Heading into the new year, RiverTV – Canada’s first and currently only virtual BDU – is looking to target what it sees as an untapped market of millennial audiences wanting live TV delivered over the internet.

Launched last June, the service, which costs $16.99 a month, consists of over 30 channels including Corus Entertainment-owned Global, W Network, Showcase, Teletoon, YTV, Treehouse, History, Adult Swim, Slice, in addition to WildBrain’s Family Channel and Blue Ant Media’s Smithsonian Channel.

The carriage of those channels is negotiated directly between RiverTV’s parent company, VMedia, and the broadcast ownership groups.

In addition, the company says that Nick+, Hollywood Suite and Superchannel will shortly become available as “a la carte” channel offerings.

While the service has a wide library of on-demand offerings, COO George Burger told Playback Daily that respondents to a recent survey suggested the service’s most popular feature is its live TV option. Completed by 1,400 subscribers, the survey indicated that more than 60% highlighted the live television option as their favourite aspect of the service.

“It’s a ridiculous suggestion that cord-cutters don’t like live TV – that’s nonsense,” said Burger.

Now the company intends to double down on its audience of millennial couples and young millennial families, who enjoy the lean-back live TV experience without the need to make a conscious choice over what to watch.

“Millennial families are not so different from anybody else. It’s just a question of good pricing, and the ability to give them their content on the platforms they use. Because, let’s face it, 80-90% of millennials, if not everybody, spend most of their time watching content on the internet. So if live TV is not there, you’re not in the game,” he said.

South of the border, streamed live TV platforms have gained significant traction with audiences as services such as Sling, YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV have entered nearly 10 million homes.

While Burger declined to disclose RiverTV’s subscriber total, he said he believes around one million Canadian households would be interested in taking up such an offering. “That’s not insignificant in a cord-cutting environment like we’re suffering from now,” he said.

Looking ahead, Burger said the biggest key to continued growth will be adding more channels to the RiverTV offering. “We have for years been urging channel providers and regulators to make live TV more accessible in this way to Canadians, and let them watch live TV the same way they enjoy all popular streaming services,” said Burger. “Some channel providers, for competitive reasons, have chosen not to make their channels available to RiverTV. With the success of our launch, and the positive response of our subscribers, we feel vindicated, and will redouble our efforts to make all channels available to Canadians in this way.”