Aferian plc (LON:AFRN) has announced that following the deal announcement of 30th September, 24i, the streaming expert, has supported the launch of OTT service Cinessance in the US and Canada on iOS and Android, bringing a catalogue of classic and modern movies to fans of French culture and cinema who are currently underserved by the major streaming services.
The French-film streaming platform offers consumers a curated catalogue of classic and modern movies with subtitles in French and English via monthly subscription and pay-per-view options. Cinessance is available on web browsers and apps for both iOS and Android. It has support for casting via Chromecast and AirPlay and plans to expand to Smart TVs. The service has launched with films from many of the most established French studios, such as TF1 Studio, StudioCanal and EuropaCorp, with plans to expand the catalogue to 500 movies as early as mid-2022.
The service is built on a fully cloud-based infrastructure from 24i which comprises 24i’s end-to-end modular streaming platform of video backend, white label front-end applications and Backstage content and application management interface. Using 24i’s end-to-end productized solution has enabled Cinessance to launch its service in just twelve weeks from contract signature.
France is the second largest exporter of movies in the world, but only 3% of Netflix’s catalogue features French films, according to What’s on Netflix and a recent study from Unifrance. French expats, Francophiles and cinema-lovers have had no option to access the award-winning and globally recognized catalogue of French cinema.
Clément Monnet, Cinessance Founder & CEO, said: “Having lived in multiple continents in my time, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve tried to watch a French movie and couldn’t find it online. Like many French expats, I try to stay connected with my roots and to share my culture with others, so I couldn’t be more excited to share the gift of French film via Cinessance.”
Joachim Bergman, CEO of 24i, said: “Cinessance is a perfect example of the end-to-end capabilities of the 24i streaming platform and getting it live and working so well within twelve weeks shows the wisdom of choosing a productized solution to side-step all the pitfalls that can slow down new OTT services in their race to the market. We are thrilled to be part of today’s launch and are looking forward to playing a role in the future global growth and success of Cinessance.”
