Etisalat plans large-scale expansion of OTT offering

UAE-based telco Etisalat is planning to expand the availability of its recently launched eLife OnWeb over-the-top service to a range of new devices.

Speaking at Informa’s IP&TV Forum MENA event in Dubai earlier this week, Rashid Al Abbar, vice-president, home products marketing at Etisalat, said that an eLife iOS app would be published and available for download by customers, allowing users to access TV channels via iPads and iPhones. The service will be expanded to four other devices – the Humax IR2020HD and iCord HD set-top boxes, the Android-based Kaon SmartCube and the AirTies 7124 box – by the end of 2011. The service will be available on LG Optimus mobile phones by the end of this year and via a browser by the first quarter of 2012.

Rashid Al Abbar said that Etlisalat now had 29 content partners for its OnWeb and OnWeb Plus services, including six premium content partners. He said he expected this to grow to over 50 content partners and over 10 premium partners, with at least 100 movies on the offering, by the end of next year.

Etisalat officially launched its IPTV service a month ago, although the service had already signed up about 100,100 subscribers from its soft launch. The company plans to use over-the-top delivery to expand the service outside the UAE to operators in which it has an interest and other service providers in the region, as well as delivering the service to multiple devices. It has struck a partnership with LG for delivery to connected TVs.