Friday, May 22, 2009

IPTV in Korea

Light Reading published an article discussing the status of Korea has made the transition from an on demand only service to a service that includes broadcast content. It on demand service now has 1.3 million subscribers and its broadcast service has grown to 222,600 subscribers in four months.

The country has made great progress even though there is confusion over whether its on demand service is a walled garden or an over the top, Internet service. Maybe Korea is far enough along that distinction is no longer important.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

SingTel Adds 19K IPTV Subscribers in 1Q09

SingTel in Singapore added 19,000 IPTV subscribers in 1Q09 leaving it with a total of 78,000. It stated that this was the largest number of adds to its mioTV IPTV service.

SingTel continues to make progress but not has lit the market on fire the way PCCW did in Hong Kong.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Belgacom Adds 49K IPTV Subscribers in 1Q09

Belgacom added 49,000 IPTV subscribers in 1Q09 giving it a total of 555,000 at the end of the quarter. Of these it added 5,000 homes with more than one IPTV set-top box leaving a total of 70,000. The ARPU for its TV service increased from 19.4 to 20.4 euros during the quarter. Its IPTV revenues remained flat during the quarter at 13 million euros. Belgacom said that its IPTV service is now EBITDA positive. It spent 27 million euros of capital on its IPTV service for set-top boxes, content, and infrastructure.

Belgacom continues to be successful in a very competitive Pay TV market. The Belgian cable companies fell behind Belgacom in services and technology and are now paying the price.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

BT Adds 45K IPTV Subscribers in 1Q09

BT added 45,000 IPTV subscribers to its BT Vision service leaving it with a total of 423,000 at the end of the quarter. It now has over 430,000 IPTV subscribers. It said that 90 percent of its new subscribers are taking a subscription and that its ARPU for the service has doubled.

BT is continuing to make progress in a competitive market. It appears that its strategy of riding on Freeview's coat tails is working well for it.

Telefonica Lost 7.7K IPTV Subscribers in 1Q09

Telefonica lost 7,700 IPTV subscribers in Spain in 1Q09 leaving it with a total of 604,800. It did ad 13,300 IPTV subscribers in its O2 operation in the Czech Republic, ending the quarter with 127,800.

Spain seems to be a difficult IPTV market. Telefonica has clearly lost its momentum in its home market.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Telecom Italia Added 36K IPTV Subscribers in 1Q09

Telecom Italia added 36,000 IPTV subscribers in 1Q09 giving it a total of 365,000 at the end of the quarter.

The pace of its IPTV subscriber additions slowed significantly from the rate that it achieved in 4Q08.

Telus has 100K IPTV Subscribers

Telus in Canada now has 100,000 IPTV subscribers. It offers 33 HD channels, personal video recorder capabilities with 60 hours of HD recording time, and HD video on demand. The company plans to launch a satellite TV service later in 2009.

Telus seems to be doing well with this service. The satellite TV service will enable it to offer TV service to the large rural areas that it covers.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Swisscom adds 21K IPTV Subscribers in 1Q09

Swisscom added 21,000 Bluewin TV IPTV subscribers in 1Q09 giving 139,000 total subscribers.

Swisscom continues to make steady progress with its IPTV service.