With Connect TV, Arqiva Gains a Tool for Melding OTT, YouView in the U.K.

Media infrastructure company Arqiva (News - Alert) has acquired Connect TV, the platform that brings over-the-top (OTT) content to the U.K.'s collection of over-the-air digital television offerings, collectively dubbed Freeview.

The deal gives Arqiva a strong stake in the connected living room in the United Kingdom.

Unlike the U.S., where free-to-air reception via antenna is a dying reality, about 60 percent of households across the pond rely to some extent on Freeview to access TV. About five million U.K. viewers also have a Freeview HD device, which can connect to the Internet and make use of Connect TV’s mix of free and paid content offerings, including 45 channels.

Arqiva will be able to leverage Connect TV’s content relationships and technology to build a hybrid service offering that combines broadcast and OTT fare into packages for TV operators and media companies. Hybrid approaches are ripe for greater advertising opportunities, the rollout of multiscreen, integrated content strategy and the ability to offer better personalization for viewers, as well as a mix of free and paid business models.

"The [Connect TV] acquisition offers viewers an exciting new TV viewing platform with fantastic opportunities to create greater functionality and routes to access content,” said Jonathan Marshall, CTO at Connect TV.

The acquisition also dovetails nicely with the recent launch of YouView, a service with backing by the U.K.’s four main free-to-air terrestrial broadcasters, Arqiva and IPTV (News - Alert) operators BT and TalkTalk.

YouView looks to add a mix of paid on-demand services to its arsenal, as well as beef up its broadcast offerings with more OTT content – which Arqiva, through this acquisition, can now provide to the platform.

There’s certainly a competitive imperative here as well. For instance, free satellite provider Freesat has launched a new generation of Internet-connected set-top boxes that includes a backwards TV guide and catch-up services from the major U.K. free-to-air broadcasters, aimed at somewhat replicating Freeview and its ilk in the satellite space, and giving more competitive wings to that delivery media.

Freesat’s new boxes will initially include on-demand services from the BBC and ITV – Freesat’s two joint venture partners. Channel 4′s 4oD and Channel 5′s Demand 5 services will be added this fall. And, it is extending its on-demand offerings to include paid video-on-demand (VOD) offerings like Netflix.

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