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Cartoon Network on your iPad for a fiver: TVPlayer Plus subscription service announced

Free TV Streaming service TVPlayer has announced a new Plus subscription that’ll let you watch premium channels like Cartoon Network, Discovery and TLC for £5/month. 

Taking a leaf out of the VuTV book, TVPlayer Plus gives customers the chance to get premium channels typically only found on pay TV platforms, for less. 

Launching imminently, TVPlayer Plus is available on a rolling monthly basis, meaning you can cancel and sign up again at a time that suits you. 

Adam Smith, Founder and CEO of Simplestream, the company behind TVPlayer, likens the new move to ‘Spotify for TV’. 

Smith said: “TVPlayer has seen significant success to date with over half a million people now watching TV over-the-top each week on our service. 

“Similar to what Netflix has done for movies and Spotify for music, TVPlayer Plus aims to offer a simplified viewing experience of traditional and premium television content; one which works with the devices you already have and lets you pause, modify or cancel your subscription whenever you like.”

Cartoon Network on your iPad for a fiver: TVPlayer Plus subscription service announced

The free TVPlayer service will remain free following the launch of TVPlayer Plus but (again, like Spotify) an ‘enhanced viewing experience’ will be available to paying customers. It’s not clear what is meant by this – it could mean streams at the same resolution but with less compression, like Netflix’s Super HD

TVPlayer Plus is coming to iOS, Android and Amazon Fire TV devices. You’ll also be able to watch through Windows and Mac browsers and selected smart TV brands – although it’s currently unclear which ones will get TVPlayer Plus. 

There are plans for a Windows Phone app in the pipeline and other platforms including ‘a prominent games console’, but Simplestream isn’t mentioning any names today. 

Here’s full list of channels currently confirmed for TVPlayer Plus, as well as which channels you’ll be able to access on a catch-up basis.  

Live channel Catch-up
Lifetime Yes
HISTORY Yes
H2 Yes
Crime + Investigation Yes
Gold No
Alibi No
Watch No
Good Food No
Eden No
Home No
Discovery Channel Yes
TLC Yes
ID (Investigation Discovery) Yes
Animal Planet Yes
Discovery Turbo Yes
British Eurosport Yes
British Eurosport 2 Yes
National Geographic Channel Yes
Nat Geo WILD Yes
Sony Entertainment Television Yes
Sony Movie Channel Yes
Boomerang Yes
Cartoon Network Yes
Cartooonito Yes
BabyTV Yes

While you can’t get any of the UKTV channels (that’s Gold, Alibi, Watch, Good Food, Eden and Home) on a catch-up basis via TVPlayer, you can access some of this content from the UKTV Play apps anyway

UKTV channels also will be limited to iOS, Android and Windows browsers from launch. 

In the future, Simplestream will add +1 timeshift channels to TVPlayer, meaning if you can’t get something on catch-up, you’ll at least have an extra chance to watch again. 

There’s no ETA for TVPlayer Plus, but existing TVPlayer users can register their interest here

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