Zattoo celebrates its 15th anniversary
With its founding in 2005, Zattoo paved the way for TV streaming. As the first provider worldwide, Zattoo implemented what was unimaginable at the time - live TV via the Internet. In June, the TV streaming provider celebrates its 15th birthday and provides insight into 15 years of company history.
2005 is an eventful year: Angela Merkel becomes Chancellor of Germany, the video portal YouTube is launched, and the Swiss people vote to join the Schengen/Dublin agreement. 2005 is also the year in which the vision of streaming TV free of charge and legally licensed over the Internet becomes the TV streaming provider Zattoo. Only a year later, with just a dozen employees, Zattoo launches its service in Switzerland. The Swiss kick off with the opening match between Germany and Costa Rica on June 9, 2006, making Zattoo the first provider in the world to bring free live TV to the PC. Expansion to Germany follows a year later. By 2007, more than a million users were streaming TV over the Internet with Zattoo.
Not only rosy times
A few turbulent years followed, during which Zattoo was not only available on more and more platforms with a growing selection of channels, but also during which the financial crisis put the business model to the test. As a consequence, Zattoo withdraws from some European markets in 2009. From 2010, Zattoo focuses regionally on Switzerland and Germany as well as on apps for mobile devices and establishes its own B2B business in 2012.
The days when viewers sat in front of the TV at prescribed times were already becoming a thing of the past. In 2010, Zattoo launched the Replay function in Switzerland, allowing users to watch the TV program of the last 30 days after broadcast. This service was further expanded with the introduction of the recording function and Restart, a function that allows users to watch live programs that have already started from the beginning, and was later also introduced in the German market. A versatile video-on-demand offering has also been available for several years.
With many years of experience from its own end-customer business, Zattoo founded its own B2B business in 2012. The business currently has more than 30 customers.
Extensive further development
With around 1.8 million viewers at the 2016 European Football Championship, Zattoo reached a new peak. One of the reasons: the massive increase in usage time on the big TV screen. Since then, Zattoo has extensively developed its service for smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Android TV and Apple TV to provide an even better TV streaming experience. With the launch of the Ultimate subscription in 2018 and the first Full HD channels, Zattoo aims to create an increasingly attractive product for the big screen in the living room.
Over the past few years, Zattoo has constantly evolved. From a live TV service for the PC to a leading live and on-demand TV service for the TV in the living room and on mobile devices. From an ad-supported direct-to-consumer provider, Zattoo has become an end-to-end, multi-national and multi-client TV platform operator. As an innovation leader, Zattoo, then as now, contributes to the evolution of the TV industry. For this achievement, Zattoo was honored in 2020 with the Technology and Engineering Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
