Voddler video-on-demand service free to the people (of Sweden)
Voddler, the year old video-on-demand service that's wowing them in Western Europe (much like Sandra Kim did when she won Eurovision for Belgium in 1986) has just announced that as of today it is offering open enrollment to users in Sweden. The company is already boasting over 600,000 registered users (up until now, invitations were required), contracts with five of America's major movie studios, and Scandinavia's biggest assortment of free movies and TV shows. Sadly, if you're a displaced Norwegian living in the states, this will all do you no good at all: the service is not available in the US of A. We suppose this is all payback for Hulu's restrictions from international fans of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Either way, the situation is pretty "wackadoo." We've heard on the street that the service, which features a ten foot interface for living room friendly viewing and utilizes a P2PTV overlay network (similar to Vudu) for streaming should eventually hit the states, although there doesn't seem to be a timeline on that. PR after the break.
[Thanks, Karl]
Show full PR text
Voddler now offering free films to all 3.5 million broadband households in Sweden
July 01, 2010, 07:28
From today, just in time for the start of the summer holidays, Voddler is open to everyone in Sweden. A personal invitation is no longer necessary to be able to use the Swedish film service Voddler. Throughout Sweden, anyone who wants to may now legally watch movies directly at www.voddler.com and choose from more than 1600 free Voddler titles.
Today, Entertainment and Film Service Voddler (www.voddler.com) already has more than 600,000 registered users, but up until now a personal invitation or "invite" was necessary to gain access to the service. This all changes today, now that Voddler is open for anyone who wants to use it.
"We're really happy to be able to invite the entire population of Sweden to watch free movies at Voddler. Our technical infrastructure is now ready to welcome every one of the 3.5 million broadband households in Sweden," says Voddler's marketing manager Björn Isakson.
Voddler currently has contracts with the world's leading film companies – including five of the six big American studios – and shows tens of thousands of films every day. In addition to Scandinavia's biggest assortment of free movies and TV series, Voddler naturally has the latest rental movies from Hollywood, such as "Alice in Wonderland" and "Sherlock Holmes".
In all Voddler can currently provide over 2,000 titles, including movies, TV series and documentaries. The major part of the catalogue – around 1600 titles – is free to watch with a small block of adverts right before the movie. Around 400 titles are pay-per-view movies that cost between SEK 27 and 37.
"The catalogue is expanding all the time for free and pay-per-view movies alike. If you find a good movie today and return again in a week there'll be several hundred more titles to choose from. And that's how we aim to continue as we gain more and more film rights," says Zoran Slavic, deputy MD at Voddler.
From today Voddler is also open to all-comers in Norway, although the system of personal invites will continue for a while in Finland and Denmark.
