Etisalat promotes video-on-demand eLife services

Dubai: Forget about spending hours downloading the latest movies, said Mathew Willsher, chief marketing officer of etisalat, at the launch of the company's video-on-demand service, eLife TV.

The new service launched yesterday at Gitex as part of the revamped eLife TV package offered by etisalat. It offers a complete library of movies across all cultures that can be accessed in a matter of seconds for subscribers.

Offered for now only on the TV element of eLife's triumvirate of services that also include web and landline, Willsher said the new on-demand services offer 650 movies across all genres from Hollywood to the Arab world and India.

The new service is "the largest video on demand TV and movie library" in the UAE, Willsher said.

More than 100,000 homes in the country have already subscribed to eLife services that were launched as a double-play format in Dec-ember 2009.

No downloading needed

Rashed Al Abbar, vice-president, Home Products, with etisalat, said instead of "downloading movies, you can immediately view movies" on the new on demand service and consumers won't be subjected to a barrage of advertisements while surfing through the electronic library of visual entertainment.

In a demonstration, etisalat showed how subscribers can view trailers before committing to rent movies from the service.

Thanks to the internal eLife on demand browser, viewers can surf through a variety of preferences for the right genre and language.

Global collaboration

To make the on-demand library possible, etisalat has teamed up with content studios the world over from 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures to the Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros.

If viewers miss a regularly broadcast segment or TV on eLife, another new feature called Catch-Up TV allows them to go back for up to a week's past programming and replay the shows which are normally shown live as they are disseminated from broadcasters around the globe.

Willsher, meanwhile, said etisalat is working on bringing the on-demand element to the mobile world in months to come to enable cell phone users and tablet owners to watch TV series and movies when away from home.

"We are well on our way to meet the demands of an ‘anytime anywhere' world," Willsher said, adding that when mobile-on-demand is up and running, users can view movies while waiting for a friend or catching a bus.

Mobile-on-demand eLife services are expected to be offered within the UAE in four to six months.