Telefónica extends Imagenio to mobile
November 28, 2007
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Telefónica is to extend its IPTV service, Imagenio, one of the most successful IPTV operators in Europe, to mobile phones in the first half of 2008. Its first mobile IPTV services will be available in the first half of 2008 on its market-leading mobile phone service Movistar, with more than 22 million clients. Through the mobile phone, its clients will be able to acquire VoD content, have a look at the EPG or even enjoy mobile alerts with information about their favourite programmes.
This is Telefónica's latest move within its ongoing assault on the IPTV market to increase its subscription basis and reach 1 million clients by the end of 2008. The company added 18,142 new subscribers to its Imagenio IPTV service in the third quarter of this year, bringing the total number of subscribers to 469,000, representing a 12 per cent share of the Spanish pay-TV market.
To capture new subscribers, Imagenio is launching new thematic TV packages – among them, Caribbean, Asian or International packages targeted at large immigrants communities and a specific children’s package- as well as new a la carte channels such as Canal Parlamento, Art Channel or The Poker Channel, going from 120 to 160 TV channels by the end of the year. The company plans to launch an HDTV offer in the second quarter of 2008. To this end, Telefónica is increasing threefold its ADSL speed and even testing a FTHH network at 30 Megabytes.
In addition, Imagenio is launching a plethora of added-value services to allow its clients to interact with its IPTV platform, and utilise such facilities as pausing, shifting and rewinding.
In parallel, Telefónica and Sogecable will be launching their joint offer Trio Plus from the beginning of December, offering the triple play, subject to clearance from competition authorities.