US satellite broadcaster DirecTV has soft-launched its long-anticipated Spanish-language OTT streaming service Yaveo.
The service offers three live TV channels and 2,700 hours of on-demand content for $7.99 a month. It’s only available in the US and operates separately from DirecTV so subscribers don’t need a satellite TV subscription to access its content.
Yaveo’s live TV channels include Hola TV, BeIn Sport and Cine Sony Television, while the on-demand content is provided by Univision, MTV, Cine Sony Television, Caracol, TMN, Nick en Espanol and Canal Once, among others.
At launch, the service is available on the web and Android devices, but DirecTV plans to bring it to iOS and connected TV platforms such as Xbox, Chromecast and Roku soon.
DirecTV’s chief revenue and marketing officer, Paul Guyardo, hinted that this might be the first in a series of niche OTT offerings from the satellite broadcaster.
“Yaveo gets DirecTV into the OTT business and we’re excited to start with a compelling Spanish-language service targeted to the Hispanic community,” said Guyardo in a statement. “We’ll learn a great deal, use the findings to grow and improve the Yaveo platform and expand our OTT offering over time.”
DirecTV is planning a merger with AT&T, which is partnered with the Chernin Group in $500m online video joint venture Otter Media.
Otter Media owns majority stakes in multi-channel network Fullscreen and US-based VOD platform Crunchyroll, which specialises in Japanese anime and other Asian content.