Talk Talk has bought Tesco’s broadband and its Blinkbox online movie streaming service as the telco joins the race for providing ‘quad play’ (mobile phone, broadband, pay TV and fixed-line telephone) to its customers.
The integration of blinkbox with TalkTalk’s existing TV business is expected to begin immediately with the benefits of restructuring the combined platform and revenue synergies expected to flow from the end of 2015.
As part of the same deal the group has also acquired Tesco’s broadband and voice base (around 75,000 broadband and 20,000 voice households) which will enable it to further develop its national network.
As with the recent acquisition of the Virgin Media National base, customers will be transferred across to the TalkTalk network over the coming months.
TalkTalk chief executive Dido Harding said: “Since launch TalkTalk TV has demonstrated its popularity with value-seeking customers to become the UK’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.”
She went on: “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.”
TalkTalk’s TV proposition is pitched firmly at users who would like more content than they can find on Freeview, but are unwilling to fork out for Sky or Virgin Media services.
The end of Blinkbox’s alliance with Tesco comes months after the ousting of supermarket boss Philip Clarke, who brought it into the fold to begin with.
It is thought that the loss-making service was made to walk the plank by Tesco’s new CEO, Dave Lewis, as he seeks to fill a £263m black hole in the firm’s profits.