Nature-focused 4K SVOD service launches

A 4K subscription on-demand service that focuses exclusively on nature programming has gone live in 32 territories.

Love Nature, which is from Blue Skye Entertainment, has debuted in territories such as the UK, Germany, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland.

Platforms offering the 4K service include Amazon Fire TV, Nexus Player, Philips Android TV, Roku streaming players, Roku TV models and Sony Android TV, and in HD on Xbox 360.

The ad-free app costs £3.99 (US$5.65) per month, or the local price equivalent, and is available to download through Amazon Appstore, Google Play, Roku’s Channel Store and Lovenature.com.

Customers will be offered a one-month free trial, and a percentage of the proceeds will go to wildlife and nature charities.

Content includes a “provocative” library of documentaries, series, features and exclusive natural history programming update weekly. The platform is shooting content in 40 locations around the world to produce the supply of 4K shows.

Love Nature’s launch comes after the December 2015 creation of Blue Sky Entertainment, a joint venture of Canada’s Blue Ant Media and Smithsonian Networks focused purely on 4K programming.

Former WWE and Turner Broadcasting System executive Jo Parkinson was appointed to run the venture as managing director.

Parkinson, who is also international MD of Love Nature, said: “We are committed to connecting natural history lovers to the beauty and wonder of nature and its fight for survival in a changing world. Nothing looks more spectacular in 4K than natural history content and our new Love Nature SVOD service will allow us to meet the growing demand for high quality, 4K content in this category.”

Love Nature steps into a factual SVOD space that includes the genre-dedicated CuriosityStream, XiveTV and Curio, and Netflix spending big bucks on original series Our Planet.

Smithsonian also launched D2C service Smithsonian Earth in the US in November. This offers Blue Ant programming such as Nomads of the Serengeti and Great Blue Wild.

In Canada, Love Nature is a Blue Ant specialty channel.