Tiscali To Extend IPTV Service

Link: Tiscali To Extend IPTV Service
Filed under: Telecoms News, IPTV News, Technology News, Internet News

Tiscali UK, which acquired IPTV company Homechoice for around £50 million in August 2006, plans to extend IPTV services outside of London. The company’s chief executive, Mary Turner, aims to make Tiscali one of the UK’s leading on-demand TV companies, serving 10 million homes by the end of 2007.

Tiscali, which currently provides IPTV to 50,000 customers in London, plans to extend the service to Newcastle, Birmingham and Edinburgh by the end of May and Leeds, Sheffield and Liverpool by the end of June.

As well as outlining its IPTV expansion plans, Tiscali also strong refuted rumours that the company is for sale. Tiscali’s UK unit contributed 66% of the Italian internet group’s revenues in 2006.

Tiscali’s basic 30-channel, plus optional video-on-demand service, which costs £14.99 a month, is expected to attract UK customers who need to switch from analogue to digital TV by 2012 - the date by which the U.K. government has decided to switch the TV broadcast signal from analogue to digital.

Comparable services from BT, Virgin Media and BSkyB all cost more than the Tiscali service, although the content of BSkyB and Virgin Media’s offerings may outshine Tiscali’s when video-on-demand services that allow customers to access movies and TV shows at the time of their choosing are rolled out.