Leading Russian mobile operator MTS recently signed cooperation agreements with several major producers of TV sets, including Panasonic, Philips and Samsung, to deliver content from Omlet.ru, an MTS subsidiary, to their TV sets. The news was reported last week by Russian newspaper RBC Daily from unnamed sources.
According to the agreements, the television manufacturers will pre-install the functions that allow viewers to access Omlet.ru on their Internet-connected TV sets. The first TV sets enabled to access Omlet.ru features are expected to hit the market by the end of 2011. Omlet.ru lists over 2,000 feature films and 7,000 episodes of TV series and broadcasts in its catalog.
MTS expects that the number of users accessing Omlet.ru through their TV sets will reach 1 million by the end of 2012. The majority of those users are expected to be current subscribers of the MTS namesake paid TV service. TV set makers frequently cooperate with local distributors of content. Samsung, for instance, has cooperation agreements with Russian WiMAX operator Yota and local TV channel NTV.
Russian TV conglomerate CTC Media expects that by 2014 the number of Internet-connected TV sets on the Russian market will reach 7 million, double the current number.
Source: RBC Daily
