Internet TV platform Zattoo has launched an OTT app for Google’s TV stick Chromecast across Europe.
The owners of TV sets can thereby take the live-streams of TV channels onto their TV screen even if the TV set is not a connected TV model with internet access. Smartphone, tablet or laptop can be used as a remote control for TV reception via Zattoo.
With the Zattoo app, DTT or cable households gain access to TV channels otherwise not available to them, for example HD channels. The Chromecast stick which Google rolled out in Europe in March 2014 is plugged into the TV set’s HDMI slot and connected to the internet via Wi-Fi.
Zattoo’s Chromecast app is available in all European markets in which Zattoo is present, Jörg Meyer, vice-president content & consumer at Zattoo, told Broadband TV News. “Chromecast is a convenient way to use Zattoo on all customary TV sets,” said Meyer. “For Zattoo, the Chromecast support is an important factor in further establishing internet TV as an equal distribution pathway for TV content next to cable, IPTV, satellite and DTT.”
Broadband TV Views. The German marketplace now flooded with OTT live streaming services including Magine, TalkEasy and Couchfunk, there is now heavy competition for pioneer Zattoo.
By adding Google Chromecast to its portfolio of devices on which Zattoo is available, the platform is now also pioneering streaming live channels to the HDMI device, which can turn any flat screen TV into a connected smart set.
Until now, all Chromecast apps only served on-demand services including Netflix, YouTube, Red Bull, Viki, Hulu and a few others, but by adding linear channels, Zattoo is again changing the game as it expands its potential universe again.
I am sure this will be the first of many other live streaming OTT apps. In the Netherlands, the public broadcasters are working on a Chromecast version of the NPO app which offer a combined service of live streaming and catch-up TV in a single app.
For niche channels and ethnic broadcasters, live streaming would also be a relatively easy way into more homes – and bypassing difficult carriage negotiations with incumbent platforms along the way.
