Yahoo NZ has joined the video streaming on-demand fray with Yahoo TV.
The company touts it as a free service, but really it's making a virtue out of necessity given its lineup centres on free-to-air shows from Australia's Seven Network (Yahoo NZ is a fully-owned subsidiary of Sydney-based Yahoo7, a joint venture between Yahoo and the Seven Network, aka Channel Seven).
There are a couple of reasonably high raters: Home & Away and MKR, and you can watch current episodes — or at least yesterday's episodes. But then again there's no particular reason to watch them on Yahoo TV rather than TVNZ OnDemand.
There are two Yahoo original series as well: sci-fi comedy Other Space from Bridesmaids director Paul Feig — which has had a couple of good reviews from US critics — and City Saints which Yahoo describes as "an edgy new comedy series following the triumphs, travails and transgressions of a fictional Las Vegas basketball team. From one of Hollywood's most sought-after storytellers, Mike Tollin, and two-time Emmy nominated director, Bryan Gordon, it features an all-star cast including Tom Arnold." Mmn. Okay.
A curiosity.
Hit www.yahoo.co.nz/TV to try it out (or if you've got an Apple TV and have sneaked an iTunes US account, hit the Yahoo Screen app to check out the originals and a potpourri of other content).