German streaming service TV Spielfilm live will shut down its free Basic package on October 1, 2018, a spokeswoman of operating company Hubert Burda Media confirmed to Broadband TV News.
Only the subscription package will be continued. “With the move, we are reacting to the usage behaviour of our customers,” explained the spokeswoman. The customers of the Premium package used the service for much longer and more frequently on a smart TV set than Basic users. “For this reason, we decided to simplify our portfolio, focus on one package and make it even more attractive.”
From October 1, 2018, the Premium package will be called the Live TV package and include more HD channels at no extra charge: For €9.99 per month, customers will receive over 80 TV channels, more than 60 in HD quality – in future including the channels of the ProSiebenSat.1 group. The programmes can be recorded, restarted and paused. The recording space amounts to 50 hours.
Further HD channels will follow shortly, said the spokeswoman. In addition, the restart and recording functions will be expanded.
The OTT service TV Spielfilm live launched in July 2015 and is accessible via smartphone, tablet and PC as well as on the TV set via Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV and Google Chromecast.