QuickPlay Credits Users Of New BlackBerry TV Service For Enduring Content Delays
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Two weeks after Toronto-based QuickPlay Media launched its highly anticipated mobile TV service on BlackBerry’s new App World, it is crediting subscribers $7.99—equal to a one-month subscription—for failing to load enough content into the service in a timely manner.
SEE ALSO: @ CTIA: BlackBerry App World Goes Live
The mobile TV service, called PrimeTime2Go, allows users to download an unlimited number of TV shows per month from from popular shows, such as “90210,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Jon Stewart Show,” “Monk,” and others. The episodes expire after a couple of weeks and then are deleted from the device. The downloads are initially conducted over Wi-Fi, and then subscribers can watch them them at any time—even when they do not have a cellular connection, a benefit of the service.
Last week, early subscribers received an email informing them about the credit. “We have had some unexpected delays with adding shows to the PrimeTime2Go service. As you have probably noticed we have been working hard to address this and the content line up continues to grow. In recognition of the inconvenience that you have experienced as an early subscriber to the service we have applied a credit equivalent to one month’s service ($7.99 USD) to your PayPal account.”
When contacted, the company didn’t offer many more details about the delay, other than to say that “they’re adding content on a continual basis and that it should be up to date soon…Regarding the credit, some of the shows took a bit longer than expected to be available so we thought it was the right thing to do for early subscribers.”
In occasional use over the past couple of weeks, I didn’t notice a lack of content. There’s 19 TV networks participating, including NBC, ABC, CBS (NYSE: CBS), Comedy Central, Disney, Nickelodeon, CW, MTV, and ESPN (NYSE: DIS). But where things seemed a little light were in the number of episodes available for each show. For example, CBS’s “NCIS” has only one episode available for download and NBC’s popular “30 Rock” has two. While there’s hours of content available, I can see how subscribers would want the popular shows to be updated on a weekly basis—like they are on TVs in their living room. Overall, the service works fairly smoothly, and I had no complaints. Only once was my show interrupted by a call, and then when I flipped back, it started over from the beginning of the show. Otherwise, it’s intelligent enough to pick up where it left off.
@triciad
May 20, 2009 5:45 PM ET
Posted In: Entertainment, Media & Publishing, TV, Social Media, Video, Companies, RIM
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