Vodafone CEO comments on exclusive ownership of content

Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said certain non-core assets would be up for sale at the right price, but is more ambiguous about the value or otherwise of operators buying content to fill out their 4G or quad-play offerings.

The operator would be open to offloading operations in Australia, the Czech Republic, and Hungary if the right deal comes along, although the operator is not under any pressure to sell, said Colao.

Colao was speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology Media and Telecoms Conference in Barcelona.

The Vodafone CEO also returned to a favourite theme during his presentation — the question of whether operators should acquire exclusive use of media content for their 4G networks, or as part of their quad-play strategies.

Colao is unconvinced that owning exclusive content makes sense from a financial perspective but relying on a distribution-type arrangement with the actual owner carries a risk.