Orange strikes Twitter TV deal

Under the deal, Orange is aiming to integrate Twitter into football coverage, news, entertainment shows and films.

Orange, which is owned by the telecommunications giant France Telecom, runs TV services in France, Spain and Poland and mobile and internet services internationally, including in the UK.

Twitter will also begin to appear in ad campaigns run by Orange.

Orange said that Twitter services would be rolled out in the UK first, to be followed by France, Spain and Poland later this year. The service will be rolled out in other European markets next year.

"In countries where we have TV services we plan to enrich shows by allowing people to tweet while they watch their favourite programmes," said Stephanie Hospital, director of development and partnerships at Orange.

Until now Twitter users have only been able to send and receive tweets from their online account or by text message.

In the UK, Orange's social media service, called Social Life, allows users easy access to a one stop shop of social media websites including Facebook, MySpace and Bebo.

Twitter fans will not have to go through a mobile application and then have to access their Twitter homepage every time they want to check an update.

Mark Watts Jones, Head of Product Management for Orange UK, said: “We’ve seen over the last year how Twitter is transforming the dynamics of real-time search and breaking news.  So we’re delighted to extend the value of the service by bringing it to mobile, enabling our customers to view and update their Twitter streams and giving them the unique ability to upload photos directly via MMS.”

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