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Beringea-backed TV streaming startup announces terrestrial telly tie-up

London-based streaming business Simplestream has announced it has reached an agreement with the UK’s biggest commercial TV broadcasters to carry its free-to-air channels on its TVPlayer streaming channel.

The agreement means that channels by ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 will soon be broadcasting across the tech firm’s services which currently reach an audience of around 1m users per month.

The startup, which has received backing from investment firm Beringea, offers over-the-top (OTT) streaming services through its platform online as well as devices such as Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV.

It marks a major coup for the platform, bringing its total offering to over 100 free-to-air and pay TV channels, and highlights the increasing importance of streaming services to the traditional big players in terrestrial TV.

Adam Smith, Founder of TVPlayer, commented: “This is a significant move for the growth of our platform. Adding the UK’s key commercial broadcasters to our growing portfolio is a major benefit to our viewers as TVPlayer provides some of the UK’s best channels in one app.

“Through our growing platform, broadcasters not only enjoy direct access to a younger demographic, they are also able to reach even wider audiences”

A spokesperson for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 added: “We welcome legal innovation in the channel distribution landscape and are pleased to licence our linear channels for streaming on TVPlayer.”