Digital TV News

BT Vision to be more social

Wednesday 18 January, 2012

By Kelvin Goodson

Internet TV service to incorporate social media and become more customisable in order to compete with Netflix.

BT Vision will compete with the newly-launched Netflix by becoming more social and more customisable.

Within the next few weeks, BT’s internet TV service will offer greater interactivity with its on-demand content library and social media features, according to the Financial Times .

BT, the UK’s largest broadband provider, will redesign BT Vision to incorporate personalised recommendations, tailoring content to the user’s tastes based on their viewing habits.

Social networking is also expected to be introduced to the service, ahead of the launch of YouView, an internet-connected TV platform backed by BT alongside the likes of the BBC and TalkTalk, which is due to be launched in the next few months.

A BT spokesperson said: “We will be starting to roll-out an exciting new generation of BT Vision shortly and will reveal more details soon.”

The redesign of BT Vision is believed to be aimed at increasing the appeal of the service, with television fans now having more pay-TV options following the launch of Netflix in the UK and Ireland last week.

Netflix is a internet and TV subscription service that offers unlimited access to a broad range of films and TV programmes for £5.99 a month in the UK and €6.99 (£5.83) a month in Ireland.

The service, which is currently offering a one-month free trial to those wishing to sign-up, is integrated with Facebook, meaning users can discover new films and TV programmes through their friends, as well as sharing what they’re watching themselves.