Magine Is The Best Internet-Based Cable TV Service You Can't Use (Unless You Live In Sweden)

Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon Prime offer compelling alternatives to cable TV for those who don’t want to subscribe to regular cable. But what if you could subscribe to an Internet-based cable TV service that doesn’t need a set-top box, has a DVR-like catch-up TV feature and great search and still lets you watch live TV right on your regular smart TV at home (or stream shows from your iOS device to your Apple TV using AirPlay)? That’s what Magine has built and is launching in Sweden on Monday. There, users in this “First Edition,” as Magine calls it, will be able to pay about ten euro per month to get about 30 channels after their 30-day trial period ends. Those 30 channels including many local channels, as well as CNN International, BBC World News,?National Geographic, Cartoon Network?and others. The company plans to add more channels as it secures the rights to them. Magine is essentially a cable TV startup – a cable operator in the cloud – and thanks to the deals it has with its local broadcasters and the payment structure for compensating broadcasters that is in place in Europe, the company only pays a per-user fee to the broadcasters that are currently in its line-up. Because it runs as a cloud service, it doesn’t have any of the capital expenses the legacy cable systems face (there’s no need to lay cables and maintain them, after all). I first saw a demo of Magine at DLD in Munich earlier this year and have been a happy beta user ever since. Sadly, the way the U.S. broadcasting and cable system is set up, it’s unlikely that we’ll see Magine here anytime soon, but as the Magine team told me, the company has big plans to expand across Europe and is talking with a number local and pan-European broadcasters to make this possible. Indeed, as Magine stressed when I talked to them earlier this week, it’s important to remember that this is not some rogue outfit but it’s moving ahead with the blessing of the broadcasting industry. The broadcasters are happy to work with Magine, after all, given that the company adds money into the value chain and is basically just another distributor. All of that is pretty cool, but the team also build a great user experience that shows what cable TV in the 21st century should look like (and

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