Austria’s national telco A1 Telekom Austria has launched its domestic OTT platform A1 Now offering 41 linear TV channels – 9 in HD quality – as livestreams for reception on smartphones, tablets and the web.
The portfolio comprises the channels of public broadcaster ORF, commercial channels and foreign channels. A1 Now also includes a cloud-based network-PVR providing a 7-day replay service for all TV channels. Up to 10 hours of TV content can be stored for up to 3 months. A video-on-demand service with Austrian TV series is also part of the line-up.
The OTT service which has been tested by more than 1,000 users at the end of 2015 as part of a beta test, will be available from 8 March, 2016 to all A1 customers with a smartphone tariff (A1 Go!) and A1 fixed-line internet signed up between November 18, 2013 and February 26, 2016 as well as all new and existing A1 Go! Premium customers. It will remain free of charge until the end of 2016. Afterwards, the price tag will be €7.90 per month.
The A1 Now app can be downloaded for Android devices (from Android 4.1) from the Google Play Store and for iOS (from iOS 8) from the Apple App Store free of charge. Using the web browser, the service can be accessed at www.a1now.tv.
The data volume consumed by the OTT service is not included in the A1 tariffs. A1 Telekom Austria therefore recommends its customers a mobile contract with an included data volume of at least 2GB per month.
