With millions of French people under strict lockdown to work or study at home during the COVID-19 sanitary crisis, Internet usage has increased dramatically to offer access to information and entertainment. As one of the main Altnets in France for Full-Fibre in France, Videofutur -Netgem Group- decided to immediately invest to improve daily life of their customers:

• By delivering the best quality of Internet service via their Full-Fibre networks, by doubling the transit capacity
• By launching a ‘Safe@home’ programme promoting relevant content every day to its TV customers (Cinema, Kids, Cooking, Fitness…)
• By offering for free additional entertainment content (Cinema at home, and Kids channels)

Mathias Hautefort, CEO of Videofutur said, “All our teams are determined to help our customers at home – through an unprecedented Safe@home programme of work. Our content selection and choices are driven directly by employees of Videofutur who share exactly the same challenges as our customers, as well as their desires during this difficult crisis for everyone.”

Videofutur has been supporting its customers for 2 weeks while at home: stay informed with latest news extracts, keep the children busy at home, experiment new cooking recipes, look after themselves to stay fit, but also relax with high quality entertainment series and movies.

That is exactly what the whole company decided to do by launching the Safe@home programme: offering every day relevant content for the whole family under lockdown, by promoting directly in the TV User Interface of the of Videofutur – with additional free content offered by Videofutur.

All promoted and free content are systematically available on the Videofutur 4K TV BOX as well as on the myVideofutur multi-screen service across laptops, mobile phones, and tablets.

For the kids at home, Videofutur has brought forward a number of launches initially planned for later in 2020:

• Okoo was launched on 4th of April, giving free access to 100% live and Replay/On-Demand catalogue of France TV;
• The kids channels from Turner : Toonami, Boomerang and Boing have been added for free for all customers of Videofutur;
• Exceptional movies from Dreamworks are available with a fantastic discount throughout the Easter holidays;
• The channel ‘ALaMaison’ (‘At home’) created by the Broadcasters for the Covid-19 period was launched on 6th of April first by Videofutur with Replay content;
• More Kids and Teenager content is curated to be accessed via the Youtube Kids app on the big screen;
• and the existing kids channels are obviously still available live and On-Demand (Replay and nPVR) Gulli, Canal J, Tiji, Game One et Mangas as well as the unlimited VOD catalogue from TFOU MAX

And of course, Videofutur is not denying its root in ‘Cinema at home’, and is investing in high-quality movies for the benefit of its customers:

• 1 free month of OCS for all customers, offering access to exclusive series (HBO) and unlimited exclusive movies;
• The TCM channel -just launched- full of classic movies is offered for free as linear channel but also with full nPVR;
• Every week, free VOD movies rentals with the very latest ‘straight from the Cinema’ or blockbusters from the Videofutur movies catalogue;
• “Cinéma Home Premiere” with the launch of movies at the same time as in theatres (Emma, Bloodshot, The Hunt) ;
• Early access to Streaming from April offering access to more than 30 movies that are still available in Cinemas (The girl with a bracelet, The truth, Monos, SamSam, Histoire d’un regard, The Whistlers, Arab Blues, #iamhere, Play, Papi Sitter, They were five, Le Lac aux oies sauvages, Notre dame, Une mère incroyable, Mine your own business, Birds of Prey, Au coeur du monde, Just mercy, Selfie, Adam, Richard Jewell, Sonic the hedgehog, Des Hommes, Cuban Network, Lucky, L’Esprit de famille, Invisible Man, 1917, Queen & Slim, Dolittle, The lion) ;
• And of course, the movies channels are still available as live, Replay, and nPVR with Paramount Channel, RTL9, as well as the unlimited VOD from VIDEOFUTUR (FilmoTV).

FREE MOVIE

CINEMA HOME PREMIERE

With a particular attention to promoting what the Videofutur team believe to be the most relevant content during this period, Videofutur has observed a very positive engagement with its customers, that has also been observed in the usage figures:

• Overall time spent on TV: + 30% of more time spent on TV (more than 6h per day!);
• VOD : +50% of movies watched (rental or purchase);
• Kids: +50% across linear and Replay channels;
• News channels: +100% of daily viewings;
• Youtube and Youtube Kids: +35%.

Those usage trends are obviously specific to the current situation, when all Internet streaming and TV usage are higher than normal. However, Videofutur has observed trends that will probably set a precedent in usage going forward such as “Cinema at home” that is becoming a more common activity for a family on a week-end.

Categories: Press Releases