Sky-owned movie-streaming/download platform Acetrax has announced that it will be closing in a month’s time, confirming in a message to users yesterday (21 May) that they should use up any remaining credit on their accounts.
The Swiss company, who specialised in smart TV apps, had been owned by Sky for little over a year (since May 2012), although rumours suggest that the UK’s biggest satellite TV provider are now looking to focus on their other streaming platforms (Now TV & Sky Go) with Acetrax’s technology set to be the only part implemented in Sky’s future plans, claiming that they intend to close the company having claimed everything they needed from them.
Part of this winding-down process, thankfully for its members, will be to ensure they do not get a bad deal out of Sky’s decision, as Acetrack offer ample warning ahead of time that any credit consumers have will be wiped out with the business on 21 June. Restrictions now in place include only permitting new rentals at lengths of 24 hours, disabling the ‘long-term download’ feature, and encouraging customers who have ‘existing purchases’ to download their entire library of owned content, if they have not already done so.
Restrictions on the latter include being ‘PC-only’ ‘non-transferrable’, and in the standard definition option only, regardless of whether the version bought was SD or HD. The download is also required to have run for at least 5 minutes on Windows Media Player (before the deadline date of 21 June) in order to validate the licence, while those unable to perform this task are entitled to request a full refund.
Sky reported of their decision to close Acetrax: “Having successfully integrated the Acetrax over-the-top technology and capability into our business, we are now managing down the small video-on-demand service still operating under the Acetrax brand. Once that process is complete, our OTT efforts will focus on Sky Go and Now TV, through which we continue to build leadership and scale in internet TV.”
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