Referred to as ‘the Spotify for movies’, on-demand video service, Voddler, is being pioneered in Scandinavia.
Already around 400,000 Swedes are streaming free videos via Voddler, and the service is reported to be taking on Norway, Denmark and Finland this year. Deals with Disney and Paramount accelerated the success story last October, giving Voddler the access to thousands of their titles.
Voddler was founded in Stockholm in 2005 and released to beta testing in July 2009. Aiming to offer a legal way to watch whatever, whenever, at little or no cost, Voddler resembles another Swedish file sharing success, Spotify. Launched in 2006, Spotify is currently providing music to millions of users.
Zoran Slavic, Voddler’s executive vice president, believes that file sharing and internet piracy have changed the way people expect to be able to see movies. Free films are “the way of the future”, he stated.
According to Slavic, Sweden’s high internet penetration and the huge number of broadband-enabled households in the country make it an ideal market for Hollywood studios to test new online film distribution models.
Voddler’s free service is enabled by advertising that is placed only at the beginning of the film – unlike in Spotify, where users listen to ads between songs. The whole film is shown without interruptions.
Have a look at Voddler here: http://www.voddler.com/
Sources: The Local
Feature article
Following the huge success of the BBC’s iPlayer, the web is slowly filling up with on-demand services. Free content to anyone, anytime – a new channel of distribution is challenging the traditional ways we consume media.
Read our feature article on on-demand services
Tags: on-demand, spotify, voddler
Posted in Case Studies