Subscription streaming brand VuTV have completed a key step in their plans of roll-out in the UK, with the premium platform announced as officially launched on Freeview HD boxes (on EPG #238) for customers in the UK region.

The service (operated through co-owners Strategy & Technology and Simplestream with their joint venture ‘Synapse TV’) is offering viewers access to a selection of well-known American TV channels such as Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, History Channel, Cartoon Network, and CNN.

Representing the History Channel and Bio brands, A&E Networks UK vice-president Bakori Davis said of the new arrangement: “We are delighted to see the launch of another multi-channel platform in the U.K. that offers more viewers a chance to enjoy the great content on our portfolio of channels, including Lifetime, our newest entertainment brand which launched this month.”

Turner Broadcasting’s ‘vice-president & managing director’ Anthony Lukom, speaking for CNN and ‘CN’, added: “We demonstrate an ongoing commitment to be where our audiences are, and ensure multiple ways for them to engage with our channels and content.”

Arran Tindall, Viacom International‘s ‘senior vice-president of commercial & content distribution’, noted: “The VuTV service is an easy, affordable way for suitable Freeview households to sample some of the very best channels that subscription TV in the U.K. has to offer.”

Those ‘Freeview households’ are believed to total over 20 million in the region, making it the UK’s most prominent ‘digital TV platform’, with VuTV targeting the primary audience of internet-connected Freeview HD users that do not hold a pay-tv subscription.

VuTV director Dan Finch summarised: “Today is very exciting as it heralds the launch of VuTV on Freeview, giving consumers the choice of more channels through their existing Connected TV and remote control, all delivered over the Internet. VuTV will become the home of great value, premium channels on your TV set.”

The release of the service sees it available at a price of £6.99/month with a 14 day free sample period, as Samsung are recognised as is the ‘first major manufacturer’ that offers full support for the VuTV brand on their Freeview HD-applicable products. Other companies will follow suit in due course, but will VuTV get off to a strong enough start to be considered worth the effort?

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Planned new premium subscription streaming service ‘VuTV’, a brand encompassing a range of popular American cable networks, is set to launch in the UK on one of its newest platforms, with viewers set to be able to reach the content via an internet connection on the Freeview HD service.

Designed as a service run by Synapse TV (a joint venture combining the efforts of video streamers Simplestream and ‘interactive TV specialists’ Strategy & Technology), VuTV will offer subscribers a selection of 13 networks in one bundle.

Available as a package within channel #238 on the EPG as of September, the content on the premium platform is set to include UK versions of popular American networks, such as Cartoon Network, CNN, Comedy Central, History, MTV and Nickelodeon, amongst others.

Simplestream director Dan Finch said of the upcoming launch: “We work with a wide range of broadcasters to stream their linear and on-demand TV to multiple devices. The content owners we engaged with embraced the idea of targeting the Freeview HD market with their portfolio of channels. As the public get wiser to connecting up their TVs, and the TVs get smarter, it’s a great opportunity for channel providers to tap into the Freeview market and gain access to real time viewing data of their channels that can be used to help shape their own marketing strategy.”

While the selection of content will be made available for a low collective cost under a flexible contract, according to Synapse, will tucking away popular networks (that are readily available elsewhere) into a bundled service manage to draw a desired number of viewers, or is the relatively meagre take-up of Freeview HD’s IPTV services (which are limited to owners of connected set-top boxes) too vast a hurdle to overcome for this otherwise promising content offering?

Digital TV provider Freeview has give it’s online TV website a makeover, adding a Youview style program guide so viewers can look back in time and watch shows from all main UK TV networks.

Catch-up links are provided from the guide to providers such as ITV Player, iPlayer, 4oD and Demand Five. Currently the Freeview service comes built into most TV’s and is available as a set-top box and via satellite and cable services. It’s program guide comes with a standard seven days ahead guide.

Speaking about the reboot, new media manager at Freeview, Adrian Mack said, “Our TV guide is hugely popular and this update makes the user journey simpler and easy to navigate. Visitors will now have easy access to catch up content via our new TV guide, instead of having to visit multiple websites and all without the need for a subscription.”

The website can also be customized with viewers favorite channels, products sourced from Reevoo and dynamic news and features pages.  The changes come shortly after Freeview announced they are now in more than 11 million homes and get 250,000 visits to the the online television guide each month.

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English free-to-air broadcasters Freeview have not ever really needed much of a marketing campaign to draw users due to the cheap and convenient nature of their TV service for those that accept it, though they have revealed plans to get more ‘aggressive’ in the market by attempting to steal back pay-TV customers from the likes of Sky and Virgin Media.

The provider, which offers a digital terrestrial line-up of channels, have announced statistics which show 95% of the UK’s ‘most popular TV content’ (excluding sports and movies) is available on a channel provided by Freeview at no charge, in an attempt to lure pay-TV customers that would rather save money than ensure access to the additional 5%.

While Freeview does hold the status of the most ‘dominant platform’ in the region, their subscription-free service does face continuing pressure from cable and satellite providers involved with pay-TV, along with fellow free-to-air brands YouView and Freesat.

Their new advert, regardless of whether or not it includes their trademark ‘balloon’ promos (pictured), will feature the 95% statistic when it airs at the end of the week on ‘the main terrestrial channels’, as marketing director Guy North explained: “It’s quite a departure for us its a bit more punchy and a bit more aggressive than what we have done before but that feels right for us, for where the market is and also the mood of the nation as well.

“If we are positioning ourselves as being the consumer champion it’s right we make sure all consumers have information they need to make the right decision for them. We are confident that by pointing out the key fact within the advert we will help them make that decision. That figure is taken from Barb figures and would have been higher if we hadn’t taken out one off programmes. Ten years ago it probably would have been higher than that but the key fact is that where we are now in a market place with strong pay TV providers that statistic is pretty stunning.”

While there are plenty of people who subscribe to pay-TV for a specific reason (hence no sports or movies being included in the survey), will any of those that ‘have it all’ at their fingertips be convinced that they can ‘have it most’ for a much lower one-off cost?

UK digital terrestrial broadcasting is led primarily by the ‘Freeview’ platform, which is leading the search for new channels across the region that will take up slots serving their local broadcast area, the most coveted of which is naturally the chance to gain the licence for the densely-populated capital city of London (England).

It has now been announced that this slot has been taken up, with the winning bid for the prestigious licence coming from the TV division of free city newspaper London Evening Standard. The bidder of Evening Standard TV (a part of the Evening Standard Group owned primarily by Russian father-son business duo Alexander and Evgeny Lebedev), was yesterday confirmed as gaining the 12-year licence for a new channel called London Live, which will air to a potential 4 million households in the city when it begins broadcasting.

Though an official start date has not yet been announced (with Freeview expecting the first batch of local TV networks to broadcast by the end of the year), London Live (who beat out rival bids including ITN-partnered London8, consortiums YourTV and Channel 6, and Made Television) have confirmed plans to broadcast for 18 hours each day, looking to provide news, weather, current affairs, entertainment, and sport with a key focus on the city.

Speaking to the Evening Standard‘s website, Evgeny Lebedev summarised the deal for his company, stating: “I am absolutely delighted that Ofcom has awarded us this opportunity to give Londoners their own high-quality local television channel. Our excellent team of journalists in the capital have the best contacts, knowledge and understanding of the London scene. Through the Evening Standard and Independent, we have proved time and again that we can deliver fast, accurate, high-quality breaking news, features and analysis, and we are looking forward to applying these skills to London Live. Our success in this bid is a testament to my management team here and the staff across both newspapers.”

The channel, based in the Standard newsroom in Kensington and taking on channel #8 on Freeview (as will all new ‘local’ networks in England and Northern Ireland, with Scottish and Welsh channels taking up #45 for their markets), has promised a daily minimum of 4-and-a-half hours of London news and 1 hour of current affairs-based programming, though a key selling point will be the inernet-based features that the service will provide, with ESTV planning to launch 33 ‘hyper-local’ streams representing each London borough.

Online viewing and IPTV will also serve as a way for non-Londoners to view the content, as well as the more open platforms of Sky and Virgin Media, which have already agreed to carry the channel. The content itself is also expected to be backed up by new developments such as new breakthroughs in ‘split-screen video technology’ and social media integration into shows.

Evening Standard editor Sarah Sands added of the ‘tremendously proud’ moment for the brand: “We aim to give the two million Londoners who read the Evening Standard a terrific service on television – and welcome an even wider audience.”

The 20th licence to be awarded by Digital UK under the venture, ESTV’s move to create London Live represents a deal that further cement’s the aims of newspapers to get involved with digital content, but will the ambitious network prove to be a success for England’s biggest TV market?