BT UK Allegedly Preps Pay TV Rebrand to EE TV with Free Multi-Room

Credible sources have informed ISPreview that broadband ISP and mobile operator EE, as part of BT’s ongoing work to turn the provider into their “flagship brand for our consumer customers” (here), are allegedly preparing to rebrand the BT TV service to EE TV and re-launch it alongside free multi-room support, while also adding YouTube.

The move, while somewhat expected given the wider branding changes, is interesting because EE previously operated a separate “EE TV” product of its own, although that service officially closed on 31st March 2021. The original service was somewhat of a legacy product that hailed from the time just before BT and EE agreed to merge, but post-merger it looked a bit out of place next to BT TV and ended up being retired after a few years.

Nevertheless, last year’s decision by the BT Group to adopt EE as their flagship consumer brand could inevitably also mean changes for BT’s pay TV products too, which is something we haven’t really talked about much before (we already know about their broadband plans – example).

According to the leak, BT appear to be aiming for the EE re-launch to feel like a new brand, which aims to show that they’re now much more than just a mobile network. As such they’ll be doing more than just sticking EE’s logos on all of the usual products and services. We don’t yet have all of the details about how this will impact the re-branded and re-launched TV product, but we have learnt about a few of the possible changes.

Key Changes Expected for the TV Rebrand

➤ The EE TV brand will be put on Apple products via an exclusive new partership, thus customers will be able to access the EE TV service via Apple TV boxes too.

➤ EE will be launching free multi-room and adding YouTube support alongside the revied EE TV brand.

➤ Customers can also expect unlimited Gadget protection to insure all your household gadgets, although it’s unclear how much this will cost.

➤ EE are planning to launch a new “Broadband Made For Gaming” package this autumn

Most of the branding changes are expected to occur during the Summer and Autumn this year. For example, we’ve already reported on their new EE branded Smart Hub Plus (SH3.1) router, WiFi kit and 1.6Gbps FTTP broadband package (here) and they’re planning to launch a “Broadband Made For Gaming” package this autumn too.

EE are also said to have revealed an ambition toward moving into doing Travel and Home insurance next year too, which is certainly a rather unusual direction for a communications provider to take. Finally, our sources note that EE will introduce a new ‘EE ID‘ system so that they can more easily recognise customers by name (a few customers are already testing it) – this will be open to everyone too, not only those with EE’s mobile and broadband products.

At the time of writing, we don’t quite see what the big advantage of EE ID will be vs the usual approach, but they apparently plan on rolling this out to millions of users over the next few years. No doubt we’ll learn more as further announcements are made or details leak.