TV4 is taking the next big step – launching TV4 Play

After having launched their catch up service TV4 Replay in January, TV4 today took the next big step towards a complete online offering. Unlike TV4 Replay, the new service launching today called TV4 Play, will consist of both short and long form content.

After a quick test-drive I can easily say they currently have the best commercial online video offering in the Nordics, in the broadcast league at least. They’ve pushed the new player very hard to having everything from external embedding, chapters and Facebook connect-powered chat. The experience is great and reminding a lot of the big successes out there being BBC iPlayer, Hulu and SVT Play.

The site is currently being monetised through prerolls, midrolls and overlays using our technology. There’s very few display ads around, which I think is good, encouraging more video consumption and thus more valuable in-stream inventory.

The challenge is to find the perfect balance between a pleasant user experience, large enough ad inventory and value for the advertisers. The key here I believe is to work with the different frequency settings and Monetizer is full of them since video is mainly a time based medium.

I’m really excited to work with a proactive client like this, we have a lot to learn from each other and explore together.

Here’s an example of their embedded player (it doesn’t seem to be geo-blocked outside Sweden, yet):