James R | On 30, Oct 2014

BT has confirmed that Netflix will be available to its TV customers through the YouView set top box.

The announcement was made as part of the company’s Q3 results, which revealed the BT Consumer revenue was up 7 per cent, driven by 17 per cent higher broadband and TV revenue. This reflects the growth in its broadband and BT Sport customer bases. Indeed, Premier League audiences have jumped by an average of roughly 45 per cent.

BT added 38,000 TV customers in the quarter, but after enjoying a boost from its heavily-advertised sports content, it is now looking to Netflix to continue expanding its customer base.

It follows a deal last year with Virgin Media, whose TiVo set top boxes already include Netflix, as broadcasters increasingly consider the subscription VOD service as an additive rather than a rival TV option. Recently, rumours have suggested that Netflix would arrive on the YouView box, which is part-funded by BT and TalkTalk, along with other broadcasters. With BT confirming the partnership, it is surely only a matter of time until TalkTalk does the same.

“We continue to focus on strengthening our TV proposition and are excited to announce we have entered into a partnership with Netflix that will allow our customers to sign up for Netflix alongside our other products and services, with the added convenience of paying on one bill directly through BT,” explains BT.

The Netflix subscription, which starts from £5.99 a month for a non-HD package, will be added to customers’ broadband and TV bills – a TV package currently starts at £5 per month in addition to a broadband bill.

To receive BT Sports in HD, BT customers currently require BT’s fibre optic service, BT Infinity. Indeed, BT’s fibre customer base ahs continued to grow, with 203,000 BT retail fibre broadband net additions in Q3 2014, taking its customer base to over 2.5m. 34 per cent of BT’s retail broadband customers are on fibre.

There is no word yet on whether Netflix will also require BT Infinity.

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