Telefonica bolsters IPTV offering with Digital + buy

Spanish carrier Telefonica said Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire 21 per cent of local satellite TV player Prisa, which operates under the Digital + brand.

At a price of €470m, Telefonica will get access to Digital +’s pay TV services, giving it access to content for its own Imagenio IPTV offering.

Under the deal, the two companies also formed a framework collaboration agreement to explore “potential co-operation in fields regarding audiovisual development, and other services of both companies, in Spain.”

Meanwhile, Telefonica has collared infrastructure firm Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) to sort it out a six month long LTE trial for its O2 operation in the Czech Republic.

Telefonica is now running LTE test projects in six countries, with a view to selecting technology providers for its 4G deployments. Last month, the operator tapped up Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, NEC, NSN and ZTE for test networks in Spain, the UK, Germany, the Czech Republic, Brazil and Argentina.

The Spanish firm reckons its will be able to offer peak speeds of up to 340Mbps in ideal conditions using LTE, exploiting benefits from more flexible spectrum management, increased efficiency through greater operating automation and the mass adoption of the technologies such as MIMO.