euro news_news 26/11/2014 19:52 Page 5
EE to offer TV service
K MNO EE has become a quadplay operator with the launch of
EE TV, which it describes as the
UK’s most advanced TV service.
According to the company, EE
TV puts mobile at the heart of
the TV experience, and works
seamlessly with home TVs,
tablets and smartphones,
allowing customers to access
the best of live and recorded
Freeview, On Demand and
catch up across multiple
devices simultaneously. The
move pitches the operator in
competition with BT and
TalkTalk, which have IPTV
platform YouView at the heart
of their TV strategy.
EE says the growing availability
of sophisticated tablets and smartphones, and
the introduction of 4G across the UK, has
fundamentally changed the way consumers
enjoy TV. Video content today makes up more
than 50% of EE’s 4G mobile network activity.
EE has developed what it describes as “a truly
integrated mobile and home TV service”. EE
TV will allow viewers to watch their favourite
programmes on their home TV, as well as on
up to three smartphones or tablets
simultaneously, anywhere in the home,
meaning four different programmes, in four
different rooms, on four different devices all at
the same time.
U
Olaf Swantee, CEO, EE, said that as the
UK’s biggest and fastest network, with more
than 25m customers, the company had
“unrivalled” insight into people’s changing
viewing habits. “It’s helped us create a service
that has mobile at its heart, and makes the TV
experience more personal than ever before.
With EE TV, not only can you watch different
streams of live and recorded content, on
multiple screens simultaneously, but your
mobile becomes the remote. This gives each
viewer the chance to watch, queue and view
what they want, when they want. It’s a
completely new way to enjoy your favourite
programmes, films and Internet content.”
EE TV is accessed via what EE calls a
powerful and advanced set- top box,
developed to mimic the simplicity of a
Study backs EBU DTT
spectrum stance
A study into the future use
of radio spectrum – the finite
resource essential to free-toair TV access – concludes
that its most valuable use
for at least the next 15 years
is digital terrestrial
broadcasting (DTT).
The investigation by the
strategic telecommunications
consultancy Aetha of the ultra
high frequency (UHF) spectrum
band within the EU was
commissioned by leading
industry organisations
including the European
Broadcasting Union (EBU),
Broadcast Networks Europe
(BNE), Abertis Telecom, Arqiva,
the BBC and TDF.
The UHF band (470 to 862
MHz) is critical to the delivery
of broadcast services, and is
the only frequency range that
can be used for TV
broadcasting. Parts of the UHF
band have already been freed
up for mobile use, and there is
increasing pressure from
mobile operators to open the
700MHz band.
smartphone user interface (UI) - both in terms
of content access and services that allow users
to catch up with their favourite TV shows.
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