows from Sky 1, Sky Atlantic, Sky Arts and Sky Living, including home-grown drama, original comedy and US shows.

    Roku streaming players are known for their low prices, ease of use and quality selection of entertainment. Now TV is available on compatible Roku LT and Roku 2 XS boxes. Both are available in the UK for suggested retail prices of ?49.99 and ?99.99 respectively.

    Both models feature more than 300 channels of streaming entertainment including on-demand films and programmes; live and on-demand sports from MLB.TV and Ultimate Fighting Championship organisation; music from Rdio; photos and videos from Facebook and Flickr; news and entertainment on WSJ Live from the Wall Street Journal; FoxNews.com and others from around the world – as well as casual games like Angry Birds.

    Now TV director Simon Creasey comments, “More and more consumers are demanding easy access to a greater choice of high-quality entertainment over internet-connected devices – and Now TV is here to meet that demand. Following today’s launch on Roku, our customers now have another way of streaming their favourite movies to their main TV screen, while at the same time can continue to enjoy access out and about via iPad and smartphones. At the same time as we’re rolling Now TV out to new platforms and devices, we’re also preparing to increase the range and choice of great Sky content that our customers can access.”

    Roku VP, GM Europe Clive Hudson said, “Now TV is a tremendous addition to the growing selection of entertainment available from Roku. Now TV is a really compelling content proposition for UK consumers who want to enjoy watching the latest movies from Sky, and with no long-term contract.”

  • BBC Entertainment enters Malaysia on Astro

    BBC Entertainment enters Malaysia on Astro

    MUMBAI: India may still remain a significant absentee but Malaysia has just been added to the list of countries beaming BBC Entertainment.

    An official communique announced the launch of BBC Entertainment on Malaysia’s dominant Astro direct-to-home (DTH) platform. The BBC-branded general entertainment channel reportedly started beaming on Astro (Channel 26) as of 28 December, 2006.

    BBC Entertainment’s line up of British shows include Doctor Who, Footballers’ Wives, Waking the Dead and comedies like Extras, Suburban Shootout and My Family.

    BBC Global Channels Asia, the part of BBC Worldwide that handles the roll-out of the Corporation’s recently relaunched package of international channels, first launched BBC Entertainment in Asia, replacing BBC Prime on StarHub in Singapore, UBC in Thailand, Skylife in South Korea and Now TV in Hong Kong on 8 October, 2006.

    “We are delighted to be part of the Astro platform and to be reaching new viewers in Malaysia,” Christine Leo-McKerrow, BBC’s SVP of global channels for Asia has been quoted as saying. “BBC Entertainment has had a great reception from both critics and viewers around the region, and we are sure viewers in Malaysia will respond in the same way.”

    The launches are part of a global rollout of four new TV channels that will include preschoolers’ channel CBeebies and BBC Knowledge and BBC Lifestyle. The plan is that all four channels will be broadcast across all media: linear TV, VoD, mobile and online.

    NO WORD STILL OF INDIA LAUNCH TIMELINES
    In India meanwhile, there is no official word yet on the launch status of BBC Entertainment, as too CBeebies, which according to the announcement made in early September, are the two channels that will be making their entry in the country in the first phase.

    Present indications though are that the BBC is looking at an April-May launch window. The man in charge of operations here is creative head content and production India Saul Nasse.

    The BBC is looking at further rollouts in Europe, Africa and the Middle East in the course of the year, replacing BBC Prime in these markets.