Dutch ISP Online has become the second party to offer an analogue cable TV product under the new Open Cable provision. The operator, a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, said it hopes to start offering the service before the end of the year.
Tele 2 was the first ISP to announce its intention to sell analogue cable products on the UPC and Ziggo networks, Online is now the second. Two more parties have expressed an interest, newcomers YourTV and YouCa.
Tele 2 said agreements are in place with both UPC and Ziggo, but a few hurdles still needs to be jumped. The major stumbling block could be the fact that any third party reseller needs to have distribution agreements with all channels in the basic analogue tier.
Meanwhile, Tele 2 has announced today, Thursday Jukly 22, rhat an agreement was reached with BBC Worldwide Channels for the reselling of BBC One and BBC Two in the operator’s analogue bouquet.
Tele 2 will sell their analogue tier in addition to its own (digital) IPTV offer in areas served by UPC or Ziggo.