UK telecom operator TalkTalk more than doubled its TV subscriber base in the quarter to March 31 and said it was adding 12,000 new TV subscribers a week as it exited its financial year. It also confirmed plans to launch a lower-cost TV offering in the current financial year.

TalkTalk added 150,000 TV customers in its fourth fiscal quarter, taking its total to 230,000, with about 25% being new TalkTalk customers.  The company said that about 72% of its TV base had previously been Freeview or Freesat users.

TalkTalk said it would launch a “value for money” Essentials TV product to appeal to Freeview upgraders, comprising a smaller, lower-cost set-top box with no DVR and only one tuner, and would extend its content offering with a range of specialist channels including foreign-language, education and entertainment services.

Viewers watched an average of 19.5 hours of free live or catch-up TV and about 2.5 hours of paid for content on average, it said. About 20% of customers have bought one or more pay services. TalkTalk said many viewers showed “a significant propensity” to buy content beyond their initial sign-up, with good results for transactional on-demand, driven by movies including The Hobbit and Life of Pi.

The acceleration in adoption of TalkTalk’s YouView-based TV service came alongside the launch of a self-installation option, which the company said had strengthened its momentum.

The number of subscribers taking TalkTalk’s Plus package, including those taking YouView for no additional monthly fee, an offer launched in September last year, grew by 68,000 in the final quarter of the year.

TalkTalk added 30,000 on-net broadband and voice customers in the quarter, offset by the loss of 20,000 off-net broadband customers. The company added 21,000 fibre customers in the quarter, taking its fibre base to 73,000.

TalkTalk ended the year with a total of 4.063 million broadband customers.

TalkTalk’s strong showing in the fourth quarter helped return it to revenue growth of 1.4% to £427 million (€504 million).

Full-year revenues were down slightly from £1.687 billion to £1.67 billion. Underlying EBITDA was up 11% to £352 million.

The iPlayer Windows Phone 8 app comprises a shortcut to the mobile optimised website, live tile and media player and can be downloaded from the Windows Phone store free of charge.

However, the BBC has decided not to make a version available for Windows Phone 7.5. The broadcaster said it had been unable to provide a sufficient quality of playback due to the limitations of the platform.

Amazon-owned, UK-based subscription video-on-demand provider Lovefilm brought two replica Viking longships along the Thames into London as part of a publicity drive for its new series The Vikings.

The stunt followed Lovefilm’s dealwith MGM Television, announced last week, to exclusively air all nine episodes of the Norse action drama on the Lovefilm Instant online service.

The Vikings, which stars Travis Fimmel, Gabriel Byrne and Katheryn Winnick, and chronicles the adventures of Norse hero Ragnar Lothbrok, will premiere on Lovefilm Instant in the UK on May 24 and in Germany on June 15.

At800 said the results reflected the fact that there was a strong DTT signal in London and that services were transmitted on frequencies with clear separation from the new 4G services.

Simon Beresford-Wylie, chief executive of at800, said, “London is a big and important market for 4G services and also has millions of Freeview viewers. Clearly it was essential for the broadcasters and the mobile operators that we run trials in London before a rollout of 4G at 800 megahertz. Whilst it seems unlikely that there will be issues for the vast majority of television viewers in the capital, we will remain alert to any possible interference when rollout commences.”

At800 will now run a further trial in Brighton, where Freeview is transmitted at frequencies much closer to the those used for the 4G services.

UK programme distributer All3Media International is looking to take its long running drama series Midsomer Murders to a younger audience with the wide rollout of a new social networking extension.

The firm launched a beta version of the Midsomer Murders Facebook game earlier this year, and is now in talks with broadcast partners about rolling it out and promoting it in English language markets such as the US, Canada, and Australia.

All3Media International is also planning to take it into Scandinavia and is looking at translating the programming extension into French and German to target these major European markets, the firm confirmed.

“The show is the main stay of many overseas broadcasters schedule and we do a huge amount of publicity across Scandinavia – where the show is a top 3 title in Sweden and Denmark – France and Germany and Australia. Indeed it’s fair to say it’s active in over 200 territories.  We’ll work closely to target the game with our broadcast partners on the show,” an All3Media spokesperson told DTVE.

The episodic Midsomer Murders game is designed so that players log in each day or week in order to solve virtual murder cases, with the game matching locations that appear on the show.

It was developed with All3Media International, its sister company and show producer Bentley Productions and UK-based games studio Utinni Games.

“We’ve taken a scripted drama with a loyal older profile into quite a young digital space and added gaming elements to it, to bring it to a new audience” said Alle3Media International MD Louise Pedersen.

The game is Midsomer Murders’ first product spin-off and digital extension and coincides with the show’s sixteenth season, which is due to air later this year.

The long-term cost of the move will be over £900 million, according to the UK National Audit Office.

The NAO said it is still too early to say whether the move to Salford in Greater Manchester represents value for money for UK licence fee payers. However, amid mainstream UK press reports about the cost of the move, it did find incentives on offer were more generous than this ordinarily on offer and that cost controls relating to its relocation policy were inadequate.

The BBC estimates that the final cost of fitting out the buildings at Salford and moving people in will be £224 million, £9 million less than the revised budget approved by the BBC Trust in February 2011. The lifetime budgeted cost of relocation and operating costs up to 2030 is £942 million.

The NAO has recommended that the BBC Trust, which oversees the broadcaster’s activities, should continually review the move and that the BBC should maintain clear records to be able to demonstrate  that payments are appropriate and it recovers allowance payments from staff that leave the organisation.

The BBC exceeded said it had “exceeded its target to relocate 30 per cent of staff from the 1,500 roles transferring from London to Salford”, with 38% making the move.

Anthony Fry, chair of the Trust’s Finance Committee, said: “The BBC has struck a sound balance in its handling of this move, part of a commitment agreed during the last Charter to better serve all audiences across the UK.” He added: “Given that the move was well-managed and within budget, however, it is disappointing that some of the controls on relocation payments proved inadequate and we would not expect a repeat of this with any future moves.”

Sun+ will cost subscribers £2 per-week, will include English Premier League Football clips, as well as exclusive offers and promotions, and will be accessible from smartphones, tablets and web browsers.

News Corp’s News International division announced a three-year deal with the Premier League in January, which gives NI Group exclusive rights to show clips of all 380 Premier League football matches per season on The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times newspapers’ digital platforms.

Commenting on Sun+, Mike Darcey, CEO of NI Group, said: “This move ensures we will be offering a compelling paid-for package across all our titles, delivering great value for news that is worth paying for.”

According to a Wall Street Journal report, ESPN plans to broadcast highlight clips on the site of sporting events like World Cup football, X Games extreme sports and college American football.

The network will reportedly sell ads that will run inside the clips, with sponsors paying to promote the tweets on the site, and builds on a tie-up dating from last year that saw ESPN start to experiment with drawing fan tweets into its TV broadcasts.

The news came as Fox, which had its upfront yesterday, also announced a Twitter partnership to promote its shows via clips on the site.  According to an LA Times report, Fox will also use Twitter to push highlights of live events and share videos after they air.

BT had previously said it would only distribute the channels through YouView boxes purchased from BT. However, following reported customer complaints the telco said it would allow users of boxes purchased from retail outlets with a BT Infinity subscription to receive the sports services.

Netflix has signed a deal with Disney that will see it offer films such as Ratatouille, Wall-E and The Chronicles of Narnia to viewers in the UK and Ireland. 

The deal, which covers new and classic Disney content, as well as titles form Disney-owned studio Pixar, also includes films like Dumbo, The Aristocats and Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.

In the coming months, the firm also promised exclusive selected titles from Disney’s other subsidiaries, Marvel and Dreamworks, including The Help, War Horse and People Like Us. Films like Marvel’s Avengers Assemble and John Carter are due to follow next year.

“We always look to offer families Disney movies when, where and how they want them. Working with Netflix in the UK and Ireland, we’re providing its members with a superb range of movie entertainment, through a high-quality and convenient viewing experience,” said Catherine Powell, senior VP and general manager, Disney Media Distribution, EMEA.

The news comes after Netflix and Disney/ABC Television Group announced a new multi-year licensing deal in the US that gives the streaming service exclusive US subscription rights to Disney five children’s series.

This comprises Disney Junior’s animated series Jake and the Nether Land Pirates, Disney XD’s Tron: Uprising, plus Handy Manny, Special Agent Oso and JoJo’s Circus. All five will be available on Netflix US later this month.

Netflix also last week updated its iPad app, adding the ‘post play’ feature that automatically cues and up and runs the next episode of a show once one ends. This is already available on the browser version of the service.