German cable operator Unitymedia Kabel BW considers countering Netflix through a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) offering resembling the MyPrime service recently launched by its Swiss sister company UPC Cablecom.
“We don’t just develop Horizon technically, but we also constantly add new VOD content to our TV and media platform that our customers can access individually,” a Unitymedia Kabel BW spokesman told Broadband TV News.
“We don’t currently offer a subscription model like UPC in Switzerland,” he added. “But we follow the current developments in the market very closely and we can well imagine providing a comparable service in future. From a technical point of view, it is generally possible to integrate a SVOD offering into our Horizon platform.”
UPC Austria, the third cable asset of US media company Liberty Global in German-speaking Europe, is also considering its options. “We constantly evaluate how to expand our offering,” a UPC Austria spokesman told Broadband TV News. “However, it still remains open whether there’ll be a service like MyPrime at UPC Austria.”
UPC Cablecom launched MyPrime on September 3, 2014, providing movies, series, documentaries and children’s programmes for a flat fee of CHF9.95 (€8.25) per month. The first Liberty Global subsidiary to counter Netflix with MyPrime was UPC Nederland in April 2014.
Global SVOD market leader Netflix will roll out local services in several European countries in September 2014 including Germany, Austria and Switzerland, prompting a range of counter reactions from domestic players. German pay-TV operator Sky Deutschland, for example, cut down the subscription fee of its SVOD service Snap from €9.90 to just €3.99 per month.
According to industry sources, Netflix will launch in the new European markets in the middle of this month with subscription prices starting at €7.99 per month.
