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Seesaw online TV service launches in the UK
INTERNET TV SERVICE Seesaw launched today with a mission to bring high quality content and ease-of-use to online video where previous high profile attempts like Joost have failed.
SeeSaw is a wholly-owned subsidiary of broadcast solutions provider Arqiva, built with technology it acquired from Project Kangaroo, another defunct online TV service that was backed by major UK broadcasters but ultimately blocked by regulators.
Aiming to be a 'one-stop shop' for Internet TV in the UK only, Seesaw will at first offer 3,000 hours of free content, having signed deals with BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 and Five, while ITV has currently been reluctant so far to get involved.
CEO Pierre-Jean Sebert told attendees at the launch event held at a posh Soho hotel that the service will have a mixed business model based on both advertising and paid services.
On the ads side, Sebert claimed to have already signed 17 advertisers. Users will view unskippable commercial breaks before and during each show but there will be no display advertising at all on the site.
The 3,000 free hours of catch-up and archive content will be augmented within a couple of months with a paid service offering another 2,000 hours of programming, which is expected to include premium US and BBC content.
Seesaw's revenue model will be based on streaming only service with no downloads available, and will include pay-per-view and subscription options. Service pricing details have yet to be decided.
Despite the success of the BBC’s Iplayer service, which SeeSaw admits it will be hoping to tap into, the outfit is nonetheless taking a big gamble. This might account for its reluctance to share with the crowd at the launch just how much it has invested in the project so far.
Certainly a lot will hinge on how much it will charge users to watch streaming content, and how desirable that content is, but the firm seemed confident that its business plan is sound.
“We’ve got more than enough good stuff [to watch] and that will double in the next six months,” explained Seesaw platform controller John Keeling.
“2010 will see big changes in user behaviour with the advent of internet connected TVs, set top boxes and so on. The market is moving at remarkable speed and it’s absolutely the best time to be launching this service.” µ
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I just tried 3 different programs and it told me that my internet connection was too slow each time. It'd play for a couple of seconds then pause for 10 seconds to buffer and repeat over and over.
I then tried using iPlayer and 4oD simultaneously to see if it really was a problem with my connection and they both played fine over my 20Mb cable broadband, at the same time. Fair do's it's only day one, but it's not the best start is it.
The videos aren't very good quality, I'd say not even normal PAL resolution.
Also I had to watch two ads before a show started (didn't watch to see how many were during the show) and if you have chosen the wrong episode of a show you have to watch another two ads before the next episode starts...
Why can't they show you x number of ads per amount of viewing time rather than shoving two ads before every single video click no matter how fast you click.
The website is quite nice though.