Australia will never have a unified catch-up TV service according to Mi9 CEO

It looks like Australians will not be getting a unified catch-up TV app for their free-to-air TV needs, with Nine Entertainment’s Mi9 CEO saying that the space is too important for an industry-wide app. In an interview with Mumbrella, Mi9 CEO Mark Britt said: “There has been a debate about an industry app, but we don’t think that a broad generic industry app makes sense for this space.”

Mark Britt, the CEO of Nine Entertainment’s digital arm Mi9, has taken aim at his rivals declaring they have been too “hesitant” to seed new programming online and declaring the Australian TV industry will never have a single Hulu-like catch-up service. He told Mumbrella Nine’s catch-up app had now reached more than 670,000 downloads while the Jump-in website, which relaunched in November, has had 5.7m unique browsers. “You build community around great shows well before and well after they go to air. I think they (Ten and Seven) are too hesitant and I think they are missing the opportunity,” Britt told Mumbrella.