UK telecoms operator EE has launched a new home TV service that lets customers use smartphones and tablets as remote controls for their home television.
Customers will be able to watch more than 70 live Freeview HD channels and online services including Daily Motion, YouTube, BBC iPlayer, Demand 5 and Wuaki.tv.
EE TV, which will be available later this autumn, is based on a ‘smart box’ that plugs into a TV set via an HDMI socket. It’s equipped with a 1TB hard drive for recording, along with 4 Freeview tuners and WiFi connectivity. This means a household can watch four different TV programmes simultaneously using a combination of conventional TV, smartphones and tablets in the same house.
Other features include a ‘replay’ option that automatically records the last 24 hours of TV from a customer’s favourite TV channels. In addition, the EE TV app enables a tablet or smartphone to be used as a combination of touch-screen remote control and TV guide.
The EE TV service will be free for EE mobile customers who also subscribe to an EE Broadband plan costing at least £9.95 per month plus £15.75 line rental.
Olaf Swantee, EE’s CEO, said “Today we’re announcing the most advanced TV service the UK has ever seen. How, where and when people watch TV and movies is changing, and mobile technology is driving that change. As the UK’s biggest and fastest network, with more than 25 million customers, we have unrivalled insight into people’s changing viewing habits. It’s helped us create a service that has mobile at its heart, and makes the TV experience more personal than ever before. With EE TV, not only can you watch different streams of live and recorded content, on multiple screens simultaneously, but your mobile becomes the remote. This gives each viewer the chance to watch, queue and view what they want, when they want. It’s a completely new way to enjoy your favourite programmes, films and internet content.”
Although EE TV is currently just a home-based service that streams via WiFi, the network says it’ll offer viewing via 4G in the future.