Both UPC Nederland and HBO deny earlier unconfirmed reports that the cabler would start to carry the three Dutch HBO channels from the third quarter of the year.
A spokesperson for UPC told BRoadband TV News that talks with HBO are still ongoing, but no agreement has been reached. “Neither of us have been approached for a comment or verification,” wrote UPC’s Ronald Sutmuller in an email to us.
Similarly, HBO’s Jeroen Roovers wrote to Broadband TV News: “Since the launch of HBO Nederland we are in negotiations with various distribution platforms and cable operators, but with regards to UPC we have not yet reached an agreement nor a launch date. However, it remains our goal to reach as many subscribers as possible in the Dutch market.”
HBO Nederland was launched as a joint venture with Ziggo with three channels (both in SD and HD) as well as HBO Go and HBO On Demand.
The three SD and three HD channels, HBO, HBO 2 and HBO 3, are launching today, June 25 on KPN and XS4All, while KPN’s Telfort will begin carrying the channels on July 9.
Subscribers to HBO will also have access to HBO Go and HBO On-demand.
HBO in the Netherlands is a joint venture of Time-Warner with Dutch cabler Ziggo. The channel launched earlier this year on the Ziggo network.
