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ITV’s paid service, ITV Pay Player, is finally coming this year — but not to your iPad, phone or tablet. The home of Coronation Street, Take Me Out, America’s Got Talent, Jeremy Kyle, Emmerdale, Mark Wright’s Hollywood Nights, Lorraine, The Cube and The Only Way is Essex has laid out its plans to take your money in exchange for quality television of the highest calibre.
ITV boss Adam Crozier revealed details for the ITV Pay Player this week, announcing that it’ll go live this autumn and will initially work only on PCs.
Pricing is yet to be announced, but we know that you’ll have to rent each film or show individually rather than paying a subscription. Over 1,000 hours of single episodes, complete series or films will be available to rent. Once you’ve paid, the rented show or film won’t have advert breaks.
The ITV rental service has been on trial recently in 5,000 homes. The Autumn launch is a long delay from ITV’s earlier projections: the channel announced this time last year that the paid service would launch before the start of 2012, meaning it’s a year late.
That delay and the fact that ITV Pay Player won’t run on tablets and phones could be a big problem for the broadcaster. Other paid services such as Netflix and Lovefilm have had plenty of time to establish themselves with users, and even Sky has got in on the act with the new Now TV service. Meanwhile iPlayer goes from strength — and all these services are seeing explosive growth on mobile devices, which ITV will miss out on.
ITV Player, the online catch-up service, continues to be free. It’s also included in YouView, the new set-top box that turns any TV into an Internet-connected smart TV.
Is ITV too late to the game? Is there anything on ITV you’d pay to watch? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.
