OTE reveals details of IPTV soft launch

October 8, 2008 - Greek telco Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE) has revealed that it is undertaking a soft launch of its new IPTV service 'Conn-x' over its ADSL network to a "limited number" of existing customers as part of ongoing trials.

The trial period is expected to last until the end of December, and the test transmissions will take place in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Larissa and Iraklion (Crete). At the end of the trial period, OTE expects to proceed with commercially launching the service, initially offering subscribers a basic 12-month contract for €10 per month, a subscription to its 'VideoClub' service for free for 12 months, and a modem and set-top box for free.

The service is expected to carry the following channels: ET1, NET, ET3, Sine, Prism Sports, Eurosport, Eurosport 2, Extreme Sports, ESPN, NASN, Nat Geo Wild, Discovery Science, Discovery World, Discovery Travel & Living, Style TV, Zone Reality, Fashion TV, Baby TV , Euronews, France 24 and Al Jazeera. Accedo Broadband also revealed yesterday that it is adding games from its Accedo Application Portfolio to the service, including arcade, board, puzzle and card games.

Following the offer period, individual VideoClub video on demand titles are expected to cost €2-5, while a subscription to a VideoClub package will cost €8 per month, and a 12-month basic contract offering access to the above-named broadcast channels (but without the VideoClub package) will cost €15. The service will be offered with Tilgin Mood 400-001 set-top boxes and Thomson 780 PSTN/780i ISDN router, and will require a Conn-X broadband connection of 8 Mbps or 24 Mbps.