Touted as an “industry first,” online TV distribution service Zattoo has announced the hosting of all five major terrestrial television channels from the United Kingdom along with a selection of other special interest channels.
Online TV distributor Zattoo unveils all five of the main UK terrestrial channels. Image: Dan Taylor/Flickr.
The mainstay entrants to Zattoo’s service expansion are BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5, while the likes of financial news service Bloomberg, children’s channel Cbeebies, and AutoMoto TV are also included.
Available for free viewing through Zattoo’s media player, users need only download the player software and register an account in order to enjoy a wealth of free online television allocated to their country of residence. Currently, Zattoo offers a total of 29 channels to UK residents, while German viewers get 66, the Swiss have 60, and the French have a mere 15.
“We’re extremely pleased to be coming out of the test phase and launching in the UK with all the terrestrial channels,” commented Alexandra Illes, UK country manager at Zattoo. “We’ve been encouraged by take-up in the markets where we’ve already launched -- Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, Denmark and Norway -- and have set ambitious targets for the take-up of the media player in the UK.”
Zattoo avoids charging for its service by incorporating five-second advertising video slots into the media player’s buffering zone, which are comes into effect when the user opts to change channel on the player. Advertising presence is also bolstered by a “trackable button function” that takes users to specific landing pages dedicated to any given brand.
“From an advertiser perspective, Zattoo offers a unique opportunity to target consumers engaged in online activity. Advertising reaches viewers at the height of their attention when they wait for the next channel to start,” added Illes. “The clickable companion button, which appears alongside the rich adverts during the buffering process, will help drive trackable traffic through to brand websites offering advertisers a compelling new way of reaching their audiences.”
The personally customisable Zattoo media player comes complete with an electronic program guide (EPG) and is compatible with both desktop and laptop computers running Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS X, and Linux operating systems.
Minimum requirements for use see the need for the equivalent of an Intel Pentium 3 processor running at 1.5GHz, 512MB of RAM, DirectX 8.0, and a broadband Internet connection.
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