Orange in talks with manufacturers for connected TV

France’s Orange is in talks with TV manufacturers Samsung, LG and Panasonic to integrate its services with TVs connected to the internet, according to a report in French financial daily Les Echos.

Raoul Roverato, executive director in charge of new growth activities, told the newspaper that Orange did not want to leave the field to be dominated by US companies, and wanted to make its services available on all types of screens, including TVs. He said that Orange was in talks with the three manufacturers to make some of its applications available via connected TVs.

Roverato said that internet users wanted to access email, information services and personal media via the TV and that it was important for Orange to get its foot in the door in order to establish a direct connection with the consumer and create a foundation for the monetisation of services. Roverato said that Orange wanted to work with content creators and channels to test different business models.

Orange recently announced the launch of 2424actu, a news aggregation service, in partnership with a number of French news providers.