Italy’s RAI expands OTT to Smart TVs
December 21, 2016
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Italian public broadcaster RAI has expanded its RaiPlay OTT service to Smart TVs.
RaiPlay now enables TV viewers to directly access a selection of the flagship programmes from RAI’s TV channels and archive material. The offer includes content from the Rai1, Rai2, Rai3, Rai4, Rai5, RaiMovie and RaiPremium channels as well as kids channels RaiGulp and Rai Yoyo.
Once connected to the Internet, the TV set with MHP software just needs to be tuned to a RAI channel and a blue dot on the right of the screen will indicate the possibility of accessing the RaiPlay service. Depending on the TV channel tuned in, the system will immediately connect the dedicated RaiPlay version.
Launched in September as an application for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, RaiPlay has been downloaded 4 million times.
The consumption of RAI’s online offer has increased by 74 per cent, while the user base has grown by 50 per cent. In the first two months, 7.5 million content views were recorded, from 15 million different devices.
Other posts by Nick Snow: