With the end of the year in sight, it’s time to take a look back at what 2016 had to offer. What’s clear is that the startup industry is still flourishing, with many young entrepreneurs that have plenty of innovative, disruptive ideas for the future. The following days we will be looking back at the startups that stood out to us particularly, and ask them about 2016 and their plans for the future. Today: paid television startup Mobile2Morrow TV.
No commitment
Television without commitment, that’s the three word pitch of Dutch paid television startup Mobile2Morrow TV. It’s the first television service in the Netherlands that offers channels a la carte: as a viewer, you have total control over the amount of channels you want to subscribe to, which can save consumers quite some money.
Ups and downs
Like every startup, Mobile2Morrow faced its fair share of ups and downs in 2016. “As our concept is still pretty new, we can’t really compare to others and need to be able to adapt quickly to changing circumstances,” says Suzanne Duijndam, who is in charge of M2M’s marketing. “So far, nothing has been impossible and we keep that as a mindset. The team has made great efforts to make it work solidly and stable and we’re working very well together. And above all, we really love and enjoy what we are doing! One of the hardest parts was sticking to the timelines. Some parts took way more time and effort than anticipated. Nothing we couldn’t handle, but definitely something to keep in mind for next year.”
Biggest step
“First of all of course there was the launch of our platform M2M TV. OTT a la carte television is relatively new, especially for some of the target groups we have in mind. M2M TV is a worldwide service with specific target groups like expats, Dutch Turks or Indian people in the UK. We’re also aiming for the niche and special interest channels that are either not available or coming in large packages, like channels about motorsports, fighting or fashion. Of course, this doesn’t rule out that we still want to become the main distributor in the future. Next to launching our platform, we are also very happy with our system. We can conclude we made a rock-solid system. We’re getting mainly positive reactions from both customers as well as the channel owners.”
2017: finetuning and expansion
For 2017, M2M will focus on fine-tuning and on expanding their service to create an even better customer experience. Duijndam: “The channel line-up is growing on a weekly basis, which makes us more and more interesting as an alternative of add-on services for new customers everywhere. The basis is there, it now comes down to expanding. VOD, 4K and localized subtitling are high on the list for now.”
M2M’s ultimate goal? To make M2M TV an all-round entertainment service where people turn to if they want to watch movies, series or linear TV. “And off course we will keep adding channels from all across the world.”