MUMBAI: YouView, Britain‘s new set top box offering subscription-free digital TV and catch-up, has launched earlier this week.
Backed by some of Britain’s biggest names in TV and broadband - the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Arqiva, BT and TalkTalk - YouView brings a fully integrated service to homes across the country via a broadband internet connection, television aerial and a YouView set top box.
The service will offer more than 100 digital TV and radio channels, seven day catch-up and on demand programmes from the content libraries of the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 - all delivered to the viewer’s main TV.
Featuring an innovative electronic programme guide (EPG) that allows users to scroll back seven days to catch-up on programmes they’ve missed, the YouView service is aimed at the 13-15 million British households without a pay-TV deal.
YouView will be available in two ways: from retailers, with no further TV subscription, or from an ISP as part of a phone and broadband package. Retail partners already signed up include John Lewis, Currys, Comet, Argos, Amazon, Richer Sounds and the Euronics group.
BT and TalkTalk will announce their packages soon and from launch they will offer additional content and services to customers accessing YouView via their broadband networks.
The company asserted that it had expressions of interest from over 300 potential content partners, which will allow YouView to have a range of quality content available from content partners including Sky’s Now TV and STV.
YouView chairman Lord Sugar stated, “It’s with great pleasure that we announce that YouView will be available from major retailers later this month. Our intention with this simple–to-use box is to provide extraordinary TV for everyone, with on-demand services combined with TV channels with an opportunity to search back an entire week to catch what they’ve missed. It’s a whole new way of experiencing TV."
YouView CEO Richard Halton added, “Today, YouView is being enjoyed in over 2,000 homes and the feedback from the trial is very encouraging. It confirms that YouView is easy to set up and use and different to what has gone before. In many ways we’ve only just begun, YouView is set to evolve quickly and we look forward to working with new content partners and developing more functionality as boxes roll out into UK homes."
