SeeSaw saw the light of day today at its official launch. SeeSaw also announced that in the second quarter pay-per-view would be an option and they are looking into a subscription model for the future.

The catch up tv service currently is available for the UK only and has content courtesy of Channel 4 and Five shows and some ‘older’ BBC Worldwide content. They are promising to double the existing 3000 hours worth of streamswithin the next 2 months. At this time the company will introduce pay per episode and pay per series options. It is expected (or rather essential) that premium content will be available at this time.

Minor details like costs for these services are not available as yet, but SeeSaw were keen to tell the world that their trump card is the simplicity of the service. “SeeSaw is all about TV – nothing else. It’s just proper full-length telly. Yes, other people have this content – content owners are hedging their bets, we’re fine with that – you can go and watch the content in the environment you choose as a user.” said platform controller John Keeling.

The platform is very basic, designed to concentrate the viewers attention onto the 60 seconds of advertising they need to endure before seeing the main show. However the quality is good but not HD quality.

Keeling was ‘cockpaphoop’ happy though saying:- “Advertisers love it,”  and to confirm this 17 companies are on-board from launch.

On the issue of paid content, the comment was that it will be  “seamless. We dont want to do SeeSaw Free and SeeSaw Paid.” It was confirmed though that  SeeSaw won’t simply be charging for existing content without the ads – instead, it will have to charge for a different line-up. This explains the ongoing negotiations with US content providers.

“Just think DVD boxsets,” said Keeling. “If you went in to a store to buy a DVD, that’s the kind of content you’re going to see available to rent. We’ll have the latest seasons of those series as soon as they’ve finished bcasting on TV.”  Mention was also made of the service being available on set-top-boxes and games consoles. However lets not jump the gun. The service has to prove itself to be popular first.

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