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Rakuten TV
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryElectronic commerce
Founded2010
FoundersJacinto Roca, Josep Mitjà
Headquarters
Barcelona
,
Spain
Area served
Spain, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Croatia, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland and Ukraine
Key people
Jacinto Roca (CEO)
Josep Mitjà (COO)
Nikhil Deora (CSO)
David Villanueva Cabezas (CTO)
ProductsVideo on demand films and tv series
Number of employees
200
ParentRakuten
WebsiteRakuten TV
Rakuten Sports

Rakuten TV is a video-on-demand (VOD) streaming service, listing movies and TV series for subscription, rental, and purchase. Since 2019, the platform has provided users access to different content via TVOD, AVOD,[1] FAST,[2] and SVOD.[3] It is owned by the Japanese company Rakuten. Rakuten TV's catalogue includes content from studios around the world, including Warner Bros., Disney, and Sony Pictures, local distributors, and independent labels, being the smallest and least known service among its competitors.

Rakuten TV's content can be streamed from most devices, offering a similar service to Netflix and other streaming services.[4][5][6][7]

The company is headquartered in Barcelona and currently operates in several countries around Europe; Spain, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Croatia, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Ukraine and Switzerland.[citation needed]

In Japan, the video streaming service Rakuten SHOWTIME changed its name to Rakuten TV on July 1, 2017 and has been operating under the new name since then.

History

In June 2012, Rakuten, the world's third largest e-commerce company, acquired the company, previously known as Wuaki.tv.[8] In July 2017, Wuaki.tv changed its name to Rakuten TV. Rakuten took over the user base from TalkTalk TV Store (previously Blinkbox) including migration of user purchased titles, in June 2018.

Rakuten Sports

On 11 June 2019, Rakuten announced the launch of Rakuten Sports, a new live streaming and video on demand (VOD) sports entertainment platform to expand and deliver sports content to several countries around the world, after eleven countries across Europe.

In November 2019, Rakuten Sports provides the subscription streaming coverage of Davis Cup for two seasons 2019 and 2020, also as the part of main sponsorship, starting from the 2019 finals.[9]

References

  1. ^ "Rakuten TV teaming up with advertisers as coproduction partners". C21media. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  2. ^ "Rakuten TV expands FAST channel reach". Broadband TV News. 2022-04-20. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  3. ^ "Rakuten TV launches channels on Plex". Broadband TV News. 2022-06-15. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  4. ^ Woods, Ben (28 May 2014). "Wuaki.Tv Is Now Available to Stream on Chromecast in the UK". The Next Web. Retrieved 2016-04-19.
  5. ^ "Wuaki.tv streaming service now available on Xbox 360, £2.99 a month for life offer still on - Pocket-lint". www.pocket-lint.com. 5 September 2013. Retrieved 2016-04-19.
  6. ^ "Wuaki.tv video service gets Android, iPad app support in UK". Engadget. Retrieved 2016-04-19.
  7. ^ "Wuaki launches new 4K smart TV app » Digital TV Europe". www.digitaltveurope.net. 5 September 2014. Retrieved 2016-04-19.
  8. ^ Wauters, Robin (13 June 2012). "Rakuten Acquires Spanish Video-On-Demand Company Wuaki.tv". The Next Web. Retrieved 2016-04-19.
  9. ^ "Davis Cup by Rakuten Madrid Finals to be broadcast in more than 171 countries". Davis Cup. 2019-11-07. Archived from the original on 2020-07-31. Retrieved 2019-11-15.


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