300,000 customers have chosen Telia’s digital TV service – 100,000 new TV customers in three months and a big jump in movie rentals

The number of customers choosing Telia’s digital television service in Sweden is accelerating at record speed. The 300,000 mark was appropriately passed right at the beginning of the year. At the same time, there was a big jump in movie rentals during the Christmas and New Year’s holiday period with customers renting 68,000 films. During the spring, digital television customers can expect more TV channels, a wider range of films and increased interactivity.

“Our customers have shown a keen interest in our television service since last spring, and due to the Christmas season in 2007, our sales really took off before year-end,” says Kent Jonsson, head of sales for broadband services at TeliaSonera Sweden. “Now we are focusing on developing the service further by establishing ties with a larger number of television and film companies to give our customers more television channels and a broader range of movies to choose from.”

Television over the broadband network creates opportunities to provide interactive services. With the Video on Demand service, customers can rent films directly from their remote control. Last autumn, Telia’s customers rented almost 1,000 movies a day, and during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, movie rentals exploded with 68,000 films being rented over a two-week period.

Telia has just signed an agreement with Nordisk Film which will give customers access to a full range of Nordic films, since Telia has had an agreement with SF for Swedish movies since earlier.

“Customers increasingly want to control their own time and media consumption. They want to watch television programs and movies when it suits them,” says Kent Jonsson. “We are constantly working on improving our television offering by adding new packages of channels and interactive services that meet our customers’ demands and requests.”

Television over the broadband network is becoming a serious competitor to traditional cable television networks. Today, 2.5 million households in Sweden receive digital TV service from Telia and many broadband customers are recognising the advantages of having the service provided through their broadband jack.
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For further information journalists can contact:
TeliaSonera AB’s Press Office, +46-(0)8-713 58 30