Box TV launches music channels via Red Button on Freeview

Music broadcaster Box TV has launched a free live streaming service and interactive Freeview portal for its portfolio of music channels.

Channels 4Music, heat, Kiss, Kerrang!, Box, Smash Hits and Magic can now be viewed for free through a new simulcast service on 4Music.com and the respective channel websites. The channels are being made available via a bespoke video player and content will be available on the web and via mobile and tablet devices.

Box TV has also launched a new interactive TV portal that gives 4Music viewers on the Freeview platform access to three of the channels – Magic, Kiss and Kerrang! – via the Red Button.

According to the broadcaster, this is the first time live IP streams have been added to a broadcast digital-terrestrial TV channel to create a portal of additional content.

It also marks the first time an MHEG-ICS service has made use of encryption to protect the streams.

Box TV has chosen SimpleStream to provide the platform for the live streaming services. The simulcast service launch follows Box TV’s channels becoming free-to-air services on Sky and all but 4Music becoming free-to-air on the Freesat platform.

Julie Wright, business development and commercial director at Box TV, said: “Music and TV consumption patterns are changing and we are now able to meet our core 16-34 audiences on their preferred connected device and on compatible Freeview devices. We’re offering innovative, editorially curated and legal alternatives to pirate internet TV services and are giving our advertisers exciting new opportunities to market their brands and products.”