TalkTalk to phase out Blinkbox brand and use service to bolster YouView on mobile and games consoles
TalkTalk is set to phase out the Blinkbox brand following its acquisition of the movie and TV streaming service earlier today.
The broadband provider will in time drop the BlinkBox brand completely as it absorbs the service into its overall TV proposition, according to managing director, consumer, Tristia Harrison.
Speaking to The Drum she said the timeframe and details of the new brand are yet to be determined but that they will come under the TalkTalk TV family branding.
“We won’t run Blinkbox as a standalone business, we will very quickly integrate both our existing TV businesses and theirs,” she added.
TalkTalk currently has 1.2m TV customers which it accrued as a result of its partnership in the YouView joint on-demand set-top box venture. Today's acquisition will help “accelerate” its TV plans, and expand YouView “out of the home” according to Harrisson.
“By that I mean take the existing YouView content experience onto smartphones and tablets and game consoles. We are very fledgling in our current activity and this lets us accelerate it. They [Blinkbox] bring great technical and content marketing expertise, which is very complementary for us.”
Harrisson said it was too early to say if there would be any redundancies as a result of the acquisition, but added “we will integrate the two teams and will take the best of both, and we’re very excited about that”.
Although the move will see it bolster the YouView content proposition, Harrisson stressed the business will not become an original content buyer, or producer, but would always focus on its role as a content aggregator.
“We are not in the business of being a buyer of direct content. We aim to provide a free marketplace for all the pay and free content, whether it’s live linear, on-demand, pay-per-view, or catch-up – all in one place. We have very good relationships with Sky and FilmFlex, and that won’t change – this is just another strand to that existing strategy,” she said.
The terms of the buyout were undisclosed, but the deal has been widely reported to be worth around £25m.