PlayLater allows you to watch HBO Now, Netflix and Hulu offline
The web has brought TV to any device as long as their is a good internet connection. If you're underground on a subway or 10,000 feet in the air on a plane you often find yourself with either no internet or a connection that can't support video streaming at all. Spotify's offline mode has made it possible to enjoy your music even without a connection but with TV it's been virtually impossible until now.
PlayOn's PlayLater platform allows you to locally record video from sites like Netflix and Hulu on your PC so you can access the content when you don't have internet or want to avoid tapping into your bandwidth. We interviewed the company's Director of Marketing Jim Holland about the platform (which is currently only available for PC).
Found Remote: Why did you launch playlater? Can you describe what it does? Is it similar to Spotify's offline mode?
Jim Holland: PlayLater is consistent with our goals as a company. We want to give people as much freedom to legally enjoy the media that is available to them as we can. As more people’s TV and video viewing moves online, we’d like the technologies they’ve gotten used to be able to follow them. PlayLater is the DVR for the future. It works very much like the DVR that folks are used to, but instead of recording something from their cable or satellite, they’re recording it from the web. Now they can timeshift that content as well. PlayLater works just like a DVR. A 2-hour movie will take you 2 hours to record. In that, it’s different from Spotify’s offline mode which simply downloads a file for you to listen to offline.
FR: Do you work with HBO NOW at all?
JH: We do, it’s very quickly become one of our top channels. Game of Thrones is the most watched/recorded show using PlayOn and PlayLater.
FR: Have any stats on if consumers want offline modes for all the amazing streaming content out there or if it's an issue?
We don’t have specific numbers we can share with you, but yes. Our customers very much like being able to record shows from the web. They can then watch them on flights, subway rides, or even at home when other things are consuming all of their bandwidth or when bandwidth is more expensive. We recently demo’d PlayLater at an RV Convention and those folks loved it. They could take their movies and shows with them on the road where cable/satellite was not available. There are a million scenarios like that.
Specifically on underground subways with no service and planes with no wifi how do you recommend people watch TV from HBO and Netflix without downloading illegally?
PlayLater is perfect for just that scenario. But we have a lot more than just HBO and Netflix. With PlayLater you can record virtually any video on the web.
FR: What are the company's plans? Any other products to tell us about?
JH: Later this summer we’ll be releasing a very significant upgrade to the product. Existing customers will get that upgrade so no need to wait for it. We’ll have more on that soon, but it’s going to be huge.
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