German pay-TV broadcaster Sky Deutschland had added ARD-Mediathek, the catch-up TV service of public broadcaster ARD, to its Roku-powered Sky TV Box.
With the app, the owners of the streaming box can watch ARD’s programmes at any time they like – at no extra charge and in HD quality. In total ARD-Mediathek contains around 66,000 videos.
“In the digital media world, ARD has to be where their users are. This includes the owners of the Sky TV box being able to find ARD in the Sky offering,” said ARD’s general director Karola Wille.
Wolfram Winter, executive vice president of Sky Deutschland, added: “We know that our customers are also loyal viewers of the public broadcasters’ programmes and, through the partnership, we make it easier for them to enjoy the content at the touch of a button through Sky.”
The catch-up TV services of fellow public broadcaster ZDF and European cultural channel Arte have been available on the Sky TV Box since August 2016. Further third-party apps include, for example, YouTube, Red Bull TV, Deezer, Vevo, Vimeo, TuneIn und GoPro. Sky wants to extend the line-up in the next months.
The Sky TV Box also enables access to new OTT platform Sky Ticket through which Sky Deutschland’s movie, series and sports offering can be watched without a regular subscription.
The box which Sky Deutschland introduced in December 2014 was developed in partnership with US streaming provider Roku. The device turns TV sets with an HDMI slot into smart TV sets bringing internet content to the TV screen.
