NOW TV has been announced by BSkyB at the Media Guardian Changing Media Summit in London. This new service is set to deliver Sky content such as sport and movies to people over their broadband connections to a multitude of devices in an on-demand manner, and without the requirement for an ongoing monthly subscription.
"The launch of a second brand is an exciting opportunity for us and the rationale is very simple. Having two brands will allow us to meet the needs and preferences of different customer segments more effectively.
We’ll offer two distinctive ways to watch: the market-leading full Sky service for the whole family, complete with the widest range of channels, high quality products like Sky+, HD and Sky Go, and the peace of mind of a monthly bill; or the flexible, more spontaneous, pay-as-you-go service of NOW TV.
Because NOW TV will also be ‘powered by Sky’, customers will still know that it will give them the best, exclusive content and a high quality experience, from a provider they can trust. Either way, we believe we can offer even more customers a product that’s just right for them."Sky’s Chief Executive, Jeremy Darroch
The service is expected to launch in the summer of 2012, and be available on PCs, Macs, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, games consoles and connected TVs. The subscription option will put the service into competition with Netflix and LoveFilm, who at £5.99 and £4.99 a month will be difficult to beat price wise, where Sky has the advantage is the content deals with movie studios giving it the ability to stream movies well ahead of other services. The pay-as-you-view aspect will compete with on-demand online film rental services which charge between £3.49 and £4.49 for a 48 hour playback window, if Sky can undercut this then NOW TV may just compete with iTunes, Google Play and other rental services.
staff member)
about 1 year ago
I read this to mean there isn't a subscription model, it is PAYG? so not directly comparable to netflix or lovefilm.