'Spotify for TV' Magine terrifies Euro players with smart TV deals Magine TV, the Swedish cloud-based OTT service that threatens to blow a hole through European TV, has signed up smart TV makers LG Electronics, Panasonic, and TP Vision (selling Philips TVs). The service, described as “cable in the cloud” and sometimes as “Spotify for TV”, has gained well over 500,000 subscribers in Sweden in …
Indeed, although in the UK they not only have to compete with Murdoch but also with Youview, either standalone or in its (spit) BT Vision flavour, and (for catchup and movies rather than live) maybe Roku etc too?
What does it do for me that an up front payment for a Youview-capable PVR doesn't buy for me, with no ongoing commitment?
What does it do for me that an ongoing contract for BT Vision (or current alias) doesn't buy for me, with no upfront payment?
What does it do for me that a one off £40 Roku or similar box plus a Netflix/Lovefilm subscription doesn't buy for me?
...that I can watch, for example, Netherlands v Turkey trying in World Cup qualifiers while living in the UK... (without resorting to terrible illegal Chinese streams/SOPcast etc). It is so annoying that there is no real single market in the EU in television, and ridiculous licence agreements prevent me watching things I may be interested in.. in this case European national teams competing for Euro/World cup games.
you're assuming the "single European market" is designed to benefit ordinary citizens, or indeed ordinary companies, not those who have Eurocrats & politicians in their pocketses.
For there to be a genuine single European market, the rules to which you refer would not exist (and would be illegal), and there would be no silly rules about what amount of content should come from which country of origin for TV/films/sports, or "protection" of language, or other similar nonsense. A free market cannot exist with such silliness - but if people care about those sorts of things, the market will reflect that, on the whole.
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