The Czech incumbent O2 is preparing the one of Europe’s first HbbTV applications with SMS payments, working in partnership with Mautilus.
The application will run on the free O2 TV channel and allow users to directly pay for access to its premium content on the O2 TV Sport channels through the SMS payment gateway from their mobile phones in a fee seconds.
Users will also be able to access the VOD archive, as they can use a start-over feature and go through catch-up content that is available for up to 50 hours backwards. The application also includes the archive of free content produced by O2 TV.
Commenting in the development, Branislav Valo, product owner of O2 TV, said: “Even for us, as a telecommunication operator, HbbTV platform holds a great potential in terms of serving more content to our users and its monetisation. We have been working hard in cooperation with Mautilus to prepare something new so we truly believe that the presented solution will be well received by many.”
Lubos Lnenicka, CBDO of Mautilus, added: “From our point of view, it has been a really pleasant experience to support O2 TV with their innovative solution. The reason being is that we are still looking for new opportunities how to further exploit the monetisation advantages not only of HbbTV, but also of other OTT platforms, and this project is exactly what we consider as a great example of that”.
