Alcatel-Lucent said on Friday it has acquired Tamblin, a software company that develops applications for IPTV services.

    Terms of the deal were not disclosed, as Tamblin was privately held.

    Alcatel-Lucent said buying Tamblin means service providers will have more ways to differentiate their packages. And as with all such transactions, the applications are designed to generate more income and solidify customer loyalty. For example, broadcasters can create interactive ad campaigns.

    "Interactivity is doubly attractive to brands and advertisers because it is based on an action of some kind that can provide a metric on which to measure advertising", as Eden Zoller and Vincent Poulbere, principal analysts at Ovum, wrote in a recent report on interactive mobile services.

    Alcatel-Lucent’s service provider customers can use its IPTV applications and Tamblin software with their existing middleware.

    Tamblin’s 13-persons taff will join Alcatel-Lucent’s convergence business unit within its multimedia and payment team. Clients including the BBC, BskyB, ITV, Channel Five and Central Office of Information already use Tamblin products.