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Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries has indicated that UPC is looking to bring the TV Everywhere concept to Europe.
In an interview with CNBC, Fries said the company was looking at ways to improve the user interface to help customers access content from anywhere in the home. “We will be rolling out in early 2011, a new set-top box that will blow people away, it will look like you’re on the internet,” he said.
Fries was speaking at CES in Las Vegas where he revealed that had he been studying Samsung’s 3D proposition, along with Liberty Media chairman John Malone, and fellow board members. Fries said that his European competitors did not have the bandwidth to offer either 3D or even HD content, but that when 3D was launched, Liberty would be first to market. “We are co-operating with Samsung and others in certain markets to experiment with 3D, so we’ll be there, but it will take a while before it takes effect”.
Describing the recent acquisition of Germany’s Unitymedia as filling a “hole in a doughnut”, Fries told CNBC not to expect any further acquisitions. “It was a well priced deal, we financed it within two days, it has great demographics, it’s a huge market, it was pre-built, it really looks and feels like everything we’ve tried to do,” he said “We’re not necessarily focused on any more acquisitions, that was a big transaction. We’ve been repurchasing our stock pretty aggressively, six billion dollars in the last four years, so we have to refresh the cup a bit to go back to that strategy”.
There has been speculation that Liberty might be in the frame to purchase the Polish cablenet Aster City, though this has been denied by the operator.
