Slow uptake for BIS, VOD coming
September 5, 2008
From Sotires Eleftheriou in Paris
The Bis TV satellite platform is to introduce a ';catch-up tv’ and a VOD service via the Internet before the end The Bis TV satellite platform is to introduce a ';catch-up tv’ and a VOD service via the Internet before the end of the year. The announcement was made during the autumn press conference of the French AB group, which owns the platform. The seven-day catch up service will be known as RepeatLAB and the VOD service with a catalogue of some 30,000 hours of programmes, as TvodLAB.
AB launched Bis TV in December 2007 as a low cost (E4.90 per month) subscription service to carry the French DTT channels, plus channels providing content from AB's catalogue of series and films. However, M6 refused to allow its channels to be carried on the platform but in July this year was ordered by the CSA to make a carriage proposal within six weeks.
AB Group's director Jean-Michel Fava revealed that the service had only about 60,000 subscribers, way below the target of 200,000 in the first year.