TalkTalk has acquired Blinkbox Movies and Tesco's broadband and fixed line voice base, the company announced this morning. The deal has gone through free of debt and as a single cash transaction for an undisclosed sum.
Both services will be integrated into TalkTalk's existing YouView-based TalkTalk TV platform and mobile network base, with Blinkbox, Tesco's on-demand video streaming service, serving to bolster TalkTalk TV's rapidly growing user base. The acquisition of BlinkBox will enable TalkTalk TV to deliver a number of key initiatives much faster, the company said, such as using a TV app to access paid-for content both in your home and on the move across a range of devices.
“Since launch TalkTalk TV has demonstrated its popularity with value-seeking customers to become the UK’s fastest growing TV service," said Dido Harding, Chief Executive of TalkTalk. "We are excited about the opportunity that blinkbox’s platform and technology expertise bring, and which will significantly accelerate the development of our TV platform. The purchase of Tesco’s broadband base is another example of TalkTalk leveraging its national network to grow faster. We are excited about the future of quad-play – fixed phone and broadband, TV and mobile – and this acquisition will help to further drive home our value for money advantage.”
The integration of Blinkbox customers is expected to begin immediately, and TalkTalk expect to see the revenue benefits of the acquisition by the end of the 2015. Adrian Letts, Blinkbox's CEO and co-founder will be moving to TalkTalk as Managing Director for TV to help keep the transition moving along smoothly.
TalkTalk's acquisition of Tesco's broadband and fixed line voice network, which it currently estimates stands at around 75,000 broadband customers and 20,000 fixed line voice households, will also be assimilated into TalkTalk's current national network, with customers being transferred over to TalkTalk over the coming months.
