WASHINGTON, October 15 (RIA Novosti)- Ukraine’s Divan.TV has launched an international television and video service targeting Russian and Ukrainian speakers worldwide, and will split its head office functions between California and Moscow as part of its expansion plans, according to media reports.
The service, described as an “Over-the-Top” application (OTT), will provide subscribers with 60 television channels and also video-on-demand over the Internet, the website Broadband TV News reported Tuesday.
An OTT application refers to a system that uses the Internet to bypass traditional distribution networks such as telephone or cable television companies, according to techopedia.com.
This means that Divan.TV’s channels will be accessible via so-called smart televisions which enable users to find content on the web, the Roku media player and also tablet computers using Android or Apple’s iOS operating systems DigitalTVEurope.net reported Tuesday.
Divan.TV says it plans to spend “millions” on its expansion drive and Broadband TV News quoted founder Andrey Kolodyuk as saying the firm planned to serve as many as three million customers in the next three or four years, while hoping to break even on the service within two-and-a-half years.
Launched in Ukraine in 2009, Divan.TV currently has around 125,000 subscribers, according to DigitalTVEurope.net.
