Google and Freesat To Launch YouTube TV Service
Google has made a deal with British satellite television provider Freesat, allowing Freesat box owners access to YouTube on their televisions.Freesat is the joint venture of broadcasting companies ITV and the BBC, created to compete with other UK-based satellite and cable television providers Virgin, BSkyB and BT. What differentiates Freesat from its competitors is the lack of a monthly subscription fee, instead, users just have to buy a Freesat box to have access to the service.
The service already offers 150 channels, as well as an on demand service and the ability to pause, rewind, fast forward and record live television. The YouTube channel will be made available to all Freesat users by the end of March at no extra cost.
Both ITV and the BBC already have a number of channels on YouTube: ITV shows clips from ITV and ITV2 on two distinct channels, as well as maintaining channels for its most popular shows This Morning, The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent; the BBC has a number of channels including BBC Earth, BBC Worldwide and the new Head Squeeze.
Freesat’s Managing director Emma Scott says that she is a “firm believer” in the future of broadcast television, but that viewers are beginning to look elsewhere for new kinds of content, such as online. YouTube, meanwhile, has been trying to stream its videos on television sets since 2010.
YouTube’s ad views, and therefore its ad revenue, will increase as a result of the partnership: the ads will be viewed by the owners of the 3 million Freesat boxes sold in the UK so far.
Do you have a Freesat box? Are you looking forward to having YouTube available on your television?
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Will Sigsworth
Follow us @SocialMediaF & @WillAtSMF
www.socialmediafrontiers.com
Google and Freesat To Launch YouTube TV Service
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