PwC advises care on implementation

E u ro p e a n D e p l o y m e n t R e p o r t Q1 2008 PwC advises care on implementation ommunications and media com- ogy-led decisions that have tended to drive C panies implementing IPTV will need to manage their approach carefully in order to deliver a profit, most telecoms operators in the past. David Lancefield, TMT partner, PwC, added: “IPTV is the hotbed for true conver- according to Pricewaterhouse Coopers gence - showing the money from IPTV will (PwC). In particular, they need to require telcos to transform, both culturally and ensure that their strategy and delivery as an organisation, into areas that until now offers an adequate return on invest- were occupied by media companies. Content ment that is in line with their service acquisition and advertising sales will need to roll-out and minimises the market entry become core competencies for every telco risks. launching IPTV.” Colin Light, TMT director at PwC (right), According to Light, the overriding shift that believes that companies will need to learn from these companies need to make is now all about mistakes of the past. “If companies invest heavi- customer service, consumer ly in network capacity for IPTV they could strug- experience and developing trust in the brand, gle to make a return on this investment due to since one second of blank screen maybe the lead time in reaching all of their potential enough to turn the customer off the service for subscribers through ongoing broadband roll-out, especially in light good. “To capture market share, traditional technology-led strategies of intense competition in the provision of triple and quad play,” he must be relegated in favour of market-led approaches. Engaging advised. “Differentiation from traditional broadcast TV will be key for with consumers in a single, holistic way is paramount - the right con- the IPTV service provider. But the real contribution to the company’s tent for the right person, in the right place, at the right time.” overall portfolio and profits needs to come by attracting the mass In respect of content acquisition, Light cautioned that in the IPTV market.” world, big is not always better, and that premium rights purchases PwC suggests that with competition from a wide range of players, (such as expensive football rights) may not be sufficient to secure the success of IPTV for a company may lie in a greater orientation of the mass market subscriber base as the operator rolls out services the business towards the consumer, rather than the historic technol- across the country.

MONITOR MICROSOFT AND BT GET XBOX 360 VISION Microsoft and UK telco BT are bringing together the hours of sporting events, television programming, music videos next-generation TV service BT Vision with Microsoft’s and other digital content, such as BT Vision Sport’s 242 ‘near-live’ Xbox 360 games and entertainment system. All BT FA Premier League football matches. BT Vision customers with an broadband customers will have the opportunity to Xbox 360 console will gain the option of accessing BT Vision from receive high-definition gaming, television and movies either the Xbox 360 console or a set-top-box. The service will be through an Xbox 360 console. available to existing and future Xbox 360 console owners. BT Vision, which is powered by the Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV Dan Marks, CEO of BT Vision, said the aim was to provide BT platform, plans to make the device and service offering available Vision on multiple platforms, giving customers greater convenience, to customers in the middle of 2008. The partnership will enable any control and flexibility over what they watch, when they watch and BT Broadband customer to use an Xbox 360 console to access the how they watch TV. “It also means that we are able to potentially BT Vision service and its extensive library of on-demand content, expand our BT Vision customer base by tapping into the popularity giving instant access to hundreds of movies and thousands of of Xbox 360.” More strength in market Analysis firm MRG’s latest IPTV Forecast India and Korea. We slightly decreased our finds that Europe still leads the world subscriber forecast for 2007, from 14.3 million to market, while Asia and other emerging 13.5 million, but paradoxically, our forecast for total markets such as China, Eastern Europe, system revenues went up, from $2.1 billion to $2.5 Korea and Russia are taking larger steps billion.” to growth. North America sees steady He added that Europe would remain the growth by independents, and accelerated number one IPTV market in terms of subscriber growth by the large Telcos. count through 2011, but Asia is catching up Growth for IPTV subs are projected to grow quickly and will most likely surpass Europe in from 13.5m in 2007 to 72.6m in 2011, roughly a 2012-2013. “In North America, Verizon and AT&T 40% compounded annual growth rate. With an are growing considerably faster than we previously emphasis on profitability, improved operations and forecast, and we expect Verizon to be the world’s sustained growth, large European carriers are largest IPTV service provider in 2011.” planning for future converged services still over 18 In terms of technology, MRG notes that MPEG- months away. 4/AVC is consistently replacing MPEG-2 in new Len Feldman, director of IPTV Analysis for MRG installation, as MPEG-2 ceases to be sold even in (above right), says the company has substantially increased its cost-sensitive markets such as China or Eastern Europe. Although global subscriber forecast for 2011, from 63.6m in the April 2007 DSL continues as the dominant last-mile technology, FTTH (Fibre-to- Forecast to 72.6m now, “in large part because we’re considerably the-Home) is beginning to show more traction in both new and more optimistic about the probability for market success in China, established neighbourhoods. advanced-television.com 3

MONITOR BBC iPlayer celebrates Christmas launch The BBC is supporting the full launch of the BBC going to watch or download TV programmes and so we have iPlayer – which became widely available on Christmas developed a campaign that highlights the ultimate benefit of BBC Day 2007 - with a multi-media campaign. BBC iPlayer iPlayer – that the audience no longer has to miss out on their launched to the pubic in favourite BBC programmes.” beta on 27 July 2007. Since Anthony Rose, the BBC’s head then streaming has been of digital media technology, said incorporated, giving viewers the Corporation had worked hard to the opportunity to watch a make BBC iPlayer a compelling programme straight away, user proposition. “Streaming is the as well as the downloading first in a number of new services function which allows PC that we will be rolling out in the users to keep programmes coming months and we will be on their computer for listening to feedback from our 30 days. audiences to understand how they Future phases of BBC iPlayer find the service and what new will include the full integration of additions they would be interested BBC Radio Player, as well as mak- in. We will be constantly updating ing BBC iPlayer available on TV BBC iPlayer to ensure that we platforms, starting with Virgin continuously improve the way we Media, mobile phones and other deliver BBC programmes.” hand held devices. “One of the many updates we Kerry Moss, head of marketing, hope to implement in 2008 is a BBC iPlayer, said the campaign aimed to bring BBC iPlayer to a download solution for users of other operating systems including mass, mainstream audience. “We recognise that, for a large part of Macs which may be possible with the next suite of Adobe Air our audience, the net is not currently somewhere they’re used to products,” he added. Trust our experience Secure Protect your TV service and digital content with VideoGuard® CA and DRM, the industry’s most trusted solution. NDS VideoGuard® simplifies convergence with secure business scenarios for TVs, PCs, Portable Media Players, mobile phones, and removable memory. NDS Secure solutions protect more content, anytime, anywhere, to the devices you choose. www.nds.com

MONITOR China’s IPTV mar- Table : China IPTV Subscriber Forecast in 2007 by Region (1000s of Subscribers) and Harbin respectively in ket last year is 2006. The final outcome of Subscriber (K) Operators Suppliers fell short of Commercial these deployments has expectations, Heilongjiang 170 SMG/CNC UT been widely regarded as a both in terms of Shanghai 200 CTC/SMG UT/ZTE key barometer of the Henan 250 CNC VCOM subscriber growth industry’s prospects. Jiangsu 15 CTC/CCTV ZTE and equipment Zhejiang 35 CTC/SMG UT SMG had planned to shipments, Fujian 110 CTC/SMG UT expand IPTV to multiple according to Guangdong 15 CTC/SMG Huawei/ZTE/UT cities in 2007. The State Shannxi 3 CTC/SMG UT/ZTE iSuppli. Administration of Radio, Hubei 20 CTC/SMG ZTE Subscribers on Liaoning 10 CNC/SMG Huawei Film, and Television the mainland Jilin 10 CNC/CCTV Huawei (SARFT) approved SMG’s were expected to Anhui 5 CTC Huawei/UT/ZTE launch of IPTV services in Inner Mongolia 3 CNC/CCTV ALU/ZTE/UT/Huawei total only 846,000 10 cities: Fuzhou and Total 846 at the end of Quanzhou in Fujian 2007, compared Source: iSuppli Corp. December 2007 Province, Taizhou in to Chinese IPTV Zhejiang Province, Xian in operators’ expectations of 1.3m. The overall pace and Shannxi Province, Hanzhong in Hubei Province, Shenyang, Dalian scale of IPTV deployments have been disappointing this and Panjing in Liaoning Province and Mudanjiang and Heihe in year. Heilongjiang Province. However, local operators experienced China’s IPTV industry looks beyond 2007 Four operators now have IPTV licences in China: Shanghai Media difficulties promoting IPTV services. Fujian and Zhejiang Provinces Group (SMG), China Central Television International (CCTV), Nanfang enrolled about 100,000 and 30,000 subscribers respectively, but the Broadcast Media (NBM), and China Radio International (CRI). SMG other locations did not come close to meeting their targets. was China’s IPTV pioneer and remains the only operator actively pur- Meanwhile, the other three IPTV licensees chose to pursue a suing deployments. cautious wait-and-see strategy. CCTV has announced plans for IPTV As the first IPTV licensee, SMG partnered with China Telecom field tests in Baotou in Inner Mongolia, in Changchun in Jilin Province, (CTC) and China Netcom (CNC) to introduce services in Shanghai and in Nanjing in Jiangsu Province. Ericsson acquires HyC Group Ericsson has acquired Spanish TV tion follows Ericsson’s purchase of (left), confirmed that multimedia consultancy and systems integra- advanced video compression tech- and services, including IPTV and tion specialist HyC Group, a move nologies company Tandberg systems integration, were two designed to strengthen its position Television at the beginning of strategic areas for Ericsson, and in the services and multimedia 2007. that HyC’s skills and experience domains and as a systems integra- Hans Vestberg, EVP, CFO and were a perfect fit with its service tor of IPTV solutions. The acquisi- head of global services at Ericsson offerings. Telco TV boom benefits headend vendors The telco TV market is quickly adding new deploy- to headend upgrades,” says Michelle Abraham, In-Stat analyst. ments and subscribers, which is boosting headend “Many of these upgrades will be the addition or replacement of equipment sales as each deployment requires at least encoding equipment as more channels are added and encoding one headend, reports research firm In-Stat. Growth in technology improves. The launch of new HD channels will be a the ranks of subscribers means more revenue from driving factor for additional encoding equipment.” licence, service, and support fees for vendors of mid- In-Stat findings suggest that the worldwide telco TV headend dleware, content protection, and on-demand plat- market will reach $732m in 2011; broadcast content processing forms, the high-tech market, according to In-Stat’s equipment revenue will stagnate, while middleware, content study - Telco TV Headends Moving to the Upgrade protection, and on-demand content will continue to rise; a video- Phase. on-demand (VOD) service has become a requirement for many “As more headends are built, the market for broadcast TV telcos when they deploy telco TV, which has improved the market content-processing equipment will turn from newly built headends for on-demand equipment vendors. 6 advanced-television.com

EURO DEPLOYMENT Europe set for global market lead With seasoned analysts and researchers Operator and Service Details suggesting that Europe leads the world in IPTV BELGACOM TV Classic + - basic bouquet of up to 60 channels (depend- deployments, and looks set to maintain that ing on area) at €9.95 a month, Select NL (Dutch) - additional thematic channels with kids, music, culture and movies; 12 channels at €14.95 position through to 2011, IPTV International a month. looks at recent developments and future Movies + Sport NL (Dutch) - movie channels, sports channels and adult entertainment at €14.95 a month. 8 channels. prospects that place the continent in the Select F (French) - additional thematic channels with kids, music, culture and movies; 17 channels at €14.95 a month. vanguard of the industry. We asked our Movies + Sport F (French) - French language channels, 6 for €14.95 a correspondents to bring you a concise, but month. Jupiler league (last season) - €9.95 for the remaining season. comprehensive guide to operators’ backgrounds, On demand: €5.95 monthly subscription for RTL (French) and VRT their plans, prices and packages. (Dutch); VRT, VTM programmes available at 0.50 - €2.00; movies €2.00 - €5.50 BENELUX €1.95 a month for Comfort View for PVR functions; two STBs available, SD receiver with 80 GB hard drive and HD-ready with 160 GB hard disk. Robert Briel reports on differing experiences from 249,434 subscribers (as per Sept. 30, 2007) operators in Belgium, Luxembourg and The Netherlands BELGIUM as well as in Brussels, with more Dutch language channels available in Flanders and more French language stations in the Walloon part Belgacom launched its IPTV service of the country. in the summer of 2005. It offers over Belgian football, which is supplemented by various international 80 channels (depending on the leagues, is exclusively available on the platform as a premium pay region) duplicating for the most part service, as well as on the showcase channel Kanaal 11. The the services available on cable. As company has chosen the Siemens Surpass Home Entertainment a marketing tool it has acquired the exclusive live coverage rights to platform and offers the option of installing two set-top boxes in the the Belgian premier football league (Jupiler) for three seasons (up home in areas served by its VDSL network. until the spring of 2008). After a slow start, Belgacom TV now seems to have got into its THE NETHERLANDS stride, posting 249,434 subscribers at the end of end of September 2007. It gained 109,769 new subs during the first nine months of Being one of the most densely cabled countries in Europe, it was 2007, so a current total of around 280,000 to 290,000 seems likely. quite a challenge when fledgling Dutch telecom operator Versatel Belgacom TV is the only digital operator that is available decided to launch the country’s first IPTV service. The move into full nationally, with the bouquets only differing slightly in the two regions triple play was announced in late 2004, when the company acquired 8 advanced-television.com

network and Samsung set-top boxes in the home. After the initial announcement of their agreement, the two companies started to build the network from scratch. Quite a formidable task, it passed off with relatively few hitches given the complexity of the technology. In early 2006, the incumbent KPN announced its plans for IPTV. The service “would not be regular television, but a new generation of television” according to the company’s chairman and CEO Aad Scheepbouwer. Viewers would be able to personalise their offer, have more control with a built-in DVR and would be offered lots of on-demand content. Hence the name ‘Mine’, which means ‘my TV’. The service was also to be positioned as a high-end product rather than a budget one. Things didn’t work out in practice. KPN experienced a lot of technical trouble when rolling out the service, which coincided with the simultaneous introduction of VoIP telephony on its network. Because of these problems, a full-scale roll out was postponed time and time again and at the moment the service is believed to have no more than 10,000 actual subscribers. In order to boost subscription numbers, KPN also slashed its the exclusive television rights to live price to a €9.95 monthly fee and threw in free subscriptions to its coverage of the premier Dutch DTT service Digitenne as well. In the process, the service was also football league Eredivisie. renamed KPN Interactieve TV to more clearly define the product. Although the acquisition of the Plans to invest in new channels and content have also been rights was seen as a ticket to shelved. hundreds of thousands of sub- KPN chose the Siemens Surpass Home Entertainment system scribers to the new triple play offer, and Kreatel set-top boxes. it did not work out that way. When the service launched at the start of the 2005/06 season in August 2005, new subscribers were secured, but in very limited numbers. Projections of 100,000 by the LUXEMBOURG end 2005 were far off the mark, with the actual total being 53,000. The 100,000 mark was eventually reached in September 2006, and P&TLuxembourg is the incumbent in the same year the service was renamed Tele2TV when Versatel postal and telecommunication merged with Tele2. services operator in Luxembourg. Tele2TV uses Samsung IPTV infrastructure in the play out and The company has been planning an IPTV service for some time now and launched a pilot last October in the municipalities of Limpertsberg- Operator and Service Details Luxembourg and Mersch. A full service is planned for roll out during TELE 2 VISION - Tele2 Videobox - no monthly charge, but only 2008, to be run by the ‘Enterprise des P&TLuxembourg’ (EPT). The on-demand movies and football a la carte available operator has signed an agreement with Verimatrix to deploy their Tele2 Vision Silver - €7.95 a month; basic tier of 16 TV channels and Video Content Authority System (VCAS). 23 radio stations The new IPTV service will offer three different packages. The starter Tele 2 Vision Gold - €14.95 a month; extended tier of 41 TV channels package proposes up to 80 channels, including German, French, and 36 radio stations; more thematic channels, foreign stations as well Luxembourgish, English, Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish TV. A as all Dutch regional public stations second package will add thematic channels such as kids and sports Film1 and Sport1 a la carte available to all subscribers for €22.95 a channels. The third package will include video on demand, with up month. Approximately 201,000 subscribers (as per Sept. 30, 2007) to a 1,000 movies. There will be a set-top box with a PVR. No details about exact pricing of the services and set-top boxes have been KPN INTERACTIEVE TV - Basic package offers 50 channels plus 75 announced. For the time being, the service is known as ‘La radio stations at €9.95 a month Télévision des P&T’. Planet Plus bouquet - additional channels for €9.95 extra with sports channels, music, documentaries, adult entertainment, Tele2 Eredivisie - €9.95 a month for live footbal Operator and Service Details FilmDirect - 350 movies on-demand from €2.99 per title On-demand Catch-up TV available from SBS and public broadcasters LA TÉLÉVISION DES P&T - Three bouquets: basic, thematic and VOD; Approximately 10,000 subscribers pricing to be announce. Trial only with a few hundred subscribers advanced-television.com 9

EURO DEPLOYMENT FRANCE Triple play, €29.90 per month. Plus optional access to Canal+ Le 2007 was a year of Bouquet and CanalSat and other optional channels consolidation and shakeout, 350,000 subscribers as of 31.06.2007 reports Sotires Eleftheriou ORANGE(France Telecom) €39.90 for triple play, including over 50 IPTV from Paris. channels; VOD, optional subscription to CanalSat and Canal+. 6.58m broadband subscribers as of 31.06.2007. With a total of over 14 million broadband subscribers in France, a 26% increase in one year, the market in France has well and truly taken off. The market leader, Orange (France Telecom) has almost All the major broadband suppliers include an IPTV service, either half the total, followed by Neuf Cegetel and Free. included as part of the package, or an optional extra. In most cases, IPTV is included as a part of the broadband package, the user only Operator and Service Details needs to connect the dedicated broadband modem to the TV to get it. There is therefore no detailed breakdown of how many ALICE (Tiscali) €29.95 per month subscribers have actually connected the box to the TV. The Broadband with unlimited VoIP telephone calls to 60 international telecoms regulator ARCEP estimates that about 3.8m homes have destinations. access to the IPTV facility (summer 2007) and about a third of these Music download platform with EMI Music France subscribe to additional optional pay-TV services. Digital television: 64 channels included in basic; optional access to The prices are broadly similar, starting at €30 a month including Canal+ Le Bouquet and CanalSat. Free channels include all the DTT broadband and VoIP as well as IPTV. All operators (including channels, plus a variety of news, general entertainment, lifestyle, Orange) allow for ‘full unbundling’, which means that the user will no leisure, society, plus 14 foreign language channels. Free hotline; longer have to pay a subscription for a France Telecom line. VOD 850,000 broadband subscribers as of 31.06.2007 Consequently, the platforms are differentiated on other criteria, such as brand image. Alice for its free hotline, Darty for its after-sales FREE (Iliad) €29.99 per month service, while Free is seen as maverick and innovative. It regularly Broadband with unlimited VoIP telephone calls to 71 international introduces new features, such as the possibility of using the destinations ‘Freebox’ as a home media centre, a digital TV platform for home Digital television: about 200 television channels on IPTV, including all videos, the possibility of using the subscribers their VoIP line from the DTT channels, all the France 3 regional channels. Wide range of any WiFi hotspot, and a ‘virtual fax’ with a second VoIP number free other free channels – community, local, international. A number of of charge. optional pay channels plus optional access to Canal+ Le Bouquet and Free and Neuf-Cegetel have been fighting it out for second place CanalSat. behind Orange. Much of Neuf’s growth has been by the acquisition VOD. of other ISPs. Over the last year it has acquired AOL France, Club- Some HD. Internet, and has grown very close to mobile operator SFR (a merger User uplink channel. PVR included for recent subscribers. 2,767, 000 is on the cards) that in turn had acquired Tele2. Club-Internet dif- broadband subscribers as of 30/09/2007 fered from the other operators in using Microsoft TV software. Its subscribers are now being ported to the Neuf-Cegetel platform. NEUF-CEGETEL Quad play service (including mobile telephone) In spite of earlier denials, Alice has now come up for sale. €29.90 per month Industry observers expect Neuf to acquire it, although Free is likely Unlimited VoIP telephone to 50 international destinations. to put in a bid if only to raise the price paid by Neuf. Unlimited music downloading platform included. The next battle, over optical fibre, has already begun. The top 67 TV channels in basic, some HD three are all working hard at deploying optical fibre, as is cable Canal + Le Bouquet and CanalSat on option operator Numericable. Free is using point to point technology, while PVR included for recent subscribers. the others are using GPON. 3,123,000 broadband subscribers as of 30.09.2007, including those resulting from the acquisition of Club-Internet. GERMANY CLUB-INTERNET The incumbent telco has (now part of Neuf-Cegetel as from 1.01.2008) €29.90 per month for been playing catch-up, but triple play using its dominant position, reports Dieter Brockmeyer DARTYBOX €29.90 per month for triple play with 40 IPTV channels. A from Frankfurt. premium version including a PVR is offered for €34.90 a month. plus optional access to Canal+ Le Bouquet and CanalSat TELE2 Over a year after its launch, incumbent telco Deutsche Telekom (DT) €19.90 per month. 41 IPTV channels, including 13 of the DTT chan- was finally able to announce its 100,000th subscriber in mid- nels. December 2007, evidence that, compared to some other European markets, IPTV is not yet a hit. However, the slow progress of the DT 10 advanced-television.com

EURO DEPLOYMENT As DT tries to defend its leading position in IPTV, the leading Operator and Service Details feature in Obermann’s strategy to defend the group’s shrinking fixed DEUTSCHE TELEKOM – T-Com T-Entertain (-Basic, -Comfort, and line revenues is by shifting the revenue streams to web-based –Comfort Plus). Cost: €49.95, €59.95 and €74.95 (including tele- services. However, competition is also growing in IPTV and the pric- phone flat and internet access and flat at 16 MB/sec) Additional ing is already coming down. €99.95 charge for set-top-box. Public channels; Free to Air channels; The longest-established competing service is the one under the Pay TV channels. Additional Packages: T-Home Rusia: Detskij Mir, Alice brand launched, some six months prior to DT’s offer, by the Euronews, Nashe Kino, PTP, RTVi, T-Home Polska: TVP Polonia, iTVN former regional telecommunications provider Hansenet in Hamburg. T-Home Türk: atv, Euro D, NTV, Show, Star, Kanal 7 Int, TGRT EU The company was acquired by Telecom Italia and has been T-Home DigitTurk: like Turk + Turk max, LIG TV gradually transformed into a national player. T-Home Italiano: Euronews, Rai Uno, Rai Due, Rai Tre In 2007 Telecom Italia also acquired the German AOL subscribers and integrated them into the Alice family that today MTV Tune In: TV base, MTV dance, MTV hits, MTV2, VH1 Classic counts about 2.3m DSL subscribers. The Alice IPTV service is now available in about 100 German regions and Hansenet announced Bundesliga auf Premiere: All first and second soccer league games live that during 2007, the number will go up to 150. However, the Premiere Sports: Formula 1 car races and other sports events live company does not announce any subscriber figures for its TV Premier Fussball: Champions League, UK Pemiere League etc. live. service. Similarly, Vodafone-owned Arcor, the largest fully-fledged Premiere Blockbuster: 1, 2, 3, 4 (contemporary movies) competitor to DT, hasn’t revealed any subscriber numbers, hardly Premiere Entertainment: Krimi, Serie, Nostalgie, Filmclassics, surprising as the service was only launched in the autumn of 2007. Filmfest, Wetter Fernsehen, Mezzo, Wein TV, Trace TV, Bundesliga auf Premiere (2 live games per week). Over 100,000 subscribers (by mid Dec 2007) ITALY ALICE HOMETV Hansenet Telekommunikations GmbH (owned 100% by Four operators are fighting Telecom Italia) hard for market share, reports Branislav Pekic from €9.90 on top of Alice Deluxe telephone and Internet access service (16 Rome. MB/sec.) €49.90 per month. MTV Tune In (€2.99), Big Entertainment (6 months free, afterwards €14.90), Türk Premium (€22.90); Public chan- Tiscali and Wind launched their IPTV services in December 2007 nels; Free to Air channels; Pay TV channels. Additonal Packages: and that forced IPTV pioneers FastWeb and Telecom Italia to MTV Tune In: MTV base, MTV dance, MTV hits, MTV2, VH1 Classic upgrade their offers. Türk Premium: LIG TV, NTV Türkiye, Turkmax. The four Italian telecoms operators offer platforms with at least 50 About 2.3m DSL-clients, no details on TV break down released. free broadcast channels, plus several premium pay channels. All have signed similar deals with Sky Italia to make additional sport ARCOR-DIGITAL TV Basic Service - €9.95 on top of the ‘All Inclusive and movie packages available to their clients. However, limited Package DSL 1600’(€34.95). Set-top-box €49.95 coverage and poor unique content have contributed to the modest Pay TV: Full Entertainment (€12.95), Cosmo Global / Sport & Male / take-up so far. Turk Basic / Polish (€5.95 each), Turk Premium (€22.95), Russian (€12.95). Subscriber figures not available. Operator and Service Details ALICE HOME TV (Telecom Italia) €19.95 270 channels 100.000 service stemmed partly from internal turmoil, and re-organisation of FastWebTV (FastWeb) the telco’s businesses under the new management, led by Rene €20 250 channels (digital satellite, digital terrestrial, VOD) 200.000 Obermann. It was not until the IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin in the TISCALITV (Tiscali) €17 50 channels (digital satellite, digital terrestri- late summer of 2007 that DT started to market the service actively. al, VOD) launched in December 2007 in 3 cities Infostrada TV (Wind) The telco was aiming for 150,000 subscribers at the end of 2007, €7 with marketing becoming ever more aggressive. €15 (including Sky Italia) digital satellite, digital terrestrial, PPV, PVR, Rumours in the German press suggest that DT is considering VOD) launched in December 2007 offering its football package for free to news subscribers, currently available at some €10 per month. DT has already tried a similar Tiscali TV: Tiscali launched its IPTV service in Milan, Rome incentive by granting the current season for free for the first 20,000 and Cagliari and will be gradually rolled out in the rest of Italy in new subscribers. DT has also broadened the reach of the IPTV 2008. Tiscali is offering the TV service free to subscribers until the service, previously only available to subscribers of the new VDSL end of March 2008. Tiscali TV is a hybrid of IPTV and DTT, including network providing 25MB/sec, only available to about 8m of the about VoD, with over 50 channels on offer. The basic service costs €17 per 34m German homes, to subscribers of the 16 MB/sec. service month, with themed content packages for children, music and available in all of Germany. catch-up TV with RAI channels available for €4 each. An additional 12 advanced-television.com

fee of €2 to €7 is charged for services on demand. The decoder, aired in the previous three days; while the second records pro- which is HD-ready, a remote control and Wi-Fi modem cost €4 grammes without resorting to a separate device. a month. Until March 31, the cost of activating the basic FastWeb TV An estimated 300,000 broadband subscribers have the technical service will be €9.90 a month (€20 after the promotional period). capabilities of accessing the IPTV service and their number should Football and movies are available on demand mode for €3 and double in 2008. The company hopes to transform 20-30% of its €1.99 respectively. 2.2m-member base into Tiscali TV customers by the end of 2008. Infostrada TV: Wind is aiming to complete IPTV coverage in the coming months, as currently only 20 provincial capitals (two SPAIN million households) are connected. Infostrada TV is using Microsoft’s Mediaroom platform, Alcatel-Lucent’s triple-play solutions and The incumbent telco leads Motorola’s 1616T set-top box. the market, reports David For a monthly fee of €7 plus a €99 activation fee (currently Del Valle from Madrid. offered in promotion at €49.50), subscribers receive a STB equipped with an HD recorder. The basic package includes the national digital Spain’s IPTV market is dominated terrestrial channels plus a selection of foreign satellite channels. For by the telco group Telefónica that currently counts 500,000 sub- €15 a month (the promotional price valid until February 15), users scribers to its triple play service Imagenio, with plans to reach one can also subscribe to the entire pay-TV offer of Sky Italia. million by the end of the year. Four years after its launch, Imagenio Alice Home TV: Telecom Italia’s IPTV service now has 100,000 has become one of the most successful IPTV services in Europe, users and the plan is to increase that number to 700,000 by 2009. capturing around 70% of new pay-TV clients in the country in com- Among the novelties of the Alice Home TV service is the free parison with a nearly flat growth experienced by the dominant pay- decoder that receives both broadband and DTT channels. There are TV operators, Sogecable, with two million subscribers to its DTH several subscription possibilities for viewers - from ‘Alice 7 Mega’ service Digital Plus and Spain’s largest cable operator ONO, with more than 900,000 pay-TV customers. Operator and Service Details With a combined offer of 120 TV channels (to be 200 in the near future), broadband Internet access and flat fee phone calls, the IMAGENIO (Telefonica) 120 Basic package: €11 per month. company is intensifying its assault on the IPTV market through a joint Familiar package: €19; Triple play: from €44.90 per month service with Sogecable, Trio Plus, including the premium channel Trio Plus, joint Telefonica-Sogecable offer: the triple play with more Canal Plus Digital. Other additional planned services include making than 50 TV channels (Canal + Digital) for €66.09 per month. Imagenio available on its mobile phone service Movistar, which has 500,000 subscribers. more than 22m clients. Imagenio also plans to launch an HDTV service in the second quarter of 2008, that is why the company is JAZZTELIA TV (Jazztel) 38 Basic package: €11.55 per month increasing threefold its ADSL speed and even testing a FTHH net- Latin Package: €2.90; Adult package: €9.45 per month; Triple play, work at 30 Megabytes. Over the last months, Imagenio has launched from €41.50 per month. Around 20,000 subscribers. a plethora of added-value services to allow its clients to actively interact with its IPTV platform, among them Past TV, Shift TV, and ORANGE TV (France Telecom) 48 Triple play with 40 TV channels for Rewind TV, using a decoder with a hard drive of up 160 GB. €34.95 per month. Extended package (25 TV channels). €12. ORANGE The second largest IPTV operator in the country is France TRIO PLUS. Orange and Sogecable are likely to launch a joint IPTV offer Telecom-controlled Orange TV, with around 100,000 subscribers, during 2008.Around 70,000 subsctbers. according to industry figures. The company, with 1.1m ADSL clients, is becoming increasingly active in the market since its’ acquisition of SUPERBANDA - 40 From €19.95 (including, broadband Internet access up Ya.com. In addition, Orange has just signed an agreement with to 20 Megabytes, flat fee in national calls and TV). Subscibers N/A. Sogecable to launch a triple play offer, Trio Plus, from early 2008. The new service will be similar to Telefonica-Sogecable’s current offer, combining this time Orange’s high-speed Internet and mobile phone services and the Spanish firm’s pay-TV platform, Digital Plus. costing €19.95 with unlimited Internet navigation to ‘Alice 20 Mega’ Orange and Sogecable have also teamed to launch Sogecable’s which costs €24.95 a month. The basic package of Alice Home TV Digital Plus Mobile via Orange’s 3G cell phones, including more than contains 200 channels among live events, movies, entertainment, 20 channels. Both companies are planning to launch a HD version documentaries and news. The premium offering includes on of Digital Plus Mobile through Orange cell phones during 2008. demand movies and access to Sky Italia channels. The third IPTV operator in the market is Jazztelia TV, with around FastWeb TV: FastWeb already reaches 50% of the Italian 40,000 subscribers. This telco company, with 235,000 broadband population and the operator plans to invest €2 billion over the next clients, was the first to compete with Telefonica in the IPTV race in four years to build an efficient and broader IPTV platform. FastWeb Spain, but its erratic pay-TV strategy has seen it miss fall short of its recently launched a TV-only package for €20 a month. The offer also high expectations. Grupalia Internet’s Superbanda TV (SB3) com- includes the ReplayTV and the VideoRec services: the first permits pletes the list, with an offer of 40 TV channels and a small percent- ‘watch again’ for all programmes from RAI, Mediaset, MTV and LA7 age of the Spanish IPTV market. advanced-television.com 13

EURO DEPLOYMENT UNITED KINGDOM Operator and Service Details The incumbent telco finally BT VISION V-box digital TV recorder - free; One off connection fee £30 went ‘above the line’ with its or Install BT Vision yourself – free. BT Total Broadband connection service. Now other operators required; from only £8.95 a month for the first six months, £17.99 look set to launch competing thereafter. Up to 40 digital TV including E4, Film4, BBC Three, BBC offers, reports Colin Mann. News 24 and CITV and 30 radio channels through TV aerial. Pause and rewind live TV and record up to 80 hours. The closing days of 2006 saw BT’s long-awaited BT Vision service finally launched, all be it ultra softly. BT has adopted a hybrid On Demand Entertainment - Pay per view from 29p each; Viewing packs approach to its content strategy; it combines more than 40 DTT- from £4 a month. Free V-box for new or existing customers signing up based Freeview channels, digital recording capability and an to a new broadband contract for 12 months (18 months with Option 1) extensive library of video-on-demand content delivered over otherwise £199. broadband. The V-box, developed in conjunction with Philips, contains a personal video recorder (PVR) able to store up to 80 One-off connection fee of £30 applies to all customers. BT Home Hub hours of content, pause or rewind live TV and record. The service required – included with BT Total Broadband Option 2 & 3, £50/£30 launched using Microsoft middleware, and recently announced that (phone/online orders) with Option 1. 60,000 subscribers (Est.) its’ next generation of set-top box would be supplied by Motorola. Gavin Patterson. MD, BT Consumer, said the telco’s target market TISCALI TV £19.99 a month: Up to 8Mb unlimited broadband; Free wire- was the 14m homes that did not currently take subscription TV. It less router and set top box; TV Variety Pack;*; Free weekend UK and wasn’t until the late spring of 2007 that BT went ‘above the line’ in international calls; One-off £30 set up fee; Free phone line rental. promoting the service, with an extensive TV and poster campaign. Tiscali TV began 2007 as ‘HomeChoice’ the service operated £24.99 a month: As above, but with free anytime UK and international since 2000 by Video Networks Limited, but was re-branded and calls relaunched in March 2007, some six months after VNL took a 11.5% share in Tiscali’s UK operation in exchange for 100% of VNL. *Variety Pack At the time, Tiscali TV was only available in London and including Sky One, FX, ITV2, Sky Sports News, Paramount Comedy; Stevenage, but in September 2007, the operator announced Over 60 digital TV and radio channels; Over 350 on demand pro- expansion in Central, North and North West of England as well as grammes; Instant access to over 1,000 movies on demand; Free 7 day the M25 ring. Cities where telephone exchanges have been enabled catch up service on popular BBC, Channel 4 and FX programmes. and support services include urban areas such as Milton Keynes, * Play, Fwd, Rwd, Pause functionality on all on demand films and Hemel Hempstead, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Leicester, programmes. 40,000 subscribers (Est.) Liverpool, Salford and Warrington, with locations in the North East and Scotland added from October. Mary Turner, Chief Executive Tiscali UK said that the success of Operating Officer, Virgin Media, said the deal was an important step DTT service Freeview had shown that customers wanted more than towards making Virgin Media a truly national brand, allowing it to five channels but didn’t necessarily want to pay a high monthly offer enhanced broadband and home phone services to an subscription. additional four million customers, laying a foundation for the Between them the pair currently only boast some 100,000 provision of quadplay services to the 50% of households outside its subscribers – with BT reckoned to count for some 60,000, an cable network. Since then, there has been little heard of the service, indication of the fierce competition in the UK pay-TV market, with and the operator admitted in its latest results that it is concentrating both cable and satellite already having established strong market on its existing ‘on-net’ high-speed broadband offering presence, and the success of the Freeview service. It is not France Telecom’s Orange TV had been expected to launch an surprising that BT, which had an abortive presence in cable TV IPTV service commercially before the end of 2007, but the service during the mid-1980s to mid-1990s, has adopted the hybrid has only been rolled out on a trial basis to around 350 paying approach, with the Freeview tuner offering a larger range of linear Orange customers in London and Leeds. Orange confirmed that the programming, but with additional content available on-demand service platform was up and running but that it was important we get either via a subscription or pay-per-view. it right for the commercial launch. A full commercial roll-out was At the beginning of 2007, Virgin Media the newly-formed cable likely at some point in the first half of 2008, with certain cities MSO created through the merger of NTL and Telewest, revealed targeted. plans to extend its reach nationally, by rolling out services into Ironically, given that 02 used to be the mobile arm of BT, recent non-cabled areas, enabling it to compete on a level playing field reports suggest that the operator, now owned by Spain’s Telefónica, with key competitors. In May 2007, broadband access provider is to trial an IPTV service in 2008, following its success with IPTV in Cable & Wireless announced a four-year agreement with Virgin the Czech market. The move follows O2’s launch in the latter part of Media to become its exclusive unbundled local loop (LLU) network 2007 of broadband over the network of Be, an ISP that O2 acquired provider on a wholesale basis until 2011. Neil Berkett, Chief in June 2006. 14 advanced-television.com

PwC advises care on implementation

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PwC advises care on implementation Document Transcript