NLZiet, the Dutch on-demand platform with programmes from all three major broadcasting groups (NPO, RTL and SBS), will introduce live OTT streams of their main channels.
The catch-up service currently costs €7.95, but so far has failed to make a dent in the market – with no official subscription numbers revealed. Alongside NLZiet, NPO, RTL and SBS each have their own on-demand service, NPO Gemist, RTL XL and Kijk from SBS. NLZiet was launched more than two years ago, in June 2014.
In order to make the platform more attractive, NLZiet plans to add live TV to the platform. Other new features planned include remembering where a viewer left off in an episode so they can resume watching later, increased functionality for subtitles and the ability to watch previews of programmes. The plan to go linear was already announced in October 2015.
NL Ziet will also look at demand for an EPG and the ability to search for programmes based on genre. Beta testers will be invited next year to test the new live TV service.
The linear service will comprise all three Dutch National public channels (NPO 1, 2 and 3), as well as all channels from RTL Nederland (RTL 4, RTL 5, RTL 7, RTL 8, and possibly RTL Z) and the ones from SBS Broadcasting (SBS 6, Net 5, Veronica and SBS 9).
NLZiet will compete with other linear OTT services, such as T-Mobile’s Knippr and KPN Play, which offer more channels than the main NPO, RTL and SBS channels.
