TV and online entertainment business Sky has agreed a mobile voice and data partnership with Telefónica UK. As a result, Sky plans to launch its own mobile services in 2016.
It’s a move into ‘quad play’ for Sky, which currently has almost 40% of its customer base subscribing to its TV, telephony and broadband services. Sky already offers a ‘mobile TV’ service called Sky Go, with 5.7 million registered users able to watch live and on-demand channels via mobile devices.
Jeremy Darroch, Group Chief Executive of Sky, said “As the UK’s leading brand for home entertainment and communications, Sky has a proven ability to launch new services, at scale. We know our 11.5 million customers trust Sky to offer them the best quality and choice and have an appetite to take more from us. Through our partnership with Telefónica UK, we can build on our expertise in content, innovation and service to launch a range of exciting new services and exploit the opportunities for growth in the fast-changing mobile sector.”
Telefonica is currently in takeover talks with Hutchison Whampoa.