More video content for connected TVs in Europe: Diva TV

The IFA show in Berlin has had some timely announcements regarding connected consumer electronics and premium online video. I blogged last week about Sony's Qriocity, and there were a couple of announcements regarding a premium online video service called Diva TV.

• Diva TV will supply more than 1,000 movies to the Philips Net TV (series 7000, 8000, and 9000) in the U.K., Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. catalogue NetTV users will pay €2.99 for 48-hour access to each film and will be able to buy films individually, on subscription or against a pre-paid account. Subscribers will also be able to use the diva.tv website to choose to view purchased movies on Android mobile phones and other devices, with Apple iPhones to follow shortly.
• At the same time, Diva TV VoD content will ve available on Samsung Internet @ TVs in Germany, Switzerland, and the U.K.
  
  
  
  
  
  

The European market for connected TVs is heating up

France’s Orange is in talks with TV manufacturers Samsung, LG and Panasonic to integrate its services with TVs connected to the internet, according to a report in French financial daily Les Echos.

The number of actors attempting to bring the connected TV vision to reality in Europe is quite diverse. I am organizing my analysis of the market by the following categories:

• Operators acting independently (Orange);
• Operators acting within the framework of the Open IPTV Forum;
• Content owners and CE manufacturers (HbbTV);
• Technology vendors (IBM WebSphere Portal, Yahoo! Connected TV, etc.); and
• Connected TV companies acting independently to sign deals with individual content owners/providers.