MIPCOM 2019: Rakuten AVOD service makes Euro debut
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Editor
| 15 October 2019

Stealing a march on prospective rivals in the advertising-funded video-on-demand sector, Rakuten TV has announced the launch of its first AVOD channels within its platform in Europe.

Expanding its business model proposition and meeting the changing needs of viewers, the move makes Rakuten TV to be the first to combine TVOD and AVOD products across Europe.

In a time when the streaming industry is increasingly changing and exploring avenues such as AVOD, Rakuten TV says it is proud to pioneer this trend in Europe as the main VOD platform combining different business models: TVOD, AVOD and SVOD.

The free section of Rakuten TV will launch with an initial offer including Hollywood and local content and will be expanded over the coming months to include exclusive Rakuten content, TV series, documentary series, news and sport channels. The offer will combine linear and on-demand.

Among the exclusive content, Rakuten TV will present on its AVOD channel Matchday - Inside FC Barcelona, the new documentary series about FC Barcelona — for whom Rakuten is a sponsor —from the inside, offering previously unseen and exclusive scenes from the players’ private lives. Narrated by John Malkovich, Matchday – Inside FC Barcelona is a creation of Barça Studios, FC Barcelona’s own production house, in collaboration with Kosmos Studios, and Rakuten in association with Rakuten H Collective Studio and Producciones del Barrio.

The service will be available in beta version, across the complete 2019 Rakuten smart TV line up, and will be progressively rolled out to other platforms including mobile and desktop.

“We are incredibly proud to take this step after having tripled our presence in Europe just a few months ago.,” stated Jacinto Roca, Rakuten TV founder and CEO. “Rakuten TV continues to evolve rapidly alongside consumer trends within the industry, where there is a clear trend of advertisers moving away from linear TV and towards VOD. This is a unique opportunity for Rakuten TV which has already direct access to millions of European households through its branded remote control button of the main smart TV brands. This is the mere beginning of a huge project which will see the launch of additional channels and exclusive content in the coming months.”

The AVOD announcement comes alongside a renewed platform design for Rakuten TV, with what the company says is a more attractive look and feel, a more intuitive user interface and a simpler user journey. Within the new interface, viewers will discover the new channel offering featuring ad-supported content inside the free section implemented within the header menu.