The second largest telcoms in Australia Optus, is set to add the popular FetchTV service to smartphones and tablets during the second half of 2011, in a partnership with garners the 4th local contract for the IPTV provider.

The service will mark FetchTV’s first move to mobile and tablet devices, after three years of development and its first official launch with iiNet in April last year.

Optus digital media director, Austin Bryant, said “the partnership with FetchTV was part of the telco’s converged media strategy, a ploy currently being pushed by other Australian providers.”

More information about the service from Optus, such as pricing and device compatibility, are expected to be revealed closer to launch date. It is also unknown whether the telco will offer the FetchTV set top box under the partnership.

The service is one of two major IPTV solutions that are currently available in Australia, along with Telstra’s T-Box. Apart from the likes of Apple’s rebooted Apple TV, the local market has so far lacked competitive, provider agnostic IPTV and on demand media devices.

Despite the rumours of an expansion by US based Hulu to Australia under a partnering with Nine Network, no plans for this have been confirmed other than an application by them to IP Australia in March.

Telstra reported in its half year financial results that it had sold 107,000 of its T-Box devices by the end of 2010.

iiNet has more than 2000 customers using their FetchTV service, while an Internode spokesperson said “usage on its network was in the hundreds under a purposefully limited customer trial of the device.”

More on this story:-

Optus Nab FetchTV For IPTV As Telstra T Box Battle Looms - Smart Office

Optus gains wholesale access to FetchTVs content IPTV delivery network and set-top box with a service that is ready to launch immediately saving Optus the cost and execution risk of building its own service from scratch. It also demonstrates the …

Optus to launch converged IPTV service with FetchTV – iTWire
Optus is partnering with wholesale IPTV service provider FetchTV to jointly develop a converged IPTV service that will be available over is fixed broadband network and on smartphones and tablet devices. The service is scheduled for …

Optus To Offer FetchTV Through Multiple Devices – Gizmodo Australia

FetchTV is available through a whole heap of ISPs already but it seems as though the announcement today that Optus will offer FetchTV services is the most exciting one yet for the fledgling IPTV company. …

Latest TV searches:

tv logo

Related News:

1. Sky Online TV Now Streaming On FetchTV Set Top Box
2. Hulu Plus Makes Inital Steps To Move Away From The PC
3. BBC iPlayer App For iPad Tablet And iPhone Gets Closer To Launch
4. Hulu Plus Going Mobile On Android Devices
5. Channel 4 Launch 4oD For iPad Tablet