Telecoms giant about to consolidate its ‘quadruple play’ strategy as it mulls over its IPTV provider.Five companies including Fetch TV, Nine Entertainment company (which includes the Nine Network) and Hybrid television Services, which is partly owned by Channel Seven, are currently pitching their internet pay TV services to Optus, according to a report in The Australian yesterday.
Fetch are hotly tipped as the favourite to provide the pay-TV services, which would offer ready-to-go digital set-top box and PVR, as well as other pay as you go channels and movies, for an optimum fee of around $30 a month after an initial $99 join-up cost.
Additional pay as you go TV channels, teamed with interactive apps and video services are also part of the hybrid offering by the company, which is partly owned by Astro All Asia Networks, one of Asia’s leading pay TV providers, according to the newspaper.
The TiVo set top box offered by Hybrid TV, which is selling for $499 and recently reduced from $699, would prove an expensive alternative to Fetch’s price friendly offering, which it already provides to other broadband companies including iiNet and Internode.
The other extra being offered by the company its Caspa internet TV, a video and music on demand system earmarked for integration into Samsung TV devices by next year.
Caspa’s promised free pay per view movies and additional TV channels by the close of this year and their $200 price reduction for their set top box is a clear move to gain market share from subscription services like Telstra’s T-Box and Fetch TV.
The other three other competitors in the running for the deal with Optus, which are said to include Hulu and Nine Entertainment will complete Optus ‘quadruple play’ strategy, streaming their services for mobile and voice with their broadband and IPTV services.
Foxtel denied they were in talks with the company.
Optus are set to finalise their decision by early next year.
