AB Group to launch French SVOD service in January

France’s AB Group plans to launch a subscription video-on-demand service called Jook Video in January.

Jean-Michel Fava, president of the group’s pay TV service ABSat, this week said that the service will launch on January 10, a little later than initially envisaged. Speaking at an NPA conference, he said that the service would go beyond a recycling of AB’s own catalogue and would be priced aggressively at €6.99 a month, without the need for an ongoing subscription.

The service will offer movies, series, kids programming, sport and factual programming, according to Fava. The group hopes to sign up between 50,000-60,000 subscribers within the first year and expects to break even with 300,000. The group is in discussion with French ISPs about carrying the service as part of their bouquets.

AB Group, which is one-third owned by TF1, holds rights to a catalogue of over 1,500 French titles. Jook Video will compete with the existing CanalPlay Infinity service. There has also been speculation that Amazon could launch an SVOD service in France next year – fuelled by comments made by Canal Plus CEO Bertrand Méheut in October when giving evidence before the country’s Conseil d’État.