Telstra adds shopping channels to T-Box line up

Marina Freri
Tuesday, 23 August 2011 17:36

Your IT - Entertainment

Telstra is to expand the IPTV offering of its T-Box device through an exclusive partnership with shopping channel TV Shopping Network (TVSN) and its affiliated television direct marketing medium, Expo Channel.

Telstra general manager of business development and content acquisition, Andrew Lambert, said it was the first time that both TVSN and Expo had been streamed via IPTV. "And it brings the great deals and convenience of TVSN and Expo to more than 190,000 T-Box customers," he said.

"In both rural and metropolitan areas over 90 per cent of our viewers are women, so it is no wonder our most popular categories include beauty, health, fashion, home & lifestyle and jewellery," Pigot said.

TVSN and Expo Channel will expand Telstra T-Box choice of content, joining the telco's existing portfolio of seven IPTV channels. The partnership with both shopping channels is exclusive to Telstra across set top boxes, Internet TVs and ISPs. However, the telco did not disclose information about a possible share for sales revenue.

With regard to more shopping channels coming on board, a Telstra spokesperson said the telco was working on delivering new content to its customers. "We are always looking for ways to provide the best content to our customers," she said. "Our seven channels are a variety of news, sport and music".

Telstra CEO David Thodey announced in July that Telstra was trying to improve the choice of content provided on its T-Box by directing content of partner Foxtel to its Internet television platform.

TVSN and Expo general manager of television, Nick Pigot, said TVSN enjoyed a growth of more than 15 per cent in the last three years. He said he expected partnering with Telstra would confirm that financial trend.

Created in 1995, TVSN is an Australian shopping channel, which offers products for purchase 24 hours a day through its dedicated television channel and website (www.tvsn.com.au). Its services are also available on Foxtel, Optus and Austar. According to its corporate figures, there are 5,000 viewers tuned into TVSN at any one time; while its website attracts around 1 million visits per week.

TVSN was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1999, and was later bought by Direct Group, which also owns Expo Channel.