Vodafone steps back from exclusivity, with focus on expanding content

Emma Jones

European telco provider and pay-TV operator, Vodafone plans to move away from exclusive deals and aims to prioritise in expanding its content and services to customers. 

Speaking on a panel at Connected TV World Summit in London, Emma Jones, Vodafone’s head of group content and chain management said, “A few years ago in the pay-TV market the mission was that it had be exclusive and had to be only place to get a particular content.”

“But a lot has changed with the quality of competition that is coming out in the general entertainment space,” she added.

The exec said after launching its HBO max deal exclusively in Spain two years ago, “learning from Spain we are constantly looking at exclusivity as does it make sense, and have reached the conclusion of lets get everything in one space and get as much as we can. The goal is to be super aggregated and not necessarily chase exclusivity.”

Jones argued the pay-TV market is generally moving into a world of non-exclusivity, rather than “down the road of being the only place to get a particular content”.

Jones went on further to explain that linear channels are still an important part of Vodafone’s offering, and said FAST channels served best for delivering foreign language content and niche programming.

“We see new FAST channels being launched every day of the week, which is good and there is real value in that market and there have plenty of success stories. I think FAST is just going to be the new way in delivering linear channels, the revenue speaks for itself. We need to normalise it, it is just content, and is just another form of linear channels,” she said.

She further explained FAST channels provides a platform where there is scope for monetisation that hasn’t been seen before with traditional linear TV channels. She urged, “we need to jump on board. I like the fact it’s niche and super aggregated”.

Jones revealed the operator have plans to launch more FAST channels in the upcoming future, with trials taking place in Spain and Portugal.