By Stuart Thomson

Regional Spanish cable operator Euskaltel has teamed up with Basque Country broadcast group Euskal Irrati Telebista (EITB) to create a Basque regional streaming platform, Euskalteka, that will provide over 300 hours of EITB programming at launch.

The service, which debuted on Sunday, was presented at the end of last week at an event presented by EITB journalist Sara Gándana, and attended by Basque Country culture minister Bingen Zupirdia, EITB engineering and network chief Mikel Agirre and Euskaltel president Xabier Iturbe.

The service will offer the main programmes from channels ETB1, ETB3 and online portal eitb.eus. the platform will open to the inclusion of third-party content in the Basque language, with the goal of creating a single online video service for the entire Basque-language audiovisual sector.

Euskaltltelka will be offered as part of Euskaltel’s Replayteka catch-up and on-demand offering, offering a catalogue of content in the Basque language available free-to-view to Euskaltel subscribers.

Content on the service at launch include series Golazen, entertainment programmes Herri Txiki, Infernu Handi and Barre Librea and reality show Baserdria.

In the first phase of launch, Euskalteka will also offer episodes from kids show 3 Ene Kantak and music programme Bidegurutzean, among others.

“The agreement between EITB and Euskaltel for the launch of Euskalteka enables Euskltel customers to access in a quick and flexible way content of all types in Basque and provides continuity for the ongoing support of Euskaltel for the creation and distribution of Basque content like Loreak, Handia, Errementari and Akelarre. Now we are using our technology to make an important library of Basque content accessible via the remote control to hundreds of thousands of homes in the Basque Country,” said  Euskaltel’s marketing director, Koldo Unanue.