All eyes are on Santa with TELUS Optik TV

TELUS launches free Santa Tracker and more this winter on the world’s coolest TV platform

Calgary, AB – You better not shout, you better not cry, because Santa Claus is coming to Optik TV this holiday season. TELUS today introduced Santa Tracker, a free, family-friendly interactive application that lets fans of Jolly Ol’ St. Nick follow him as he leaves the North Pole and travels around the globe to visit all the good boys and girls on Christmas Eve.

“TELUS is excited to bring the spirit of the festive season to subscribers of Optik TV,” said Greg Goodwin, vice-president, TELUS Home Solutions. “Santa Tracker on Optik TV is the perfect addition to your home for the holidays. Optik TV’s unmatched flexibility and enhanced features such as PVR Anywhere enable customers to record a show, or an entire series, on any television in their home and watch it on any other connected television. Remote recording allows customers to manage their PVR recordings from any Internet-connected computer, iPhone or select BlackBerry devices. You won’t miss a holiday TV special ever again, especially when you’re out battling the shopping crowds at the mall.”

TELUS Santa Tracker is only available on Optik TV** channel 78 in SD and 658 in HD.

One channel on Optik TV does it all. Santa Tracker enables you to track your Naughty or Nice status as your family gears up for a visit from Santa; tune in to Rudolph Radio, featuring Pop, Rock and Classic holiday musical genres; and watch the Snow Globe Countdown as it marks the days remaining until Christmas.

Santa Tracker is also a one-stop-shop for all your holiday cheer with access to Video On Demand holiday classics the whole family will love; watch, learn and enjoy interactive holiday storytelling; choose from a variety of popular Christmas songs you can sing-along to; and play family-friendly games like Gingerbread Man, Repeat and Jingle Jumble.

Other TELUS Optik TV holiday channels to enjoy include:

• The new fire log, free of charge, through Optik TV’s Video On Demand, in the Happy Holidays section or on channel 14 in SD and coming soon in HD on channel 657.
• Holiday Galaxie music channels:
• Smooth Jazz Christmas on channel 326
• Traditional Holiday on channel 341
• Franco Fêtes on channel 342

TELUS offers Optik TV, powered by award-winning Microsoft Mediaroom, in British Columbia and Alberta communities. TELUS is investing $1.3 billion in infrastructure in B.C. and Alberta this year alone to increase Internet speeds, introduce Optik TV to more communities, and expand its wireless network.

Optik TV provides never before seen functionality, features, and more than 480 channels, including over 80 in High Definition (HD). Optik TV features the best PVR experience with PVR Anywhere, only from TELUS. Now one PVR acts as a server for your entire home so you can watch and record your shows on any TV in your home, record up to three shows at once, or pause a program in one room and pick it up from the same spot in another room. Another innovative feature, Remote Record, allows customers to manage their PVR recordings from any Internet-connected computer, iPhone or select BlackBerry devices. Optik TV also offers Picture-in-Picture browsing; improved search capability enabling you to search for shows and movies by actors, directors, show titles or sporting events for immediate viewing or recording in the future; onscreen Call Display; HD Video On Demand; and HD Pay Per View, enabling you to order movies and live events from the comfort of your couch.

Recently, TELUS customers became amongst the first in the world to be able to use their Xbox 360 as a digital television box for Optik TV.

TELUS also offers TELUS Satellite TV service which complements TELUS’ Optik TV, by expanding the availability of TELUS home bundles, including TELUS TV, home phone and High Speed Internet to more than 90 per cent of households across Alberta.

To order TELUS Optik TV, or for more information, go to telus.com/tv or call 310-MYTV (6988).

** To access Santa Tracker, customers must be subscribers to both Optik TV and TELUS High Speed Internet.

About TELUS
TELUS (TSX: T, T.A; NYSE: TU) is a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, with $9.7 billion of annual revenue and 12.1 million customer connections including 6.9 million wireless subscribers, 3.8 million wireline network access lines and 1.2 million Internet subscribers and 266,000 TELUS TV customers. Led since 2000 by President and CEO, Darren Entwistle, TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services including data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, entertainment and video.

In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees have contributed $185 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered 3.5 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. Nine TELUS Community Boards across Canada lead TELUS’ local philanthropic initiatives. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition.

For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com.