NBCU launches hayu in Canada
TORONTO – For $5.99 a month, Canadians can now have streaming access to over 6,000 episodes of over 200 reality shows with the launch of NBCUniversal’s over-the-top streaming portal hayu in Canada.
That means Keeping Up with the Kardashians, The Real Housewives and Million Dollar Listing franchises, among many others, will be at subscribers’ fingertips on any device, anywhere in the country. It also means that Canadian broadcasters such as Bell Media and Corus Entertainment, who own the TV rights to these U.S. shows, will not get access to streaming rights as those will remain exclusively with hayu here.
The launch in Canada comes after hayu’s debut in the U.K. and Ireland two years ago, which was followed afterwards in Australia, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The company says it has no plans at this time to launch hayu in the United States and had earlier this year said it would come to Canada.
In an interview with Cartt.ca on Tuesday, Hendrik McDermott, senior vice-president of branded on-demand, NBCUniversal International (and a Toronto native) said the content on hayu in Canada will be virtually identical as what is on offer in the rest of the world, which is taken directly from the current schedules and back catalogues of the likes of NBCU’s Bravo!, Oxygen, E! and others.
Shows will be made available on hayu in Canada at the same time or immediately after they air on television.
While the portal does offer some local content in some foreign markets, like Britain’s Made in Chelsea and Australia’s The Real Housewives of Sydney (as well as some titles acquired from other broadcasters such as Viacom), hayu is not launching here with any Cancon – but McDermott wants some. “We have some content announcements that will be coming out probably in the next month or so,” he said. “We are actively looking at content acquisition at the moment.” He added that hayu may look to do some of its own made-in-Canada content in the future.
While reality fans will undoubtedly enjoy having Kim K and her ilk at their fingertips 24/7, it’s doubtful the Canadian broadcasters are quite so pleased since while they will retain their rights for the TV world, reaching those pesky millennials who are fans of these shows and celebrities online will now be a missing piece of their puzzle.
“We do see plenty of opportunity for partnerships and it's something that we'll begin exploring in this market pretty much immediately.” – Hendrik McDermott, NBCU
Hayu’s launch plans include most of the traditional forms of advertising – and an app that will be available on many platforms including Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku. While hayu is available on cable provider set-tops like Virgin’s TiVo in the U.K. (which “is our strongest performing app from an engagement perspective,” said McDermott), deals with Canadian carriers are desired, but have not yet begun. “We do see plenty of opportunity for partnerships and it's something that we'll begin exploring in this market pretty much immediately,” he added.
McDermott declined to discuss subscriber figures as NBCU has not yet announced how many hayu has to this point. “What I can tell you is we're very pleased with our existing businesses, which I think is demonstrated by the fact that we've been on a very clear expansion path… we've been very pleased with the uptake so far.”
Finally, what would a discussion about a foreign OTT video service these days be without a question about collecting sales tax. McDermott confirmed hayu won’t be (because, like Netflix and others they aren’t required to do so), but it would collect it if levels of government told it to. “We collect sales tax in the United Kingdom where we are required to, but our understanding is that is not applicable to OTT services (in Canada) at the moment, but if that changes, we will of course comply with any rule that that is in place.”
