It’s easy to look at the future of Connected TV and focus on services like Hulu, Netflix, and iTunes. It’s set to be a whole lot more complicated than that with niche services set to make themselves known. While I’m sure there will be genre-driven services like Comedy, Sci-fi, Music, etc, that won’t be the extent of it. Expect to see a lot of existing brands move into this space to claim their niche. Among the most interesting offerings will be driven by the BBC.

While a Connected TV offering is still some years away for foreign markets, a taste of what such a future offers is evident with the launch of the iPlayer app for the iPad. It launches in Europe today, with Australia and the US to follow later in the year. While there will be some free content, this is primarily a subscription-based service with users paying €6.99 a month or €49.99 a year to access it. Content will include recent BBC content along with access to their archive of content that stretches back over 50 years.

While White Noise will no doubt take a closer look at the service at the time of an Australian launch, you can read up on the Europe iPlayer launch at The Guardian.