Vodafone share price: Mobile carrier plans to launch TV service in Ireland

Vodafone Group Plc (LON:VOD), the world’s second-largest mobile carrier, is planning to launch a new TV service in Ireland, according to the Irish Independent. The newspaper said that the UK company had held discussions with several industry players, including Sky Plc (LON:SKY) about launching the service later this year. According to the report, trials are set to start before the summer.

“We are currently assessing our options in relation to TV services but cannot currently share any details at this point,” the Irish Independent quoted a spokesman for Vodafone, as commenting.
Launching its own TV service in the UK could form part of Vodafone’s response to telecoms companies, most notably BT Group Plc (LON:BT.A), moving into the UK mobile market. BT is currently working to complete its £12.5-billion acquisition of the UK’s largest mobile network EE, while Sky recently announced that it had entered into a mobile partnership with O2.

“The more aggressive the non-mobile people are in mobile, the more aggressive we will be on TV and on broadband,” Vittorio Colao said, as quoted by the Irish Independent. He added that his company planned a TV service in Britain this year.
A recent report by the Financial Times suggested that Vodafone also planned to launch home broadband in the spring and a cloud-based TV service later in the year. An unnamed source cited by the newspaper said that the company would then start selling “simplified” bundled mobile, Internet and TV services.

In today’s trading, Vodafone shares were one percent lower at 230.05p, as of 11:05 UTC. The stock has risen 3.5 percent since the start of the year.
According to the Financial Times, the 24 analysts offering 12 month price targets for Vodafone have a median target of 242.25p, with a high estimate of 285.00p and a low estimate of 130.00p. As of Feb 14, 2015, the consensus forecast amongst 45 polled investment analysts covering Vodafone has it that the company will outperform the market. This consensus estimate has been maintained since December 1, when the sentiment of investment analysts improved from “hold”.
As of 13:07 GMT, Monday, 16 February, Vodafone Group plc share price is 230.20p.