BBTV to Focus on Games and Apps with New Interactive Division

January 10, 2018

One of the biggest video properties in the world is heading into a new industry.

BroadbandTV (BBTV) has announced the launch BBTV Interactive, a brand new business division that will build original games and mobile apps across all different kinds of platforms. The announcement of BBTV Interactive came at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

This new launch follows a number of other successful launches that almost acted as a test for how well BBTV Interactive would flourish. The Vancouver-based BBTV worked with one of the biggest YouTubers and Spanish language content creators in the world, Fernanfloo, and released an app that was downloaded by over 9.5 million people. The game took the number one most downloaded spot in the App Store and Google Play store within one day of launching.

BBTV’s latest mobile gaming offer, Squad Rivals, launches in a closed beta later this month. The game will feature a mix of entertainers and gamers that boast tens of millions of digital subscribers, according to BBTV.

“We’re placing an emphasis on building mobile games that are truly broadcastable,” said Lewis Ball, VP of interactive, e-commerce and professional services at BBTV. “We’re in a unique position as we already work with top digital talent that each have large highly engaged audiences allowing us to directly market the apps to targeted consumers.”

It seems that BBTV Interactive’s goal will be to further connect top digital content creators with their fan base. This might come through games like Fernanfloo’s app, which helped increase the YouTuber’s presence on app stores to his more than 25 million subscribers.

Apps are a massive market, so it’s no surprise BBTV wants to create an entirely new division dedicated to their creation. Consumer spending on mobile apps is expected to surpass $110 billion in 2018, and downloads will jump from 197 billion in 2017 to 353 billion in 2021, according to reports from AppAnnie and Statista Annual respectively.

BBTV already has a lot of monetization channels to draw content from, so expect some big names and partnerships right off the bat. The company dabbles in advertising video on demand, subscription video on demand, mobile apps, e-commerce and licensing. Viewership for BBTV increased 66 per cent from 206 billion in 2016 to 341 billion in 2017. This comes from 285 million unique viewers, making BBTV the third largest video property in the world, behind Google and Facebook. Nearly one in three people on Google sites (including YouTube) are watching BBTV content.

BroadbandTV is a Media & Entertainment finalist for the Seventh Annual Canadian Innovation Awards. Cast your vote for them now.