02 Could Launch Broadband TV Service

Mobile phone company 02 is planning to extend its Czech broadband TV service to the UK, according to reports.

02 already has partnerships with Warner Bros, HBO and Paramount in the Czech Republic and is now looking to extend these deals to the UK.

The company has a residential broadband offering in the UK having acquired BE Broadband last year, and it now wants to add an IPTV service, with trials starting in 2008.

It is understood that 02 is using its service in the Czech Republic, where it owns both a fixed line and a mobile phone operator, as a blueprint.

O2 TV has 55 channels and offers video on demand content from Sony Pictures, Warner Bros, Disney, HBO and Paramount.

If 02 does launch an IPTV service, it will be going head to head with BT’s BT Vision offering, which launched in December 2006 (see BT Vision Subscribers Up 24,000 in Two Months).

It will also be up against Tiscali, which acquired Home Choice last year. In September, Tiscali announced that it would be making its TV service available to nearly five million UK homes with plans to raise this figure to 10 million by the end of 2007 (see National Roll-Out For Tiscali TV).

02: www.o2.co.uk