Telia grows digital television offering with Viasat- Five-year agreement gives customers 17 new TV channels and several new channel packages
With the five-year agreement between Telia and Viasat, customers subscribing to Telia’s digital television service will be offered Viasat’s programming, which includes movie, sports, entertainment and documentary channels, starting June 1, 2008. All 17 new channels, including TV3, TV6, TV8 and ZTV, will be added to Telia’s already comprehensive selection of channels. The agreement will also increase the number of on-demand services for Telia’s digital TV customers in Sweden.
Telia’s focus on digital television through broadband has turned out to be a real hit and the 300,000th customer mark was appropriately passed at the beginning of this year. On-demand services have been especially popular. Television watching based on programme listings is being challenged more and more by services that allow people to watch what they want, when they want. In a survey recently conducted by Telia in Sweden, 12 percent of the Swedish people said they are already using video-on-demand and almost 50 percent are positive towards trying it. The agreement with Viasat will not only allow the creation of new and attractive channel packages, it will also open up new opportunities for customers to watch programs whenever it suits them. Next in line are on-demand services from selected parts of programming from TV3, TV6, TV8, ZTV and TV 1000.
“We are constantly working on improving our range of digital TV programs and our offerings for customers,” says Erik Hallberg, Head of Broadband Services at TeliaSonera Sweden. “The agreement with Viasat will boost our service further and represents yet another step towards our goal to have the best selection of TV channels, channel packages and on-demand services in Sweden.”
New channels include TV3, TV6, TV8 and ZTV. These channels will be part of Viasat’s package and are going to be added to the “Lagom” and “Stor” programme packages for both present and new digital TV subscribers. In the beginning, customers will also be offered a number of new channel packages, such as Viasat Silver and Gold, as well as sports and movie channels, including Viasat Golf and TV1000. In a longer perspective, additional channel packages, or combinations of channel packages, will be launched.
In addition to Viasat, Telia collaborates with TV4, Canal +, the Disney Channel, the Discovery Channel and the movie distributors SF Anytime and Nordisk Film. Including the new channels from Viasat, Telia currently offers around 70 channels through its digital TV service, Telia Digital-tv, which reaches 2.5 million households in Sweden.
For more information (in Swedish only), go to www.telia.se/tv
For further information journalists can contact:
TeliaSonera AB’s Press Office, +46-(0)8-713 58 30