MediaMall Technologies, Inc.’s PlayOn. PlayOn announced HBO GO and the production release of My Media as part of their revamped free PlayOn Lite product today. PlayOn Lite is the lesser-known free version of PlayOn that will continue to work even after a customer’s 14-day PlayOn Premium trial has expired. PlayOn allows customers to turn their PC into a media server that serves Internet and local PC video content to their Roku, Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or Android/iOS mobile device. While PlayOn Premium offers heavy-hitter online channels like NBC.com, ABC.com, Fox.com, Hulu, Comedy Central, and Amazon VOD, PlayOn Lite offers YouTube, Pandora, and customers’ own locally-stored media (My Media), and for a limited time HBO GO for free. For more info, see http://www.playon.tv/playon-lite.
“There’s a wide array of TV show and movie entertainment readily available to consumers on their PC's. However, much of that content is not available on the living room televisions in those very same households. This is where PlayOn comes in. With PlayOn, if you can watch it on your PC, you can watch it on your TV. That’s because your PC is doing all the work, and then magically showing the videos on your TV,” remarks PlayOn CTO David Karlton. "We feel like once people get it, they will realize they'll be getting more and better TV entertainment, and saving money at the same time -- a rare combination.”
PlayOn Lite fills a void for many customers. You can now listen to Pandora on your Xbox or watch YouTube videos on your Roku. It works seamlessly, running in the background on a customer’s PC.
"You navigate to your favorite channels and shows, sitting right on your living room sofa, using your device's remote control, just like with any other TV experience. The PC is a silent partner in the whole process. The only requirement is that the networked PC is on, and PlayOn is running in the background," continues Karlton. "In fact, someone can be surfing the web or writing an email on that very same computer, and not even know that PlayOn is running. Our product takes all the complications out of the equation, making the experience as simple as how you watch cable television today. We urge people to try it out -- it's got a free trial, and a very high percentage of our customers actually cancel their cable subscriptions once they discover PlayOn."
All PlayOn customers get a 14-day free trial of PlayOn Premium. After that trial is up, they will continue to receive all PlayOn Lite channels for free. The My Media channel allows customers to watch their own media stored on their PC on their living room TV. My Media has been significantly improved and taken out of beta for this latest release. Some of the improvements include support for media on USB-attached devices and network shares, and thumbnail and cover art for music and videos.
PlayOn also announced that they are adding HBO GO to PlayOn Lite for a limited time. HBO GO has been blocked on set top devices and gaming consoles by certain cable providers. PlayOn allows customers of those services to view HBO GO in their living room.
“Millions of customers that are paying for HBO are being denied access to all of their offerings, while other customers are not,” says PlayOn CEO Jeff Lawrence. “It’s a really peculiar decision on the part of Time Warner to not allow their customers to watch HBO GO on a Roku or Xbox 360. Comcast, the largest cable provider, also continues to block HBO GO on a Roku. Now, PlayOn allows Comcast, Time Warner and any other Cable/Satellite provider’s customers access to HBO GO on all of their compatible devices. If they are eligible to watch HBO GO on their PC, we’ll get it to their TV too, legally and easily. It only seems fair.”
MediaMall Technologies, the creators of PlayOn and PlayLater, was founded in 2003 to make it simple, affordable, and fun to enjoy your favorite movies, TV shows, and videos from the Internet on your TV or on the go. The PlayOn and PlayLater software products allow customers to recreate the traditional cable and satellite TV viewing experience using only the Internet and their existing hardware for a fraction of the price – and even extend that viewing experience to mobile devices. MediaMall operates with offices in New York, Seattle, and Copenhagen and can be found online at www.PlayOn.tv. PlayOn and PlayLater are trademarks of MediaMall Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
