MTG to replace channel-specific player services with combined online platform for free on-demand

MTG will launch a new digital service in the autumn that will aggregate all of the broadcast group’s free, advertising-supported content in one place, but only on-demand. The Viafree service will be available in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. It replaces the various channel-based player services in the MTG stable (for these markets), such as 

TV3 Play and TV6 Play. The broadcaster says Viafree will make it easy to consume free video content online and on mobile.

The new video streaming service will feature thousands of hours of entertainment, including what is currently available on the various ‘Play’ services and original productions exclusive to Viafree. There will be full seasons of hit formats like Parneviks (Sweden) and MasterChef Norge (Norway), for example. There will also be web exclusive productions and content from Splay (Scandinavia’s number one MCN and digital content creator, 81% owned by MTG) and other MTG family brands.

Channel brands will have less relevance in Viafree. A spokesperson says the idea behind the new service is to make exploring content easier. “That means a larger focus on the content itself and less on the channel.” So if you watch a show about home styling, you will get recommendations about shows in the same category, regardless of the channel. There will be information about which channel the show is on, but the channel itself is not at the centre of the service,  the spokesperson explains.

MTG is a diverse media group and owns free-to-air and pay channels and its own Pay TV platform (Viasat, available via satellite and IPTV) and the accompanying TV Everywhere service Viaplay. Viafree will complement Viaplay. “Together the two services will provide more digital entertainment content than from any other Nordic media house,” the company claims.

There is no intention to include linear streaming of the different channels within Viafree; linear streaming is catered for with Viasat TV to Go (covering live, start-over and 48 hour catch-up on channels that are part of your Pay TV subscription), which itself is found within the Viaplay TV Everywhere app.

MTG says it will also add content from third-party broadcasters and producers to further enrich Viafree. So this is not just about MTG content and could become a wider aggregated on-demand content service.

According to Jørgen Madsen Lindemann, President and CEO at MTG, “Viafree is the next step for our broad digital content offering. We are making our free content as easily and broadly available as possible, and hope that both local and international content owners and distributors will join the platform.”