TV apps revitalise television

TDC now offers TV apps produced specifically for Danish viewers. The first six apps are ready to ensure Danes immediate access to news, weather forecasts, music, radio, images and a special general election barometer. Several more are in the pipeline, and René Brøchner, Senior Vice President at TDC Consumer A/S, believes that the new possibilities will revolutionise how we use television.

Danes download millions of apps for their smartphones, but apps are no longer reserved for mobile users. They are now also available for your television and the first by TDC are now released for more than 120,000 Danish homes.

The TV apps are similar to the smartphone apps, but have been developed with the size of the screen and easy remote control navigation in mind. The first six TV apps from TDC offer access to the user’s digital pictures, world weather forecasts, Danish radio stations, music with TDC Play, a Danish General Election 2011 barometer as well as news from the newspaper Jyllands-Posten. In about a month, the newspaper Berlingske Tidende will be added to the list.

- We are convinced that the news services will have a major impact, replacing teletext services and enabling users to watch TV clips and press photos. Half of the Danish population use teletext on a daily basis, and we strongly believe that our news app will be able to meet this need in the future, says TDC Senior Vice President René Brøchner, TDC Consumer A/S.

Reusing successes
The six apps have, among other things, been selected on the basis of international studies of the behaviour of TV customers in other countries compared to user studies conducted on the behaviour of Danish television viewers. And TDC's own success stories have of course also been taking into account. 

- The TDC Play free music service will be revolutionised for our customers as they can now have the world’s largest jukebox in their living room. And customers who have the HomeDisk backup product will have access to, among other things, their photo library so they can display all of their pictures on their TV, says René Brøchner.

So far, TDC has chosen to release all six TV apps for all customers, but it is likely that the app selection in the near future will be so varied that customers will be able to pick out their favourite apps in a type of TV app store. At any rate, the future looks very exciting for TV customers.

- We will no longer only use our TV for the classic television watching, but also for activities which have so far been restricted to the Internet. Our habits will change because it will be much quicker to share pictures and video clips with each other while rating TV shows or movies via the social media. And it will all be possible from your television, and I consider this to be a revolution, René Brøchner concludes.

About the six apps
Access to TV apps: Press the blue button or 'Mit TDC' (My TDC) on your remote control. Navigate using the arrow keys and the OK button on you remote control.

News: Live news just like on the Internet. The menus provide access to news (sorted by topics such as culture, sports, business and politics) as well as TV and photos. They can be viewed in the menu or on full screen.

Weather forecast: Access to weather forecasts from virtually all cities and places worldwide. Navigate to the weekday for which you want to see the weather, which can be displayed in three-hour intervals for the day in question. Precipitation, wind direction and wind speed are also displayed. And you can of course add your favourite places to a list of favourites.

TDC Play: Free access to over 10 million songs from your TV ‘jukebox’. You can either access music via the current source of inspiration, TDC Play’s hit lists or your own playlists. You can also search for artists, albums or songs.

Radio: Use the app to listen to most Danish radio stations on your TV.

HomeDisk: This app offers access to pictures which the user has stored on his HomeDisk. They can be displayed directly on the TV screen. The app offers both an overview of picture folders and a search option. You can also start full screen slide shows.

General election barometer: The app is a poll which shows how TDC’s TV customers will cast their vote at the general election. The vote is anonymous and the customer can change his or her vote. You will of course still have to cast your official vote at the Danish general election.