The online video recorder with Replay TV function that is now incorporated into nanoo.tv was originally developed in 1998 for Swiss Television and first used during the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. nanoo.tv was subsequently developed further for use in educational institutions and in 2006 was introduced as a film platform at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). The university played a key role in selecting the features that had been requested for schools.

Since 2008, Werft22, the operator of nanoo.tv, has been involved in the creation of a solid organisational framework governing the use and copyright of audio-visual media in education. Gradually, clear regulations concerning the archiving and reproduction of TV films in teaching on password-protected platforms such as nanoo.tv have come into effect (see Common Tariff 9 III, and from 2017 Common Tariff 7).

Werft22, which is located in Baden, operates and controls the rapidly growing film archive in the data centre of the ZHdK in Zurich and at Swisscom in Olten, which is also where signals of the TV programmes are picked up. The team is also involved in the content of educational initiatives: as co-initiator and producer of the educational conference PLAY TO LEARN, Werft22 is dedicated to the meaningful and creative use of media in teaching. In 2018, Werft22 won the Worlddidac Award for nanoo.tv. The jury made particular mention of the technical features of nanoo.tv as well as the merits of enabling audio-visual media to be used legally in schools.