Optus closes mobile TV app due to lack of demand
Optus has told customers that it will shut down its mobile TV app from October 28 due to a lack of customer demand.
A spokeswoman for Optus confirmed the closure and said the decision was taken because of a lack of customers signing up for the product. “On 28 October 2013, Optus will be shutting down the Optus Mobile TV app for commercial reasons,” the spokeswoman told Mumbrella’s sister title Encore.
“Customers who are currently subscribed to a monthly Optus Mobile TV subscription will be able to continue using their service until 28 October. Customers won’t be able to subscribe to monthly subscriptions from 23 September.” The decision is another blow to the telco’s mobile TV division and comes after it lost an exhausting court battle last year with the AFL, NRL and Telstra who successfully argued the Optus TV Now product, a web-based TV recording service, breached their digital broadcasting rights.
In August 2012 the company was forced to suspend its TV Now service in the wake of the Federal Court decision. Optus took the matter to the High Court where the court refused to hear an appeal.
However Optus maintains the move to suspend its mobile TV service is unrelated to the TV Now decision, noting that it has had a limited TV catch up service in market since 2008.
Last Tuesday the company sent its mobile TV customers a text message announcing: “Hi, we need to let you let you know our Optus TV mobile app is shutting down 28 October.”
An announcement on the company’s website says: “Unfortunately there’s no plan to bring the Optus Mobile TV app back at this time.”
Nic Christensen
This story first appeared in Encore. Download it now on iPad, iPhone and Android tablet devices.
A little thing called YouTube killed the relevance of this product. Telco on-deck products are so 2004.
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