New Pay-TV Platform Targets Expats Living in Europe

HAMBURG/BEIJING/JAKARTA: The new pay-TV platform bobbles.tv, which launches today, features international channels targeting people from Asia, Latin America and Africa living and working in Europe.

The service can be received throughout Europe via satellite and internet. At launch, bobbles.tv offers 25 Chinese and Indonesian TV channels. Programs for Indian, Korean and Vietnamese communities will follow in November. The China package includes CCTV 1, CCTV 4, Hunan TV, Zhejiang TV, Dragon TV, Anhui TV, Guangdong TV, Southeast TV, Shenzhen TV, Dopool Drama, Dopool Movie, Dopool Kids, Dopool Entertainment, CCTV 9 Documentary, Dopool Knowledge, CCTV 11 Opera, CCTV 2 and Chinese Food. The Indonesia package includes MNC World News, MNC International, MNC Infotainment, MNC Drama, SineSia, Mistika and DMCtv.

In addition to live streaming, internet users can also watch recorded shows, whether on PC, tablet or smartphone.

The Hamburg-based startup is led by bubbles media, whose partners include German media managers Arnold C. Kulbatzki and Dr. Torsten Rossmann.

Kulbatzki, founder and CEO, said: “bobbles.tv offers international communities a convenient way to receive their favorite TV channels anywhere in Europe—via satellite or over the internet, live or as catch-up TV using media libraries. bobbles.tv customers only pay for the programming that they are really interested in: attractive television from their home countries. A single subscription grants access to almost every relevant TV channel from home.”