All3Media leads charge of content companies looking to address viewers direct

Production company All3Media will launch its own smart TV app on Samsung’s platform in the next couple of weeks with an app for the LG smart TV platform to follow.

The objective is to deliver better brand awareness for the company by going direct to consumers, according to Bill Scott, chief operating and commercial officer at Easel TV, which developed the app.

The app initially plays a sequence of clips from All3Media programmes, opening up a full screen video experience, which presents the company’s brand in a 30-second showreel that plays the first five times viewers run the app. The app also presents an editorially curated playlist of shows. Consumers can sit through a full clip or skip, and they have the option to watch the full show. Viewers can be offered 48 hour rental of a show for a micropayment.

“The objective is to be more like a TV channel. You’re getting a video based experience whatever you are doing,” said Scott at the MIPCube event in Cannes on Saturday. “The app is designed to be a leanback experience.”

The app will initially be available in the UK and US. In the US, it will be branded as ‘Best of British’, while in the UK it will use the tagline ‘From The Makers of…’. Payments to view shows can be made via PayWizard’s prepaid e-wallet. The app uses the Ooyala content management system and delivers 720p quality video using adaptive bitrate encoding.

Easel TV is responsible for TiVo’s operations in the UK.