M7 Deutschland has aquired eight network operators from the municipal utilities and energy supplier sector as new customers in the past six months.
The companies include Thüga SmartService, BiTel, K-NET Telekommunikation, Stadtwerke Erkrath, OstTelCom, EmslandTel.Net and bn:t Blatzheim Networks Telecom. They will use M7’s technical and distribution licence wholesale products. In addition to the TV offer from the pay-TV, Basis HD and International TV portfolios, this increasingly includes technical services for IPTV as well as M7’s 360° all-round service with sales-supporting measures for customer loyalty and promotion of new business, according to M7.
M7 also renewed a large number of existing contracts with market partners.
“We are the market leader for TV entertainment for cable and IP network operators in Germany and Austria regarding licenses for premium channels, turnkey TV wholesale products and innovative IPTV services. With the eight new customers, we were able to further strengthen this market position,” said Martijn van Hout, Vice-President and Country Manager Germany and Austria of M7 Group.
“For these network operators, a full and innovative TV offer for private customers and the housing industry in their served areas is a very important precondition for providing competitive products on the market and being able to survive the tough competition,” added van Hout. “The new partnerships also confirm that we have struck a nerve in the market with our products specially designed for IPTV providers and municipal utilities.”
The new M7 services include in particular the turnkey white label solution DVB-IP. The channel packages are transmitted via satellite through the teleport in Usingen near Frankfurt on M7’s direct-to-cable platform in DVB-S2 to the network partners’ head-ends. The satellite uplinks are handled by German service provider Media Broadcast Satellite. At the head-ends, the Conax-encrypted channels are processed in IP format and distributed on the fibre-optic networks to end customers. M7 offers bundled licenses for 140 free-to-air and pay-TV channels as well as international packages in nine languages.
Network operators can also make use of a multiscreen IP product from M7. With the white label TV app, customers can receive around 70 public HD channels and commercial SD channels within their Wi-Fi home networks as well as – if subscribed to – the around 30 channels of the Family HD pay-TV package on mobile devices such as tablets, smartphones and laptops.
