SeeSaw is to allow viewers to watch content without advertisement in return for a small monthly fee. The Arqiva-owned portal, the nearest equivalent the UK has to the US operation Hulu, already offers a pay-per-view option for some of its content.
SeeSaw NonStop will cost a monthly £2.99 (€3.54) with an introductory price of £0.99 running until the end of December. It gives subscribers the only way of watching content from Channel 4’s 4oD and Demand Five without interruption or pre-roll advertisements. The BBC iPlayer, which continues to dominate the sector, is of course already commercial free.
“After talking to our customers, we have found a group of viewers who would be happy to pay for the flexibility of watching their programmes uninterrupted by commercial breaks,” said commercial director Matt Rennie. “NonStop is another way to bring choice to our viewers and we’re delighted to offer this new feature as our first subscription product.”
A subtle repositioning has the service now referred to as SeeSaw.com, though with Arqiva a shareholder in YouView, an appearance on the hybrid TV platform is surely a formality.
NonStop is the second new initiative launched by SeeSaw in consecutive days. Yesterday (November 24) AdSelector began offering viewers the ability to choose from a selection of advertisements prior to watching their chosen content.
Launched in partnership with technology company Brainient, the advertising format will offer SeeSaw.com viewers the opportunity to choose from three separate advertisements.
SeeSaw currently says it is “well past” 4 million unique users per month. In contrast the BBC iPlayer receives 1.5 million users per day.
