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UPC HAVE OFFICIALLY launched their streaming service My Prime as a replacement for their previous On Demand digital service.
My Prime had been available for much of the past three weeks by way of a ‘soft launch’, an effort to get current subscribers used to the system.
The service comes officially free for Horizon customers (UPC’s upgraded digital network that includes multi-screen viewing and mobile service), although those customers on older digital subscriptions will be expected to pay €5 a month to use it.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, UPC’s head of commercial Bill Blake explained that this charge is negligible as “in 99% of cases if a customer switches to Horizon the monthly fees are identical”.
When asked what the split of UPC’s tv customer base is between Horizon and older packages Blake admitted that 61% of the firm’s 330,000 subscribers are still on older digital services.
This would suggest that My Prime is being offered as a sort of carrot to convince those 200,000 customers to switch to the Horizon service.
Official figures are currently unavailable but it seems that My Prime has launched with a lineup of in the region of 300 individual movies, box sets and children’s series.
The official listing on UPC’s website is a little, shall we say, underwhelming, although some of the titles mentioned at today’s launch are yet to show up as part of the online catalogue.
Examples include TV series such as Love/Hate, Devious Maids and the Daniel Day-Lewis movie epic There Will Be Blood.
The line-up still pales in comparison to the many thousands of titles available on, say, Netflix for example which leaves My Prime with a deal of catching up to do if it wants to make any kind of impression in the increasingly competitive streaming market.
In the lead-up to the launch of My Prime some UPC customers had voiced displeasure online at being offered the streaming as a consolation for a price hike.
The customers in question were frustrated that UPC would not reveal details of My Prime’s line-up in advance of the hike thus making an educated decision on whether or not to stay with the company impossible.
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