Rakuten TV announced today the launch of its first live channel on the platform; Euronews, the number one international news channel in Europe. The channel will provide informative content 24/7 and will be available in all the European countries covered by Rakuten TV – following a progressive roll out across the different territories* as part of the platform’s free offer via the AVOD (Advertising-video-on-demand) output.

The channel portfolio of content will provide news with a European perspective covering current affairs, business, culture, sport, sci-tech and lifestyle. Its live feed will be available in six languages including French, Portuguese, Italian, German, Spanish and in English – which will be available for the remaining European countries.

Euronews’ content will be available within the Rakuten TV app on Samsung Electronics and LG Smart TV models from 2019. Indeed, Rakuten TV’s branded remote-control button and the pre-installed app on LG and Samsung Smart TV´s, will make Euronews on Rakuten TV available to millions of European households. Subsequently, this will be extended to other suitable devices.

Teresa López, European Content Director at Rakuten TV said: “We are very excited about the launch of our first live channel, which allows us to enrich our current proposition providing an always more varied and extensive content in the platform. Rakuten TV is eager to continue expanding its content offer in order to provide a complete experience just on a click”.

Maxime Carboni, Director of Worldwide Distribution at Euronews said: “We are honored to be the first live content provider to join Rakuten TV’s AVOD service, allowing viewers to watch multiple Euronews versions on the platform. This great partnership definitely strengthens Euronews’ strategy of addressing its audience in new ways through innovative format and digital platforms. We were able to build along with Rakuten TV a great news content proposition and model which fits our common values: content localisation, great user experience and a focus on quality.”

The launch of Euronews on Rakuten TV is a further step the platform is undertaking as part of its strategy to enhance its offer on the free ad-supported section, which already includes thematic channels with Hollywood movies, kids content and exclusive and original content including the official TV series of FC Barcelona, Matchday – Inside FC Barcelona and the newly launched documentaries about Sadio Mané, Made in Senegal and Andrés Iniesta -The Unexpected Hero.

Rakuten TV is the first European platform combining TVOD and AVOD business models across Europe, meeting the convenience to provide one single point of access to a universe of unlimited content.

Euronews is the only international news channel with a European perspective. It is distributed in 160 countries and almost 400 million homes – including 67% of homes in the EU + UK – reaching over 141 million people every month, according to the Global Web Index.