ITV, or ‘Channel 3’ as it’s also known, has announced its first on-demand TV service with a payment system.
Known as ITV Pay Player to distinguish between the current free version, ITV Player, the service will offer an archive of over 1000 hours of both TV and film content for paying customers.
Two years ago ITV spoke of launching an on-demand service to rival the BBC’s iPlayer, but with a micropayment system included. After trialling ITV Pay Player in 5000 homes recently, the service is now finalised and will launch later this year in the autumn.
Unlike Sky’s new Now TV service, ITV Pay Player will only run on PCs to start with. There has been no mention of the service coming to other platforms, such as iOS and Android, but with ITV Player itself available on both, we can imagine the new service will go mobile in the near future.
Announcing the new service, Chief Executive of ITV Adam Crozier confirmed that there will be no subscription service or tie-downs. Users will be able to pay for what they watch on a pay-as-you-go system, although no prices have been revealed just yet.
As you might hope, paid-for content will be streamed free of advertising breaks and any advertising in general, giving you the pure TV and film experience that you would expect from something you’ve paid for.
TV content will be available to rent as single episodes or entire series, while films will be offered separately. The regular and free ITV Player will not be affected in any way, and will continue to be available for everyone.
What do you think of ITV’s new service? Would you pay for an episode of Corrie?
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Via: Guardian