Orange to integrate Twitter into IPTV

Mobile carrier Orange UK said Tuesday it is working to integrate popular social networking platform Twitter into its own service offerings, including TV as well as mobile and web.

In a pan-European move, but launching first in the UK, Orange will integrate Twitter features into its mobile service, allowing users the ability to upload and share photos with their Twitter followers via MMS. SMS-based tweets will be rolled into the standard mobile plan and users will be able to set times for receiving tweets, chose a maximum number of daily tweets and chose to receive updates in real time, hourly or daily.

Interestingly, Orange has said it will also explore ways of integrating Twitter into its IPTV platform to create interactive Twitter feeds that will run during and alongside programmes and will embed the service within Orange web portals from 2010.

Twitter will be implemented first in UK, followed by France, Spain, Poland in 2009. It will then roll out across the rest of the Orange European footprint in 2010.

The platform will be added to Orange’s social media aggregation service “Social Life” in the UK, “Mes communautés” in France or “My Social Place” in Spain, alongside Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and a range of other popular social sites.