TPG who earlier this month won a major battle up against the National Broadband network (NBN) is set to launch a new IPTV service in 2015, sources have confirmed to ChannelNews that TPG recently held talks with Foxtel and that Foxtel executives may be considering the acquisition of TPG or a major shareholding.
Sources claim that nothing has been put to the Foxtel board however TPG executives have discussed the potential of a content deal similar to what Telstra has with their T-Box offering.
Foxtel executives are believed to be investigating a potential shareholding in TPG however there are concerns due to Telstra’s 50% shareholding in Foxtel.
Telstra executives are believed to be aware that TPG and Foxtel have been talking.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission last week said it would not stop TPG’s plan to connect half a million apartments and businesses with NBN-like services despite NBN Co’s claims that the competition was illegal.
TPG position themselves as a low cost ISP with over 800,000 customers claims that they already have the technology in place to deliver content.
The content move will allow TPG customers to get content, mobile and landline services as well as broadband from one provider. Foxtel is due to launch its own “triple play” in 2015 to boost customer ?numbers by selling pay TV, internet and phone services.
TPG consumer business general manager Craig Levy told Fairfax Media the company had long owned the technology required to broadcast television over its internet services but lacked the content that customers demanded.
“TPG has been doing IPTV for more than five years now on our network using multicast technology and we have the underlying infrastructure to do it,” Mr Levy said. “What we’ve always lacked is the content.
“Now we’ve secured premium content and that’s something that will probably be part of a triple play.”
Mr Levy has declined to reveal any details about the types of content, the pricing of services or the set top box due to be released in 2015.
“With the partnership that we’ve entered into, both parties need to consent to the specifics around it and at this stage it’s a little bit early on,” he said. “We’re expecting it in early 2015 if ?everything goes to plan.
“What you’ve seen in the past is we try and maintain excellent value for money offerings amongst consumers so it can appeal to them. I can’t see this being any different from what we’ve typically done in the past.”
Mr Levy said TPG had the option of becoming a Fetch TV reseller but chose to offer its own products instead. “When we looked at it was very much a ‘me too’ type of proposition,” he said.
