Zattoo surpised by studios’ action

The online streaming video portal Zattoo says it is surprised at the action taken by Universal and Warner Bros over the use of advertising in movies broadcast by ARD and ZDF.

“We have been very careful playing by the rules,” said Beat Knecht, co-founder, CEO, and president of Zattoo, speaking to Broadband TV News. “Last December, we blocked five Hitchcock movies from Universal at their request. We monitor very closely the broadcast schedules for any programme changes in order to comply with such requests.”

Contrary to reports Zattoo said it does not show any pre-roll spots when people tune to public service broadcasters, nor does it show these when people switch channels between public station. “We only show after-roll commercials, after people leave public channels,” said Knecht.

“They are after the wrong people,” according to Knecht, “because we only stream channels unabridged and simultaneously, just like the IPTV service from Deutsche Telekom.”