English webcaster GreenGrass on Wednesday launched a pre-pay TV broadcast network over the Internet in a beta trial featuring news content from ITN and auto racing from Revs TV.
GreenGrass said its service gives broadcasters a new way to distribute their content and reach a worldwide audience.
“There are quite a few problems stopping broadcasters from going into Internet broadcasting in a big way,” said GreenGrass CEO Alex Taylor. “Streaming to broadcast over the Internet has an associated cost. If they start looking at monetizing their content, the subscription model doesn’t really add up.”
He points out that subscribers could leave their stream going all day even if they weren’t watching, and the connectivity costs would keep going up to the point where the broadcaster would be streaming their content at a loss.
The service is being launched the same day that Verizon plans to begin trials of its new Fios TV service on Thursday over its broadband lines in Texas to offer 140 channels for $36.90 per month, according to the Wall Street Journal. Verizon also announced on Wednesday that it has signed a deal with Disney to provide content on the new service with 12 channels including ESPN and the Disney Channel.
The BBC is expected to test a service later this month among 5,000 viewers in the United Kingdom that gives them a media player to download and share most of the BBC’s TV shows for up to seven days.
Broadcasters have tried to save money by keeping the quality of their webcasts low, and Mr. Taylor said this is what the BBC has done. However, the BBC has been providing its content for free over the Internet and the expense has been borne by British taxpayers, who subsidize the BBC.
GreenGrass, based in London, believes the solution is to have customers prepay for a certain amount of time to watch the streams. Customers pay for credits that they can use to watch any channel on the system. The credits are then debited from their account while they watch at the per-minute rate set by the broadcaster.
“The credits are debited while you’re watching, much like a phone call,” said Mr. Taylor.
Broadcasters can vary their rates by country and by the type of content they are showing. The broadcasters can offer scheduled channels, on-demand programming, and live events.
Pay to Stream
GreenGrass has signed a deal with Akamai to provide about 30 hours of streaming service for $10. Broadcasters can pass on this charge to customers along with a premium for their content. If the broadcasters have their own streaming service, they can use that instead of relying on Akamai to provide the service.
Akamai“The real advantage of GreenGrass to broadcasters is it gives them a nice, cost-effective way to get into markets,” said Mr. Taylor.
To watch live ITN news, for example, the trial service charges 200 credits per minute. Members can buy 90,000 credits for £5 ($9.05).
The company is currently working with four broadcasters on its trial. In addition to ITN and Revs TV, GreenGrass is also offering E-Music Television and the Cycling TV channel.
“GreenGrass enables us to moveto the next level, delivering live channels, 24/7, in high-quality formats and giving us a direct route to market for our wide range of content,” said Nicholas Wheeler, managing director of ITN Multimedia.