Hulu may be the second-most popular video hosting site in the United States, but it's being upstaged in the United Kingdom by upstart SeeSaw, which launches there today with more than 3,000 hours of content from partners BBC Worldwide, Channel 4, Five and a number of other independent production companies.
The free service requires no log-in details, and has an easy-to-use interface that includes cast and crew, a synopsis of the episode and a series overview. Sadly, most content is unavailable to viewers outside the U.K. and Ireland.
SeeSaw is owned by media services company Arqiva and just completed beta trials with some 20,000 users. While the company is still looking to get a deal in place with ITV, its current line up still gives it more content than any other available "catch-up" website in the U.K.
"We estimate that there are two and half million people in the U.K. regularly watching TV via video on demand services such as the BBC iPlayer," Pierre-Jean Sebert, former managing director of British Eurosport and now SeeSaw's CEO told The Telegraph. "We are initially targeting this group via an online advertising campaign and then moving our marketing efforts onto TV in order to capture the 13 million people who have used both linear and web TV services--but are still more reliant upon the big screen."
Hulu, which is hoping to launch a VOD service in the U.K. later this year, is still facing a number of licensing issues that has kept it in the starting gate.
For more:
- see this Telegraph article
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