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Rakuten TV
Rakuten TV is a video-on-demand (VOD) and free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) platform, providing movies and TV series for subscription, rental, and purchase as well as FAST channels with a mix of local and global content.[1] Since 2019, the platform has provided users access to different content via TVOD, AVOD,[2] SVOD,[3] and FAST.[4] It is owned by the Japanese company, Rakuten. Rakuten TV's VOD catalogue includes content from studios around the world, including Warner Bros., Disney, and Sony Pictures, local distributors, and independent labels producing both locally and globally oriented content. Similarly, Rakuten TV's distribution of FAST channels includes both its own Rakuten curated channels as well as FAST channels and TV channels operated and curated by its partners around the world.[5] Rakuten TV's content can be streamed from most devices, offering a similar service to Netflix and other streaming services.[6][7][8][9] The company is headquartered in Tokyo and Barcelona and currently operates in Japan as well as several countries around Europe; Aaland Islands, Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and Ukraine.[10] In Japan, the video streaming service Rakuten SHOWTIME changed its name to Rakuten TV on July 1, 2017 and has been operating under the new name since then. Rakuten also operates another global video-on-demand (VOD) streaming service called Rakuten Viki which is headquartered in San Mateo, California with additional offices in Tokyo, Japan, Seoul, South Korea, and Singapore.[11] Rakuten Viki focuses on distributing content from parts of Asia to the rest of the world. This includes drama, variety shows, and animation from Japan, Korea, Mainland China, Taiwan, and Thailand.[12] HistoryIn 2010, the service was launched in Spain under the name Wuaki.tv,[13] and later expanded to Andorra. By 2013, it had entered the markets in England, as well as Italy, France, and Germany later that same year.[14] In June 2012, e-commerce company Rakuten acquired the company, previously known as Wuaki.tv.[15] In July 2017, Wuaki.tv changed its name to Rakuten TV. Rakuten took over the user base from TalkTalk TV Store (previously Blinkbox) including migration of user purchased titles, in June 2018. Rakuten SportsOn 11 June 2019, Rakuten announced the launch of Rakuten Sports, a new live streaming and video on demand (VOD) sports entertainment platform to expand and deliver sports content to several countries around the world, after eleven countries across Europe. In November 2019, Rakuten Sports provides the subscription streaming coverage of Davis Cup for two seasons 2019 and 2020, also as the part of main sponsorship, starting from the 2019 finals.[16] References
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