Ericsson wins 7-year managed services deal with BBC

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Telecom gear maker Ericsson said on Tuesday it had won a tender for a seven-year playout services contract with British public broadcaster BBC for its television channels in Britain and BBC World News.

The managed services contract includes the technology and operations that allows the BBC to deliver programmes to audiences through linear television channels, Ericsson said in a statement.

Thorsten Sauer, head of Broadcast and Media Services at Ericsson, said the contract was "very significant" but declined to comment on the order value.

The BBC has earlier said the estimated total value of the contract is between 150 million and 248 million pounds ($228 million - $377 million).

An Ericsson spokeswoman said the Swedish company has provided BBC with services of broadly the same scope before.

Ericsson said in the statement it currently provides a number of other broadcast and media services to the BBC including metadata, interactive services and access services.

Ericsson launched its broadcast services business in 2007 when it signed a deal with Nordic TV Channel C More.

($1 = 0.6573 pounds)

(Reporting by Olof Swahnberg, editing by Anna Ringstrom)