Telefonica, one of the largest mobile operators in the world, has today announced that its Movistar TV video-on-demand service will be joining the healthy community of video-on-demand services on Window Phone.
As part of a joint initiative with Microsoft, Telefonica announced at Mobile World Congress 2015 that the Movistar TV Go app will be released in the near future for Windows Phone 8.1 users. With the app, customers can watch a combination of both English-language channels such as CNN, BBC, FOX, and the Disney Channel, in addition to original-language ones. The app will also feature Cortana integration so that users can simply use their voice to search and play content in the app.
“The availability of our television services on mobile devices increases the attractiveness and potential for enjoyment of the content we offer to our users, and places Telefónica at the forefront of video products with an offer of TV Everywhere which is increasingly diverse,” – Michael Duncan, CEO of Global Video Unit, Telefonica
Since the Spanish-speaking Cortana is still in “alpha” stages, the Movistar TV Go app had to be fine-tuned to make the best of personal assistant. This collaboration will also help Microsoft get more feedback to improve Cortana’s linguistic abilities through the app.
“We are very pleased to have achieved this milestone with Telefónica. Rather than just performing voice-activated commands, Cortana continually learns about each user and becomes increasingly personalized, with the ultimate goal of proactively performing the right tasks at the right time. Telefónica’s support is helping us to speed up this process.” – Steven Guggenheimer, Corporate VP & Chief Evangelist, Microsoft
The Movistar TV Go app will be available “shortly after Mobile World Congress”, it will launch first in Spain before expanding to Latin American countries where Telefonica offers its TV services. We’ll be sure to let you know of the app’s availability once it is released, so stay tuned for that.
Further reading: Microsoft, Telefónica, Windows Phone
