Liberty promises further Horizon improvements

Liberty Global’s Horizon

Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries has said that the company is working to introduce improvements to its Horizon next-generation TV service every quarter and is gearing up to launch a cloud-based version of the service.

Speaking on the Liberty earnings call on Friday, Fries said that Liberty had worked to address complaints about the service in Horizon’s launch markets of the Netherlands and Switzerland, with forthcoming releases of the product in Germany and Ireland to include these enhancements.

Referring to the Horizon launches to date, Fries said that “as with any innovative new product on the marketplace, you have bumps on the road,” but claimed that a code update in Swtizerland and the Netherlands had “dramatically improved” the service.

This update included a more effective internet interface, simplified menu options, while a new remote with a keyboard has a “much better look and feel.”

“Lots of the things that we intended the product to be ultimately are rapidly being introduced, so you can expect that every quarter we’ll be improving our Horizon product. Every market where it launches down the road we’ll have a better Horizon product launch,” said Fries.

He added that a cloud-based version of Horizon user-interface was demoed to the board the week earlier. He claimed this was now ready to launch and would make future releases of the service simpler and more cost-effective.
In total, Liberty said that it’s next-generation web-connected TV service, Horizon TV, had more than 270,000 subscribers as of the end of July – 185,000 in the Netherlands and 85,000 in Switzerland. On the earnings call, Fries said that a German launch is planned for “early September” with an Irish rollout also imminent.