O2 TV and Mautilus release first HbbTV application with SMS payments

O2 TV & Mautilus preparing the first HbbTV application with SMS payments

During this morning, the O2 Czech Republic held the press conference to announce the entrance to HbbTV platform while showcasing its new HbbTV application with integrated SMS payments, which is supposed to be the very first of its kind in Europe, to monetize their video content via HbbTV in terrestrial free-to-air channels. The application is being developed by one of the most active companies within HbbTV platform, Mautilus.

The HbbTV application will be running on the free O2 TV channel and will allow users to directly purchase the access to its premium content on the O2 TV Sport channel through SMS payment gateway from their mobile phones with a few seconds. In addition to that, users can also access the VOD archive, as they can use a start-over feature and go through the catch-up content that is available for up to 50 hours backward. The application also includes the archive of free content produced by O2 TV.

Branislav Valo, product owner of O2 TV, commented during the press conference: “Even for us, as a telecommunication operator, HbbTV platform holds a great potential in terms of serving more content to our users and its monetization. We have been working hard in cooperation with Mautilus to prepare something new so we truly believe that the presented solution will be well received by many.”

“From our point of view, it has been a really pleasant experience to support O2 TV with their innovative solution. The reason being is that we are still looking for new opportunities how to further exploit the monetization advantages not only of HbbTV, but also of other OTT platforms, and this project is exactly what we consider as a great example of that”, said Lubos Lnenicka, CBDO of Mautilus.