Telecom Italia's cuboVision 'for expansion of OTT'
December 17, 2009
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Telecom Italia has launched the cuboVision, an innovative product that turns the traditional TV set at home into an online media centre that can offer multiple services and digital content using a single remote control.
The broadband multimedia device can receive, via the TV set, the digital terrestrial TV channels and the main web TV channels, PPV movies, and it also enables the management of personal content like photos, videos and music. CuboVision also features a 500 GB hard drive that can store all multimedia files from mobile phones, PCs, digital cameras and MP3 players. Its suggested retail price is E199.
With the launch of CuboVision, Telecom Italia plans to “enlarge the Internet and broadband market in Italy and bring it to 20 million customers”, according to CEO, Franco Bernabe'. Presenting the new service in Milan, he said that the CuboVision “is a simple object, which costs very little and which can be used by anyone”, adding that it represents ”the first worldwide expansion of over the top TV”.
However, Bernabe' was keen to stress that broadcasters of content ”have no reason to worry”. Rather, he pointed out that they have at their disposal a new object that can eliminate a number of problems “such as that relating to the evolution of a digital platform towards the web”. He added that CuboVision will be offered to all broadcasters: “because we believe that eventually it will replace all decoders, with a potential market of several million people.”