DIGITAL TV SUMMIT 2010, LONDON. The UK-based online film and TV aggregator Blinkbox now has 1.9 million unique users a month, according to its CEO Michael Comish.
Launched in 2008, the company has a catalogue of over 6,000 film titles and streams 96% of its volume, with the remaining 4% downloaded.
According to Comish, its strategy has evolved into one of getting programming to people “on as many devices as possible”.
Furthermore, its business model of selling ads and having a retail business is one that the company adopted from day one and is now becoming commonplace.
Commenting on the challenges of operating a VOD service funded solely by advertising, he said that the start-up costs were likely to be £20 million (€23.6 million), with annual OPEX coming in at £5 million.
However, breakeven would require 62.5 million streams a month – figures which only two ad supported on demand services in the UK (Google and BBC) currently achieve.