Optus closes mobile TV app due to lack of demand

Optus has told customers that it will shut down its mobile TV app from October 28 due to a lack of customer demand.

A spokeswoman for Optus confirmed the closure and said the decision was taken because of a lack of customers signing up for the product. “On 28 October 2013, Optus will be shutting down the Optus Mobile TV app for commercial reasons,” the spokeswoman told Mumbrella’s sister title Encore.

“Customers who are currently subscribed to a monthly Optus Mobile TV subscription will be able to continue using their service until 28 October. Customers won’t be able to subscribe to monthly subscriptions from 23 September.” The decision is another blow to the telco’s mobile TV division and comes after it lost an exhausting court battle last year with the AFL, NRL and Telstra who successfully argued the Optus TV Now product, a web-based TV recording service, breached their digital broadcasting rights.

In August 2012 the company was forced to suspend its TV Now service in the wake of the Federal Court decision. Optus took the matter to the High Court where the court refused to hear an appeal.