Freeview coy on Freeview Plus numbers as it launches a ‘world first’ personal video recorder
Freeview has refused to release numbers on its household penetration as it marks the one year anniversary of its hybrid broadcast broadband TV (HbbTV) service.
The move comes as Freeview today announced it has launched its first certified Personal Video Recorder (PVR) and comes less than three months after the body conceded it was unlikely to hit the 10 per cent penetration target it had set a year ago.
Asked where they were up to with uptake on the service, which offers access to catch up services iView, Plus7, 9Jumpin, Tenplay and SBS OnDemand, Liz Ross general manager at Freeview said: “We are not making any comment about numbers publicly suffice to say we are very happy with the month on month grow.
“I guess there will be a time, in the not too distant future, where we may release some data but we are not going to do that yet.”
The Freeview boss said she was excited about the launch of aerial Box T2200 which is the first PVR of its type in the world and can be connected to any digital television.
Questioned about whether the PVR was needed to drive lacklustre take up among households Ross said: “Right from the outset we designed Freeview Plus to provide a recording option.
“There have been quite a few manufacturers considering a PVR product. This is the first of many but the integration of HBBTV for some manufacturers has been protracted because we are trying to seek a high standard of user experience.
“Some of the factories have taken a while to implement the API for recording into devices.
“This is a very appealing consumer product and you now have this really flexible option and it give you a lot of control over your viewing.”
Nic Christensen
Related content:
Freeview Plus falls into the same bucket as DAB, Blueray, Laserdisk. An interim technology that has no longevity.
User ID not verified.
“We are not making any comment about numbers publicly suffice to say we are very happy with the month on month grow.”
read
“we are too embarrassed to publish the numbers”
User ID not verified.
“And in a World First, Freeview releases a video recorder which functionally is the same as a video cassette recorder (released 1963) or a digital video recorder (TiVo 1999) except ours goes “Oink” every time you change channels”
If Apple couldn’t get traction with Apple TV, Freeview certainly isn’t going to make this bizarre exercise in megalomania work
User ID not verified.
Can you get Netflix on it?
User ID not verified.
What a monumental waste of time, money and media coverage. As if we don’t already have enough set top boxes in market, few of which are gaining any real traction. Free view you’re only about 5 years out of date
User ID not verified.