Orange inks connected TV deal for Thomson TVs

French telco Orange has cut a deal with Chinese TV manufacturer TCL and will launch its Orange-branded portal on all of the connected sets it ships to Europe. TCL markets its TVs under the Thomson banner in Europe and the sets with the Orange portal will launch in France early this year. The sets will roll out to other parts of Europe later in 2012.

“TCL is very proud of this collaboration with Orange which enables us to offer to our customers in France, and in a second step in other European countries, a portal with easy to use services and rich content on our Smart TVs,” said Stan Hu, director of business, product and new technology planning at TCL.

The Orange portal allows consumers to access the internet via their remote controls and offers a range of Orange content and services including sports information, live radio, movie trailers and an enhanced EPG.

Xavier Perret, Orange’s director of strategic partnerships said: “With this partnership, Orange joins a key player in China in a long-term relationship in which we’ll work together on new generations of TVs that will offer a sampling of Orange’s content and services.”