FetchTV is cosying up to some of Telstra’s top rivals in a bid to challenge T Box.
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Just last week IPTV provider FetchTV announced a deal with its biggest rival, Optus, set to kick off on screens later this year.
However, now it seems it is looking to pen deals with every one of its top ten rivals including the likes of TPG, to build a “coalition” against its biggest rival Telstra, CEO Scott Lorson revealed this week.
And it is also in talks with at least two or three other internet providers to help build a team of IPTV rivals against Telstra’s T Box TV and movies on demand service which have 120,000 customer base between its box and Big Pond movie service.
Big Pond services are also available on a stream of new Smart TVs including Samsung and LG sets which could prove a major boost to its user numbers.
However, its latest sign on is FetchTVs biggest feat yet.
“I think the fact that we’ve been able to nab the number two, number three and number five providers in the country bodes very well for the rest of the others,” said Lorson.
Some of the smaller ISPs including Internode, and iiNet were two of the first to hook up with Fetch services last year. Adam Internet is currently trialling the service.
The new Optus service “is part of [its] broader TV strategy to develop a suite of converged video services.. at home or on the move,” it said, and should give the IPTV provider some major consumer muscle, analysts believe.
“This time we have to get it right” Optus CEO Paul Sullivan admitted last month. Undoubtedly, the No.2 telco could prove a major IPTV service and offer competitive pricing.
FetchTV service, which usually costs under $30 a month with a set top box, offers world channels, pay and free digital TV as well as movies, games, and Facebook applications.
Internode already has two variation of the service Fetch Lite and Full and is said to have over two thousand subscribers.
Fetch TV, which is 47 per cent owned by Malaysian company Astro All Asia Networks and 53 per cent by its senior managers.
