Belgacom Adds 100 Thousand IPTV Subscribers

Belgacom announced that it had 139,665 IPTV subscribers at the end of 2006, which is an increase of 100 thousand subscriber over the end 2005. It achieved its original target of 100 thousand IPTV subscribers for 2006 by the end of the third quarter. Belgacom stated that it added nearly 34 thousand IPTV subscribers in the fourth quarter.

Belgacom's IPTV monthly ARPU increased from 11.9 euros per month at the beginning of 2006 to 12.6 euros per month at the end of the year due to increasing use of video on demand services. It expects to add IPTV subscribers in 2007 at the same pace as 2006 and expects its monthly IPTV ARPU to grow to 15 euros.

Belgacom's IPTV business generated revenue of 15 million euros in 2006 with costs of 53 million euros. This gives an EBITDA loss for its IPTV business of 38 million euros.

Belgacom deployed ADSL-2+in 2006 in additon to VDSL and now is able to provide TV service 79.5 percent of the population of Belgium by the end of 2006.

You can get Belgacom's full fourth quarter 2006 release at

http://www.belgacom.be/company/com/jsp/static/20070302_ar2006.jsp

Belgacom is doing very well with its IPTV deployment in a very competitive market. It is winning its customers away from the cable companies by introducing digital services before the cable companies and leading the market in terms of services such as video on demand.

Belgacom is a good example of how IPTV should be deployed, especially in Europe. There is no reason why its success cannot be replicated across the continent.