TalkTalk Buys Tesco’s Blinkbox & Broadband Services

LONDON: TalkTalk has acquired the blinkbox Movies business, as well as the Tesco broadband and fixed-line voice base.

Blinkbox is among the leading on-demand providers of pay content in the U.K. TalkTalk believes that the acquisitions will help to accelerate the development of its platform by delivering a number of key initiatives significantly faster, including offering a TV app to customers that provides access to paid-for content across a range of devices.

Adrian Letts, blinkbox's CEO and co-founder, will join TalkTalk as managing director for TV, reporting to Tristia Harrison, the managing director of TalkTalk's consumer business.

As part of the same transaction, TalkTalk also acquired Tesco’s broadband and voice base.

Dido Harding, the chief executive of TalkTalk, commented: “Since launch, TalkTalk TV has demonstrated its popularity with value-seeking customers to become the U.K.’s fastest growing TV service. We are excited about the opportunity that blinkbox’s platform and technology expertise bring, and which will significantly accelerate the development of our TV platform. The purchase of Tesco’s broadband base is another example of TalkTalk leveraging its national network to grow faster.  We are excited about the future of quad-play—fixed phone and broadband, TV and mobile—and this acquisition will help to further drive home our value for money advantage.”