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Bloomberg
EE, the mobile division of telecoms provider BT Group Plc, said it would offer free subscriptions to Apple’s streaming music product, Apple
Music, to fend off rivals vying for customers in the U.K.’s crowded mobile marketplace.
New EE post-paid contracts and renewals will come with six free months of Apple Music starting Sept. 1, Marc Allera, EE’s CEO, said in an interview, without disclosing what EE will pay Apple for the service. He said the churn rate of customers switching away from EE “has been improving,†currently standing at one percent. “Offerings like this will help lower churn further,†Allera said.
It’s the second time Apple has licensed its music content to a mobile provider that would then give it away for free, following a similar pact that it signed last year with Australian mobile provider, Telstra Corp., Allera said.
EE and other UK telecoms providers hope to attract customers from one another with new content offerings. This spring, EE began giving its users sports content licensed by its parent company, BT. The move was seen as a response to a deal between rival network provider Telefonica SA and Sky Plc. Under that deal, Champions League and Formula 1 content from Sky was pushed out to Telefonica’s O2’s network in the U.K.
Allera said EE did not work together on the Apple deal with its largest shareholder, Deutsche Telekom, the T-Mobile division of which is expected to announce a similar deal with Apple in September, German media reported. Allera said EE would continue to buy content, rather than make its own.