Viasat agrees on Telenor IPTV distribution

Modern Times Group has confirmed its Viasat Broadcasting subsidiary has signed a long term agreement with Telenor for the distribution of its pay-TV packages in Telenor’s IPTV networks.

Telenor has 623,000 broadband customers in Norway and a further 574,000 in Sweden. There had been concerns that Viasat may lose its distribution on Sweden’s Bredbandsbolaget (B2) when the current contract came to an end. The B2 network was purchased by Telenor in 2005.

Viasat will also be a part of Telenor’s IPTV offer in Norway that is expected to be launched in the spring.

“The first IPTV agreement that we signed was with Bredbandsbolaget in Sweden back in 2004 and this new agreement with Telenor means that we now have IPTV agreements with all of the major Scandinavian broadband operators, said Hans-Holger Albrecht, President and CE of Modern Times Group.?“These agreements are part of our “anytime anywhere” strategy to make our free-TV channels as broadly available as possible and to attract subscribers to our packaged pay-TV content on multiple distribution platforms. Telenor is the largest broadband operator in Scandinavia and this deal indicates the clear and growing demand for our portfolio of high-rating free-TV channels and wide range of popular premium pay-TV content. IPTV distribution is complementary to our own DTH satellite platform, and enables us to address households that we have not been able to reach before.”

Viasat’s Swedish free-to-air channels (TV3, TV6, TV8 and ZTV) and Norwegian FTA channels (TV3 and Viasat4) will be included in Telenor’s own basic IPTV packages, whilst Viasat’s Gold (Movie, Sport, Children and Documentary packages) and Silver (Children and Documentary packages) pay-TV packages and its Viasat OnDemand services will be marketed and distributed to Telenor’s broadband customers in Sweden and Norway.