A unique SVOD service named WappZapp TV and rivaling Netflix has finally made its debut in The Netherlands and Belgium.
As previously reported in Broadband TV News, Amsterdam-based start-up WappZapp has until now offered a video discovery app for iOS and Android allowing users to select and share videos that are freely available on the web.
According to WappZapp, this has already had more than 500,000 downloads.
However, this month the company has finally revealed its freemium business model.
It includes WappZapp Plus, offering viewers over 2,600 hours of content, without commercials, for €7.99 a month.
The content is handpicked by the editorial staff, focusing on film festival prize winners, European documentaries and music concerts.
Although WappZapp focuses on OTT solutions and can currently only be received on iOS and Android devices (mobiles and tablets), it also supports TV-streaming devices like Google’s Chromecast and Apple TV. A web version is due to be released in September.
WappZapp is planning to become a cross-European VOD platform matching rights holders and documentary makers to their specific target audience in a given country through extensive user profiling.
Speaking to Broadband TV News, Colin Ellis, a founder of WappZapp TV, said that it is competing with Netflix on three levels. They are “through editorial (local) advice on what to watch instead of algorithms, the freemium model and a content focus on festival price-winning European movies, local productions, documentaries and concerts”.
