SFR to launch new Ultra HD box and SVoD service

French pay TV operator SFR is due to launch a new 4K Ultra HD gateway, called La Box Fibre Zive de SFR, on November 17 along with a Zive-branded SVoD service.

The Zive SVoD offering will be available through the new box and will be exclusive to SFR customers in France. It is due to include 5,000 HD programs and nearly 600 items of content in 4K/UHD.

The all-in-one multimedia home gateway, meanwhile, will run on SFR’s fibre network and include a 1Gbps modem, a 4K/Ultra HD TV decoder and a 500GB hard drive for recording programmes.

The box includes dual band 802.11ac WiFi support and HDMI input so that users can plug in devices like games consoles, Blu-ray players and Chromecast streaming players.

La Box Fibre Zive de SFR has multiscreen capabilities, eight tuners, a ‘restart’ function for watching back live programmes.  It also lets users watch a live UHD stream while keeping an eye on another channel using the ‘Picture in Picture’ function, at the same time as recording another two streams.

The device includes NFC and Bluetooth technology, designed to make it easy for users to sync up devices like mobile phones.

Altice Group-owned SFR will use Nagra’s anyCAST content protection to secure the La Box Fibre Zive de SFR home gateway. It will use Nagra’s MediaLive multiscreen and video player solution to power its on-demand catalogue and ShareCast streaming functionality.

Earlier this year rival French operator, Free, launched a new entry-level 4K small form factor set-top box, the Freebox Mini 4K. This was a replacement for its Crystal device, and allowed Free to claim a stake as the first operator globally to launch a 4K box.