Vodafone is set to reveal all about new television partnerships on Monday.

The television market is expected to take a fresh twist and turn on Monday, with Vodafone promising to unveil a service that it says will show "the future of entertainment is here".

Vodafone is expected to launch a new-generation set-top box that will let people watch Sky Television over ultrafast broadband or cable, instead of satellite.

Yet to be revealed is whether the boxes will let people stream films and shows sourced from other television partners, or new programming provided by Sky, in addition to Sky's existing service.

That appears to be a possibility and could give Vodafone a big leg up in telecommunications market, which technology director Tony Baird said in August was now all about distributing video.

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Sky chief executive John Fellet confirmed in August that, as far he was aware then, Vodafone would offer its new set-top boxes just with its existing content.

At the heart of Vodafone and Sky's next set-top boxes will be an internet-delivered EPG (electronic programme guide), similar to the kind offered by Netflix.

That should make it much easier for customers to browse and search for programmes to watch on-demand.

The EPG would mean Sky and Vodafone could include software to make recommendations to viewers on shows they might want to watch, in a similar to way to how music service Spotify recommends music to its subscribers.

Those changes, in turn, could open the door to the companies offering a wider range of internet-television programmes, perhaps through partnerships.

Sky and Vodafone have maintained their close partnership despite the country's competition watchdog blocking their merger in February.

Fellet signalled in August that Vodafone would be first to market with a set-top box featuring an internet-delivered EPG.

Its head-start is thanks to the fact that its boxes – unlike Sky's boxes – do not need to support satellite reception.

Fellet said Sky could deliver the same feature to about 350,000 of its newer set-top boxes through a software upgrade which it was about to test.

But it would have to replace its other boxes, which it might not be able to start doing before late next year.

Sky has long insisted partners such as Vodafone – and previously TelstraClear – come to it first for content they might want to bundle with Sky.

That prompted a warning from the Commerce Commission in 2013, which said the so-called "key commitment clause" was likely to have breached the Commerce Act in the past.

Fellet said in August that partners could source content independently if they offered it to Sky on the same terms.