Free introduction in the UK
The UK’s first free TV service to offer live television over broadband has launched today. Freely, which brings together the four public broadcasters along with Scotland’s STV and Welsh S4C and is described as “future-proof free TV for the streaming age”, will begin additional distribution of TiVo, alongside the previously announced Hisense. Combines free live TV channels with on-demand content via smart TVs, eliminating the need for a dish or antenna. It is overseen by broadcasting group Everyone TV, which also runs Freeview, the free TV service that launched more than two decades ago. Freely was first announced last year and further details were revealed at Everyone TV’s Outside the Box event. “The launch of Freely is a historic moment for British television,” said Kieran Clifton, Director, BBC Distribution & Business Development. “Collaboration between the UK’s public broadcasters is vital to connecting and protecting all audiences as we transition to the streaming era – and making live TV free over broadband is a ground-breaking innovation that will future-proof public service broadcasting will do.”
Inga Leschek becomes head of content at RTL Deutschland
Inga Leschek is the new Chief Content Officer at RTL Deutschland. From June 1st, in addition to her previous duties as program director of RTL and the streamer RTL+, she will take over management of all brands of the German broadcasting giant. This means that she will take responsibility for the content of RTL, Vox, NTV, RTL Super and Multichannel, RTL+ and all journalistic content of RTL News (except Stern+) – tasks that were the responsibility of the previous CCO Stephan Schmitter, who recently became CEO was promoted. After a time at Netflix, Leschek returned to RTL last year. Previously, she headed RTL Studios for seven years.
MGM+ joins Prime Video Channels in India
More collaboration between Amazon’s content divisions can be found here: Prime Video and MGM International have teamed up to launch streaming service MGM+ in India. MGM+ is made available to Prime members for ₹599 ($7.17) per year through Prime Video Channels. The move is seen as Amazon’s latest attempt to enter the lucrative Indian retail market. Mike Hopkins, head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, recently said that India generates more Amazon subscriptions than anywhere else except the US. A recent list from Prime Video includes nearly 70 films and TV shows.