UK's Virgin Media-O2 to launch IPTV by end of the year

Schueler said on the sidelines of the event that the product would be branded Virgin Media. The company's pay-TV rival Sky launched its Now TV IPTV product in 2012, complementing its core satellite TV offer.

British broadband and mobile company Virgin Media-O2 will launch its first IPTV (internet television) offer by the end of the year, targeted at younger consumers, its chief executive Lutz Schueler said on Thursday.

"We will be launching soon our first IPTV offer," he said at the Royal Television Society Convention in Cambridge, east England. Schueler said on the sidelines of the event that the product would be branded Virgin Media.

The company's pay-TV rival Sky launched its Now TV IPTV product in 2012, complementing its core satellite TV offer. Cable TV and broadband company Virgin Media combined with mobile operator O2 in a joint venture earlier this year.

Schueler also said the company was still exploring offering wholesale access to other broadband providers on its network, but it "was in no hurry" to strike any deals. The company said in July it would upgrade its entire network serving 15.5 million premises to full fibre by 2028, stepping up its challenge to BT in rolling out ultrafast connections.