Viasat Pay-TV Packages Available in Telenor IPTV Offerings

STOCKHOLM: Modern Times Group has signed a long-term deal to distribute Viasat’s premium pay-TV channel packages to Telenor Norge’s broadband customers in Norway and Sweden.

Telenor has 623,000 broadband customers in Norway and 574,000 in Sweden, as of the end of 2009. Viasat’s channel packages will continue to be available to Telenor subsidiary Bredbandsbolaget’s subscribers in Sweden and will also be included in Telenor’s IPTV offering in Norway, which is expected to be launched for fiber-connected broadband customers this spring. Viasat’s Swedish free-TV channels—TV3, TV6, TV8 and ZTV—and Norwegian free-TV channels—TV3 and Viasat4—will be included in Telenor’s basic IPTV packages. Viasat’s Gold—movie, sport, children and documentary packages—and Silver—children and documentary packages—as well as its Viasat OnDemand services will be marketed and distributed to Telenor’s broadband customers in Sweden and Norway.

Hans-Holger Albrecht, the president and CEO of MTG, commented: "The first IPTV agreement that we signed was with Bredbandsbolaget in Sweden back in 2004 and this new agreement with Telenor means that we now have IPTV agreements with all of the major Scandinavian broadband operators."

Albrecht continued: "These agreements are part of our ‘anytime anywhere’ strategy to make our free-TV channels as broadly available as possible and to attract subscribers to our packaged pay-TV content on multiple distribution platforms. Telenor is the largest broadband operator in Scandinavia and this deal indicates the clear and growing demand for our portfolio of high-rating free-TV channels and wide range of popular premium pay-TV content. IPTV distribution is complementary to our own DTH satellite platform, and enables us to address households that we have not been able to reach before."