EXCLUSIVE: A Canadian company, MyTvPal.com is evaluating the Australian market with a view to launching a brand new content service that will allow Australians to access over 1,000 channels of content for free. They will also have access to 1080p movies and 1080p IMAX documentaries.
Key to the free service for consumers is the placement of advertising in the content. For content that is not free, such as first run movies, a charge of between US$3.99 for 720 content and $5.99 for 1080p HD content will apply.
All that consumers will have to pay to get the free service is a MyTvPal set top box which will cost around US$350.
The issue for MyTvPal.com is finding the right data centre partners as well as retailers or a distributor that can sell their set top boxes in Australia.
Aaron Keogh the Content Director for the company said in an exclusive interview with SmartHouse, “We are able to provide our TV channel service worldwide. Currently we are providing our HD VOD service in North America only, however we do aim to provide our HD VOD service in countries such as Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom in the next 6 – 12 months.”
“Currently we are looking at the Australian market with a view to launching our service. To do so we need an excellent deal with a data centre that can deliver a fast broadband service such as ADSL+2. We also need to line up resellers to sell our set top box which will retail in Australia for around $350 US”.
The MyTvPal.com service is based on fast streaming technology provided to end user over PC Player for PC and high definition set top boxes for TV. Recently the service surpassed Apple TV and Joost in the US market.
Said Keogh, “In the age of Internet TV the battle over eyeballs will be won by the service provider who can provide a wide variety of content with high video quality that plays instantly over low bandwidth over both PC and TV.
With MyTVPal you can view over 1000+ free live TV channels and thousands of video on demand movies, documentaries, extreme sports, Travel, and IMAX 15/70 formatted titles, in DVD and High Definition streaming instantly on their PC via PC Player and TV via set top box. MyTVPAL streams instantly over any 1.5mbps or better connections.
Unlike other content service providers such as XBOX, Apple TV, Cinema Now, Movielink, Babelgum, Joost, and other PC and set top box video on demand service providers that offer a slow download and / or unstable P2P only solutions with sub DVD picture quality, and no live TV channels.
MyTVPal.com offers both live TV channels and video on demand content that instantly streams from DVD quality up 1080p high definition over 1.5mbps and up.
In terms of service provider offering MyTVPal.com believes that users should have the choice to view content via pay per view or no charge through user targeted advertising.
The launch of a MyTVPal.com service will put pressure on companies like Cisco, Apple and Microsoft, all technology companies that are lining up content to provide new TV streaming services. Content streaming will also take market share away from Foxtel and the yet to be launched TiVo service from Seven Media. This service is not expected till at least mid 2008 after TiVo executives admitted that they could not supply digital Tivo boxes for Australia untill next year.
The most interesting part of this IPTV foray is that MyTVPal.com is also offering streaming to a PC in lieu of a set-top box. The MyTVPal PC player is designed to watch lower quality Internet TV broadcasts as well as high quality HD videos, and is looking to offer channels from around the world. By using the latest MPEG 4 compression technology, you supposedly can watch all the videos instantly from the internet full screen and high quality from near dvd quality up to high definition depending on your internet connection.
