French viewers want ‘Spotify for video’

Despite a range of options for accessing TV and movies, French viewers would like to see the introduction of a Spotify-style service for video, according to Bouygues Telecom exec Martin Kaiser.

Speaking at the Arris-Motorola Video Leadership Forum event in Berlin earlier this week, Bouygues Telecom’s director of roadmap services said that based on consumer research, viewers said that existing video services all had drawbacks – either in choice or user experience.

“When we ask the question, what do you really want, if it has to be legal, what are the answers that the customers give to us? They say, well, in France at least, we really love Spotify. What we want is the video version of Spotify,” said Kaiser.

He said a comprehensive online service like this, that would give viewers online and offline access to unlimited video content, should cost between €5 and €15, according to consumers – who likened the idea to existing unlimited cinema passes.

Discussing the existing options already in the market, Kaiser said that while DVDs are easy to use, they are too costly, difficult to find and are a “dying medium.” VOD services were also found to be too costly with too little choice of content spread across a large number of stores. Illegal streaming sites meanwhile offered a bad service that could not easily be shared, according to the market research, leaving the door open for a compelling legal alternative.